Dale Cresap's blog

Are you familiar with the story of the wedding feast? Do you remember that there were two categories of guests? There were invited guests, and those from the highways and byways that the servants were admonished to compel to come in. Which category do you identify with? Do you think that you got a proper invitation far in advance, and gave a prompt RSVP? Do you think that this category is superior to those who were dragged in off the streets? Do you know anyone who would identify with them?

You are familiar with the idea of applying for a job. You are happy if you get one you want. Not everyone is able to find the job they want, but I give gifts to everyone. But finding the gift I give you is not the same as applying for a job. You can train to fill the position you desire, but gifts from me are discerned, recognized, and called forth. There are many jobs you could do successfully, but my gifts are more unique and inherent. They are a part of your identity. What do you feel driven to do, that you would do without payment or recognition?

Do you believe in the sanctity of life? If everyone is created in my image that gives them intrinsic worth. How do you treat people who are created in my image? But not everyone professes the sanctity of life, and more importantly, not everyone lives in such a way to regard their fellow man or even themselves with dignity. The Golden Rule applies here. You may be able to treat people better than they regard themselves. In so doing you heap coals of fire on their heads, and provide a visible manifestation of a God they are alienated from.

Do you understand that you should not be envious of others? This is being resentful of their blessings and wishing that you could have them for yourself. Is there a virtue that corresponds to envy? You could express vicarious joy at the blessings that others receive without being resentful that they are not yours. This requires you to take a perspective larger than your own self-interest, but doing so provides you with so many benefits in life.

Do you prefer to judge yourself and your friends by your beliefs, and others by their behavior? This makes it easy for you, but it is an apples-to-oranges comparison. Intellectual and spiritual rigor demands that you use the same criteria for both. Since you aren’t likely to agree on doctrine, conduct becomes the default means of comparison for all. Do you avoid such a comparison? Every faith tradition produces some bad examples, but comparing the worst with the worst will not give valid results. You should evaluate the influence of faith practices on the group as a whole.

I describe love as hoping, bearing, and believing all things. Does this mean that love is naïve? If you applied the same terms to a person would you say that they are loving or gullible? You say that love is blind, but true love is not unaware. How do you look through loving eyes? Can you look at love not as naïve, but rather as a powerful influence that can bring into being that which is not yet visible? Love doesn’t see less than what is visible; it sees more. It sees potential and trusts in the ultimate and transcendent forces to realize it, and so brings it about.

Mass shootings are big stories that generate outrage. This is an appropriate response to the death of innocent people. How could someone be so alienated from humanity to take the lives of strangers? Yet more people die by suicide, and this does not generate such a strong response. How could someone be so alienated from humanity as to take their own life? These questions are more similar than different. No organ can survive apart from the body that gives it life, and the same principle applies to people that I describe as members of a body.

When people of differing faith traditions get together they like to argue about whose version of doctrine is correct. How often do you see anyone change their mind as the result of such a discussion? Perhaps a better approach is to compare practical, visible measures of the beneficial effects of adopting a particular faith. Are the people who convert to this faith more loving and kind, more generous and less violent than they were before? This is a stronger argument for the validity of a faith than one based on doctrinal correctness. Transformed lives are irrefutable evidence.

Everyone who seeks the truth hears my voice, and he who seeks will find. Do you know people who seem to be honestly seeking something, even if they don’t know what it is? Let your light shine before them to help them to see the truth. Someone else’s path may be different from yours, and this is OK. You don’t have to force them on a path that is not theirs. Based on the promises above you can be confident that their search will lead to me. Does this seem like a strong statement for a universal rule? But I have powerful forces at my disposal to guide honest seekers to me.

Are you familiar with narcissism? Even before this term was in common usage you knew people who were selfish, self-absorbed, and ‘all about them’. You know that this is a diminished expression of humanity, and such people are avoided for good reason. Is anyone entirely free from this? It seems to be a common human affliction to some degree, but you also know people who are at the other end of the spectrum and admire them and wish to emulate them for good reason. What qualities should you seek to overcome selfishness?