Dale Cresap's blog

Do you like to travel? Most people enjoy new sights, cultures, and locations, and find travel adventuresome. Do you see your life of faith as a journey? Do you still think this is true even if you live at the same address, attend the same church, and have the same friends over a period of many years? Your life of faith can still be a journey even if all these things are true. But it doesn’t follow automatically. You know that I am unchanging. Should this be true of you also?

Have you ever helped anyone? Do you find it annoying when people interfere with your efforts to help them? For some it is difficult to receive help, but their efforts can make things worse, so saying ‘help me help you’ is a valid request. Don’t you appreciate when the people you help are grateful and facilitate your efforts? Can you do the same when you are the one receiving assistance? Everyone receives help from me whether they ask for it or not, for I send the sun to shine and the rain to fall on the just and the unjust alike. Do you acknowledge the help you get from me?

Do you act in good faith? This phrase is commonly used to refer to integrity and lack of duplicity, and this is a valid definition. Yet a larger understanding is also possible. You refer to your beliefs as faith and act accordingly. Have you ever wondered if your actions according to principle are having a beneficial enduring effect? It may not be obvious that they are doing any good. This is where the concept of good faith comes in. I do not want you to be discouraged or grow weary in well-doing. Your obedience has beneficial effects you are not yet aware of.

Do you have hope for the next generation? A permanent fixture of history has been a concern about the character and conduct of the generation to follow. At every time past you can find accounts of alarm about how civilization is falling apart, but here we are. Do you think that every generation, as well as every individual, has a destiny; a divinely appointed mission to carry out? In this regard you have two duties. The first is to take part in the fulfillment of the destiny of your own generation.

Do you think of vulnerability as courage and leadership? Have you ever been involved in a conversation about trivial matters when someone changes the whole tone of the engagement by expressing a personal vulnerability? This takes the whole conversation to a deeper level and opens the door for others to move in the same direction, but someone has to go first. The one who does so is expressing courage and leadership by directing the conversation for the benefit of all. If you don’t like small talk you can disengage from it or you can steer it into deeper waters.

Do you divide people between good and bad? In these rough categories you have to overlook some positive qualities in those you regard as bad, and some bad habits in those you regard as good. I told you not to judge others and there is a reason for this. You will always get it wrong. Knowing this, what would be a better way to consider the people you meet? The dividing line between good and evil runs through the middle of every human heart. With this view you don’t need to assign people to categories, but realize that every person carries the potential for both good and bad, as you do. 

You don’t have to be a believer to realize that people have a sense of presence. This is illustrated by modern communications that allow you to exchange information with someone over a distance. Yet as much as people embrace the technology, they still acknowledge that physical proximity makes a difference, and is better where the connection is desirable. There is no substitute for being together. You cannot see me, but have you not already discerned my presence? Believers refer to it as if it were nearly tangible.

Do you know that you have a sense of presence? You may have heard this term used in reference to people who are famous or charismatic, but like personality, everyone has a presence. Some people have a dominating sense of presence, and as it were, inhale all the oxygen from every room they enter. There is a reason that such people are referred to as suffocating. Do you think of meekness as weakness and humility as lost opportunities for influence? You could also think of these qualities as giving you a sense of presence that makes way for the presence of others.

What do you think of the idea of surrender? Is this the worst thing that can happen to you, as a fugitive with no chance to escape or a solider facing certain defeat? This concept is normally associated with defeat and loss of control, freedom, agency, and autonomy; the things you hold most dear. Yet I have called you surrender to me. Can you see why this call meets with resistance from those on the outside who don’t understand? What has been your experience with surrender to me? For I am not calling you to surrender to domination, but to love which gives you life.

What do you think of the story of Abraham and Isaac? Have you encountered skeptics who view this story critically, saying that it is an egregious example of blind obedience and cruelty? Who would be willing to sacrifice his own son? (Me) What sort of God would require it? The fact that the deed was thwarted after Abraham had demonstrated he was ‘all-in’ doesn’t satisfy the critics. Note that the deed was not thwarted in my case. Can you see how profound the parallels are between these stories?