“A mighty river of the Spirit is busting forth from the hearts of women, and men, boys and girls. It is a deep river of divine intimacy, a powerful river of holy living, a dancing river of jubilation in the Spirit, and a broad river of unconditional love for all peoples”. That is how Richard Foster sees what is happening in the Christen world these days and he talks about it in Streams of Living Water.
What is he talking about . . . what does he mean by using the analogy of a river? Foster is suggesting that the Holy Spirit is bringing together streams of life . . . traditions that have been isolated from one another for a long time. Foster is suggesting that there have been some precious teaching or vital experience from the life of Christ that have been neglected “until at the appropriate moment, a person or movement arises to correct the omission.”
This sparks a revival or renewal. Then as time goes on there is resistance to the renewal and the movement is denounced. In time the movement forms its own structures and community life. This was often in isolation from other Christian communities.
This process was often repeated down through the centuries. The result, says Foster, is that “various streams of life . . . good streams, important streams, have been cut off from the rest of the Christian community. This has caused an imbalanced vision of the Christian life and faith.”
Today God is drawing these streams or rivers together that have been separated from one another. Foster calls these great Traditions . . . streams of spiritual life. Each tradition describes various dimensions of the spiritual life. Each Tradition has an emphasis in a different area.
I have the joy of leading us into transition. We are transitioning from one text to another with an emphasis on six Christian traditions. The different traditions describe various dimensions of the spiritual life. Foster says that we find their emphasis throughout the teaching of the Scripture. He goes on to say that he believes no one models these dimensions of the spiritual life more fully than Jesus Christ. If we want to see this river of life in its most complete form, it is to Jesus that we must turn.
The Christian traditions are:
1. The Contemplative Tradition or the prayer filled life
2. The Holiness Tradition or the virtuous life
3. The Charismatic Tradition or the Spirit empowered life
4. The Social Justice Tradition or the compassionate life
5. The Evangelical Tradition or the word-centered life
6. The Incarnation Tradition or the sacramental life
As we move from one tradition to the other, keep this question in mind: How balanced is your spiritual life?
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