Who’s imitating you?

I remember the first time that I really noticed my first-born copying me.  It was a seemingly insignificant activity — it was the way she put a coke can on an end table — but it had the markings of her father all over it.  At that moment I not only thought to pray for her — that God would keep all my foolishness and idiosyncracies from producing havoc in her life, but also that I would be wise in the way I led her as she inevitably would continue to follow.

I thought about that event again this week when I read “Imitate Me” by Justin Taylor.  In his reflection on a recent book by D. A. Carson, he echoes Carson’s thoughts on the Biblical mandate to be intentional to have others follow you — to ask them to imitate you.

“Do you ever say to a young Christian, ‘Do you want to know what Christianity is like?  Watch me!’  If you never do, you are unbiblical.” [Carson; be sure to read the blog for the significant amount of Biblical evidence to support this claim.]

Carson also offers multiple ways in which someone might encourage others to follow him:

You who are older should be looking out for younger people and saying in effect, ‘Watch me.’

Come—I’ll show you how to have family devotions.

Come—I’ll show you how to do Bible study.

Come on—let me take you through some of the fundamentals of the faith.

Come—I’ll show you how to pray.

Let me show you how to be a Christian husband and father, or wife and mother.

At a certain point in life, that older mentor should be saying other things, such as: Let me show you how to die. Watch me.

He is simply talking about discipleship — about replicating his life in the life of another — but being intentional and purposeful in those efforts.

A couple decades ago a college professor/chaplain wrote this, echoing the same theme:

So go ahead.  Imitate me.  Demand that my miserable little life be a worthy example.  Do me a favor.  Don’t let me off the discipleship hook.  Insist on congruence between what I practice and what I profess.  Imitate me.