What is Spiritual Formation

I was asked recently to define what is spiritual formation. Below is my brief description.

Spiritual formation is the work of becoming like Jesus in the life I now live. This formational work is not necessarily concerned with outer behavior (whether I cuss, get mad, drink too much, want too many flat-screen tvs, etc); outer behavior will change, for sure, as this formation work goes on but outer behavior is the "fruit" of our spiritual formation.

Spiritual formation is essentially inner work. It is about the shaping of the whole person--body, soul and spirit into the life of Jesus. This is primarily done through the spiritual disciplines. I can not directly choose to act like Jesus in every area of my life. My flesh, my mind, my heart--ME--will eventually get in the way. I must indirectly find ways to reshape my inner life; this reshaping, this transformation, will allow me to slowly become like Jesus in every area of my life.. Spiritual disciplines are the space of this reshaping. Through the disciplines, God's Spirit does for me what I could never do for myself: forms me into the image of Son.

Foundational to the disciplines is silence and solitude. It is in the space of being alone we meet ourselves and God. And we learn something radically amazing: he loves us and he is for us. From this foundational place, we memorize scripture, fast, and do secret acts of mercy. We smartly and intentionally use the disciplines to systematically reshape our inner lives. In doing so, we enter into the resurrection life that Paul spoke of in Colossians 3. The fruit of such a life is this: compassion, kindness, quite strength and self-discipline. The ability to be happy with second place, the heart to quickly forgive an offense as quickly as Christ has forgiven us. And more than all of this, we become people of radical love (the very love we have experienced). This is Spiritual formation.