GROWING EDGES

As I begin this letter to you, I sit at the hospital together with family and friends waiting for the birth of a new baby girl, Autumn Hope. We can only sit and wait; Christy and Nate (our daughter-in-law and son) do the hard work of bringing a little one into the world. Christy especially. It is a long labor—twenty-four exhausting hours as it turns out. At one point in the dark of night monitors show the baby's heart rate slowing, and immediately nurses by the score rush in. They quickly make the necessary adjustments and the baby's heart rate returns to normal. At this point in time we don't know it, but half-a-dozen hours of hard labor still lie ahead. I'm exhausted, and I've done nothing but sit and wait!

Such wonderfully focused effort to bring forth this new life reminds me of Paul's words to the Galatians, "My little children, . . . I am . . . in the pain of childbirth until Christ is formed in you (4:19). These words are the centerpiece for Christian spiritual formation. They are words of effort and pain and travail. But they also speak of hope and promise and new life. To experience the reality of Christ being formed in us does indeed take something like the travail of childbirth. But in the end it brings with it the joy of a life penetrated through by love, the faith that can see everything in the light of God's overriding governance for good, and the hope to carry us through the most difficult of circumstances.

All of this brings me to the theme for this Perspective, namely, the great tradition of De Imitatione Christi, the imitation of Christ. In the early days of this tradition some five hundred years ago it was called the Devotio Moderna, the modern or the New Devotion. And it did indeed cut a new path for that day, a path that called for the soul's growth and development (formation if you will) into Christlikeness by prayerful imitation of Jesus' own life, thoughts, habits, and intentions. Now, this was no slavish imitation of externals. No, it was rather an interior emphasis upon humility, simplicity, and holiness grounded in a deep devotion to Jesus and intent upon developing an intimate relationship with God. Out of the rich spiritual experience of these folk known as The Brethren of the Common Life sprang The Imitation of Christ, a book that for half a millennium has been the unchallenged devotional masterpiece for Christians everywhere. It has been translated into more than fifty different languages and there have been many fine efforts to translate it into English. We feature three of those efforts in the pages that follow, one hot off the press by the husband of our own Emilie Griffin.

Why, you might ask, has this tradition had such an extensive and profound effect? Well, first of all, because it understands Jesus is a living Teacher showing us daily how to live our lives as he would live our lives if he were us. Then second, because it focuses not on any particular set of external actions but upon how we become a particular kind of person, namely, a person who will do naturally the kinds of things Jesus would do. And third, because it ushers us into living interaction with the living Christ who comes alongside us empowering us to be the right kind of people doing the right kind of things in the midst of everyday life.

Paul writes, "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ" (1 Cor. 11:1). Herein lies the great challenge for us: to be such imitators of Christ that people can look at us and understand how Jesus would think, live, and act in the context of modern society. To do this takes the fullest of formation into Christlikeness. And such a mature formation by its very nature will involve work akin to the labor pains of childbirth. Oh, yes, Autumn Hope came into the world at her own pace at 7:28 am, December 8, 2000, weighing in at 6 pounds, 7 ounces. Both she and the proud parents are doing fine.

Peace and joy,

Richard J. Foster