Many people have been heartened by reading Thomas a Kempis' book, The Imitation of Christ. And, at first blush, imitating Christ seems like a very good idea. Ghandhi, while he obviously would never accept Christ's claim as Saviour of the world, believed that the world would be a better place if everyone read Jesus' teachings and sought to live a life based on them.
The problem is that God wants to be the actor. And our insistence on being people who imitate Christ makes us the actors instead. Eugene Peterson says that when we seek to imitate Christ, we become the actors and move God to the sidelines in the role of judging our performance--giving us scores as if we were participating in a cosmic Olympic Games.
But when we accept the invitation to participate in the ministry of Christ, it is God who acts through us, directing our actions and empowering us with Holy Spirit. So God is the actor and we move in tandem with the one "through whom we live and move and have our being."
Participation in Christ means that our ministry is not about us. It's about God. And that is as it should be.
