Dale Cresap's blog

When a relationship breaks up, the person initiating the separation may say, ‘it isn’t you, it’s me’. Is this credible? Who thinks that they are the one at fault? If you get in a dispute and tell your friends about it, are they likely to side with you? The probably are, since they are already biased in your favor since they are your friends, and they are only hearing your side of the story. The law of probability would suggest that you are occasionally at fault, but fear and insecurity prevent people from recognizing this. Are you secure enough to realize when the problem is you?

Who do you think of as poor? Those with no money? That is the most obvious definition, but are there others? What about those with no friends? Which is the more devastating experience of poverty? In what other dimensions of human experience can you be deprived? Health? I spoke highly of the sheep who met the needs of the least of these, whether it was for clothing, or food, or drink, or shelter, or companionship for those sick or in prison. You are capable of meeting all these needs.

Are you a saint? In some faith traditions this term applies to all believers. In others this is a recognized honor bestowed on a select few. It is possible that one is being too inclusive and the other is being too exclusive. The term implies that someone is living a life that manifests Christian principles, and some do this without being recognized for it, but it is not something that happens automatically for every believer. This is not an office in the usual sense of a designated authority in a church hierarchy, but they serve as living examples of Christlike behavior.

When you give alms you are not to let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. This is quite a high standard for maintaining security. It is a strong statement against virtue signaling. Have you met people who find ways to inform you of their moral superiority? Don’t you find this annoying? I do. It is no compliment to a believer to be called ‘holier than thou’. Yet you are also told not to hide your light under a bushel, but to put it on a candlestick, to let your light shine before men. Do these seem like conflicting goals?

Do you watch the news? Have you ever been away or out of your normal routine so that you had to get caught up when you returned? Did you find that you had missed very much, or not very much? When you do watch the news, how much of it is repetitive, shallow, superficial, sensational, and transitory? How much of it is directly applicable to your life, let alone deep and profound and permanently enduring? On this basis would you benefit by more exposure to the news, or less? If anything important happens you will find out. Would you benefit with fewer distractions and fleeting images?

Are you more sure of what you are opposed to or what you are in favor of? I compared the generation I encountered to children playing in the market. We piped and you wouldn’t dance, we played a dirge and you wouldn’t mourn. I was referring to people who thought that John was too ascetic, and I was not enough. There is no pleasing some people. It is easier to tear down than it is to build, but what do you have to show for your effort? Resist the temptation to appear sophisticated and worldly wise by disdaining everything. Commit yourself to something positive and pursue it and build. 

Do you take the Bible literally? Does this work in every case? I told my followers that unless they ate the flesh and drank the blood of the Son of Man they would have no life in themselves. Later I told them that this was my body broken for you. Do you take these passages literally? If not, then are you able to affirm the reality and substance of symbolic language? If so, you can find greater depth there than in the literal meaning, which is normally the narrowest and least insightful approach?

Have you ever been deceived? Are you now? How would you know? For inherent in the concept of deception is that you hold a false view without being aware of it. Can you identify and eliminate deception from your life on your own? It would seem that you need other people, but if you are serious about doing so then you should seek out encounters with those outside of a small circle of like-minded people for they are probably subject to the same deceptions that you are. How large a circle are you willing to draw? The other essential thing is a willingness to revisit long-held beliefs.

Have you ever taken part in a rite of passage? There are milestones of passage such as getting a driver’s license, being able to drink and to vote, but these are more related to ages rather than rituals. Ancient cultures understood the importance of these transitions but they have been virtually abandoned in your consumer culture. Is this a gain or a loss? You have an educational system. Does it teach people what to value and guide them through the transitions of life to maturity? Have parents, and the culture as a whole, abdicated this responsibility?

Do you know the future? I have given you some indications of long range outcomes in scripture, so you can be confident that the story as a whole has a happy ending. Can you see the path from here to there? There are many prophets of doom who see nothing but decline and despair as a current condition and going forward. Others project extensions of their own ideological positions into the future. Both of these should be suspect. Since you don’t know the future whose guidance should you respect and how should you approach it?