Dale Cresap's blog

Have you ever been bored? Do you find certain people to be boring? That makes it easy to put the burden on them, but is that justified? Everyone you meet is fearfully and wonderfully made. They are all made in my image. Even the simplest person is incredibly complex, and has a unique story to tell. If you think that is boring, perhaps it isn’t them. Perhaps it is you. Are you fully invested and engaged with them? Do they understand this in a way that draws their story out of them? You could try this as an experiment.

Do you know the truth? I spoke to the religious leaders of my day and told them that if they continued in my word that they would know the truth and the truth would make them free. They were offended by this because in their own estimation they already knew the truth, and I was suggesting that they did not. On another occasion I was asked by a group if they were blind also. Consider how odd this question is, and my answer that they were blind because they claimed to see. Can you appreciate the paradox that knowing the truth means realizing how much you do not know?

How do you describe your faith? Is it about a book or about a person? Is there anything more universally agreed to across the whole spectrum of Christian denominations than that the essence of your faith is a relationship with me? Believers who can’t seem to agree on anything else will agree on this. Will the people who visit your church go away thinking that it is more about a book or more about me? You do well to distinguish one book from all others and to regard the authority it has as revealed truth.

Are you familiar with the concept of intellectual property rights? Authors copyright their works to maintain control over their distribution and royalties. Things that are not under copyright are referred to as public domain. How do you see the concept of truth? Authors are entitled to control their works and derive any income from them, but having said that, is it possible to maintain control over the truth? Truth is inherently public domain and no one person or even group can exercise control over it. Beware of those who claim to have private truth.

Do you love your enemies? You know that the Bible requires you to do this. Do you find this to be the most difficult commandment to keep? How do you identify your enemies? People who are trying to kill you? People who disagree with you? There is a wide gap between these groups, but you don’t get to excuse yourself from following this commandment by saying that you don’t have any enemies. You can have beneficial interactions with people you disagree with, even if they are working for a different vision of the future.

Have you noticed from the gospel accounts of my life that I was not what would be known today as a social justice warrior? There were plenty of opportunities. I lived in an occupied country. Some of my followers would have liked me to rise up against Rome and were disappointed. I lived in a culture of slavery and other oppressive practices. Don’t take my silence on these issues as approval of them. I had my own marching orders to proclaim the Kingdom of God. Would you say that my strongest criticism was of hypocrisy and false ways of being?

What is the main theme of the Bible? Is it composed of the stories of people who believed in me and encountered me? The first people who did this, such as Abraham, didn’t have doctrine to go by, so their beliefs were not as fully formed as yours are. Yet their encounters with me were transformative. Can one thing substitute for another? Which do you think is more important? Which of these do you see getting greater emphasis in my life? The modern church is very effective at teaching doctrine. Is it equally as good at facilitating encounters with me? How could this be improved?

Do you have friends? What is the depth of your friendship? Do you stick to common interests and jointly held views? These are safe areas, but this is a superficial level of friendship. Do you have friendships that are deeper and stronger, that will bear the weight of conflict resolution or transformative growth? There are certain things that you need to hear that you don’t want to hear. If you make the effort you can avoid contact with anything challenging or unpleasant, and this is truer than ever before. But in doing so you will avoid growth.

Do you practice the one true faith? Do you know of denominations that identify as Christian that claim to be the one true church? Do you find this claim off-putting? How do you think your claim of Christianity as the one true faith is viewed by those who practice other faiths? Everyone thinks that their version of the truth is correct but they cannot all be insofar as they contradict one another. You want to be an advocate for the truth as you understand it, and this is an admirable goal.

Do you think that you are righteous and come to the right position on every issue because you are led by the Spirit? Do you encounter other people who have access to the same facts and come to different positions and assume that they are not righteous or spirit-led? Are you confident that your own motives are pure and theirs are not? They may feel the same way about you. Is it possible that you are both righteous? To assume otherwise is to judge your brother.