Staying Power Through a Threshold, Becoming a Space for God

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Here on the threshold of 2015 we are in transition.  We are letting go of (or trying to anyway) what is behind us and poising for what is ahead.  Still spinning from the glittering celebratory arrival of Christmas at the culmination of Advent...and we are left with... now what? Historically this is my least favorite time segment in the year. I think I now have a label for why.

It is a reliable taste  of "Liminal Space". 

I stumbled upon this through a friend in the thick of advent.  It is a termed coined by spiritual formation writer Richard Rohr and commentaries on it have spun from many other spiritual writers.

Richard Rohr defines Liminal Space as “a unique spiritual position where human beings hate to be but where the biblical God is always leading them.” He says:

It is when you have left the "tried and true" but have not yet been able to replace it with anything else. It is when you are finally out of the way. It is when you are in between your old comfort zone and any possible new answer. It is no fun"

 Rohr explains that "Limina" is the Latin word for threshold, the space betwixt and between.  


 The threshold is now.


We  find ourselves here when...

There is this forced re-boot on January 1st , presuming that you can figure out what and how to do next what would satisfy...

our children are moving through developmental milestones and their fashion of needing us has evolved...

A job or career is underwhelming your soul or financial needs...

An intimate relationship is lacking or anemic with authentic connection...

Our self-assessment, self concept, is riddled with condemnation...

We do not feel ourselves worthy of the life task upon us...

Our friendships and academics disappoint...

Long term illness steals thriving...

The time we require to do our life peaceful is far exceeded by what is available...

The examples go on and on.

Rohr says, " IF YOU ARE NOT trained in how to hold anxiety, how to live with ambiguity, how to entrust and wait—you will run—or more likely you will "explain."  anything to flee from this terrible "cloud of unknowing."

But if you brush by and avoid this time and space by being busy, tidying up your home and distracting your soul.... we will miss our prescription for satisfied. Lord, don't let us miss it.  
Because what we are hungry for is true, fresh position in our soul from which to see and be fulfilled. You know what I am talking about....so done with and tired of the plateau we are existing on, so numbed by it.

 In these liminal spaces, God has stirred something in us.  If we quiet and distract and still that swirl of longing in us, our existing condition stays as-is.  We assign ourselves to exist on that plateau and pretend we are not dying of thirst for something more.

So, how to train ourselves to "hold anxiety, live with ambiguity, entrust and wait"?  How to stay on our Watchtower expecting to see God move?

I adore the words Ann crafts: 
Become a space for God.

"There is no need to produce or perform or perfect--simply become a place for God.  That is all" 
The miscarriage of (Liminal Space) begins when anxieties crowd out space within simply to carry Christ.  Make room; be a womb. Be a womb to receive Christ everywhere, and it is He who delivers everyone.

So you let the last of the to-do's go.

Cease the pace to do, buy, produce more.

Find the calendar and erase.

Somewhere make space.

And feel time exhale relive, the angels dace joy, and the velvet hush of grace received fall over this place. " (Voskamp 2013)

So, take this gift of time today, January 1, 2015. Take this gift of a moment to be still and know. Know He is Good. He is Enough. He is committed Valiantly to our rescue.  Pull yourself still and open to Him, and let that "velvet hush" of knowing that He is as knit into you as the air you pull into your lungs  soothe and smooth this runway that today is headed into 2015.

All is well. All will be well.


A.Voskamp. 2013. The Greatest Gift.  Tyndale House. Carol stream, Illinois.

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