The difference between admiration and imitation

Timothy Dairymple, on his philosophical fragments blog, had this to say...which I found quite intriguing,

The Danish religious writer Soren Kierkegaard — on whom I wrote my doctoral dissertation — draws a helpful contrast between imitation and admiration. Christ calls for us to take up our cross daily and follow him. Following, in this case, means to put our trust in him and his guidance and leadership, and to become like Christ in living a life like Christ led. Christ calls for us, in other words, (and among other things) to be imitators. Christ does not ask for admirers. In fact, when he has admirers who have no interest in becoming imitators, he tends to drive them away.

Yet too many people, Kierkegaard says, want to admire Christ but not imitate him. They suspect that if they admire Christ enough, speaking movingly of how important and wonderful and beautiful he is, if they can summarize Christ’s teachings and the significance of his life, then they may be excused from the call of Christ to take up our crosses and follow (imitate) him. Admiration becomes a refuge against imitation, and Christ becomes an object for our appreciation instead of a Person who rescues us from sin and calls us through an intimate relationship to be his feet and hands and lips to a perishing world.