As an advocate of spiritual formation myself, I think it’s also important to flag the potential weaknesses and pitfalls of this movement.
To do that, I need to introduce a concept called “locus of identity.” This is roughly something like “what you base your own sense of identity and self-worth from.” So someone whose locus of identity is centred around his career will be a workaholic, and will be disproportionately affected by his failures at work. Setbacks in his career will send him into a depressive tailspin, because he derives much of his own sense of value and self-worth from his work. Another example would be parents. Much of parents locus of identity is centred around their children. As such, their child’s successes and failures affect them disproportionately than other events in their lives. There is a very real sense in the event their child fails, they feel like they have failed as well. External locus of identity.
Much of the (Western) world and psychological literature has (correctly) identified that this is actually potentially pathological and problematic. Why? Because then your sense of well-being and worth is tied to something outside of yourself – you are effectively at the mercy of other people’s perception of you, evaluation of you. And that can lead to a miserable life, or even one that is being constantly manipulated by others.
The solution has been to re-centre one’s locus of identity within oneself. Hence we start to hear more of this talk about “self-love” and “self-care.” We need to learn how to value ourselves for who we are, glory in our strengths, but also own our limitations. Accept ourselves as ourselves. Shift from having an external locus of identity to having an internal one. This is the only way to “take back control” of your own life and set it on the flourishing path. Then you will no longer be at the mercy of others.
Here’s the rub.
The Christian call actually isn’t to find an internal locus of identity. The scriptures affirm that our locus of identity is actually external to us – we just need to find the right one, that’s all. The trouble with having an external locus of identity is that everything external: people, relationships, situations, life circumstances, etc. are always in flux. Nothing is permanent, and that is what makes an external locus of identity dangerous and harmful. However, the Christian tradition holds that there is just one external source that we can base our locus of identity on that is an eternal, unchanging one – God himself. That is the significance of God being unchanging; he is the rock on which he can finally lay our identity to rest on.
The irony of attempting to find an internal locus of identity is this: it doesn’t even work at the end of the day. Trying to ground self-worth and well-being in something within ourselves is doomed to failure because then we will simply be the sum aggregate of our successes and failures, our virtues and our vices. And that might work out well if you are a successful person. But it is devastating for the ordinary person. And Jesus had harsh words to say about messages that seemed to only be good news for certain groups of people and bad news for others (the Pharisees).
But what has this to do with spiritual formation?
Spiritual formation, if not properly understood, can potentially become a means for us to find an internal locus of identity, only now baptised religiously. We start to subconsciously based our sense of spiritual self-worth on our sanctification and our own subjective perceived progress (or lack thereof) in the Christian life. “I should be a more patient person, I should be less angry, I should be more concerned about _____ than I am.” There is nothing wrong with these acknowledgements at all. But we need to be very careful to guard against using spiritual formation, disciplines, ministry, and activities as a means of “plugging the hole” and centering our identity on our own good Christian character. It can become a way of avoiding and hiding from God in our goodness.
The call of the Christian life is to an external locus of identity. Notice that that means we are not ultimately in control of our own sense of self-worth and well-being. That’s bad news for those of us who have “done reasonably well” characterologically speaking. Those of us who have a few vices/sins here and there, but in our own estimation we have much more virtues than vices. We silently, rest on our virtues. Do you often compare yourself with other Christians? “Sure I’m not perfect, and I’m trying to better myself. But look, at least I’m not like them.” Who are your thems?
What would it mean to truly start learning to “die to self” in the deepest sense of laying to rest our own quest to construct and secure an identity for ourselves? What does that mean for most of us who mostly “have it together?” Why were the ones who received Jesus the most warmly the ones who were the deepest sinners and were ‘leaking’ all over the place? In our goodness, how much do we actually need Jesus and the cross? Has the cross become an afterthought in our Christian life? Something that was important at conversion, but we’ve journeyed ‘past it’ now in maturity?
The Christian is called to find her locus of identity in God. But not just in God generically, but in Christ. But not just in Christ generically, but in how the Father relates to the Son. John 17 records what ought to be the most definitive statement of Christian identity. These are one of the rare passages/moments where we actually get to “listen in” on the internal conversation of the members of the Trinity – the Son talking to the Father (they don’t happen all that often in scripture).
Jesus prays, “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”
The Father relates to believers as they are ‘in Christ.’ He loves us with the same love with which he loves Christ. He does not love us outside of the person of Christ. Christ does not ‘twist his arm’ and force him to love and forgive us. The central locus of identity for the Christian therefore, is actually grounded in the Father-Son relation within the very being of the Triune God himself. Why am I valuable? Because the Father sees the Son as valuable, and I am now united with (“in”) the Son such that when the Father sees me, judges me, evaluates me, relates to me, speaks to me, it is always through the mediation of the Son.
This is also the significance of what it means to be “clothed in Christ’s righteousness.” Clothing, in the ancient world, was a signification of status and relation. How you dressed determined not just who you were, but what sorts of relations you were permitted to enter into. That’s also why the priestly vestments had to be consecrated (sanctified) before they could enter into the tabernacle/temple. That is also why the father clothes the prodigal son in his own robes to welcome him back into the family. Believers being clothed in Christ’s righteousness is a continuation of that motif. It is a signification of status and relation – we are now adopted sons caught up in the true Sonship of Christ, and we are called to enter into relation with the Father.
What defines us is no longer what is under our robes, our weakness, our frailty, our failures, but what the Father sees – the perfect righteousness of Christ. This is good news indeed. Perhaps even too good to believe, if I’m honest.
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound.
Faith Seeking Communion 