The waiting space,
The nothingness space,
The persevering space,
The liminal space.
In Latin,
Limine means threshold.
It's important to understand this,
To grasp the importance of the in-between.
When our energy,
Our time,
Emotions,
And circumstances come to a ceasing halt,
External confirmations and meeting points seem to have fallen to dust,
We stand in what feels like a fallow ground.
With Jesus as our example,
His Saturday in Holy Week was this liminal space.
To all eyes and external forces,
He looked dead,
Buried in a tomb,
Put to rest.
He'd handed over his life.
He'd handed over that time,
Knowing there would be the other side.
You don't have to follow Christian traditions to grasp the metaphor and importance of this example.
Every project,
Every emotion,
All confrontations,
Grief,
These require that liminal space.
When we stand at this threshold place with all of the past behind us,
We can read backwards all that has come and begin to understand.
That's why I call it a persevering place.
I might even call it a choice place.
For if we attempt to subjugate it and walk away from the asking of lying in rest and waiting,
We lose our opportunity for understanding,
Which can lead to losing the chance to read all of it forward in hope.
Well,
We're always alone in this liminal space,
Even as we continue the busyness of our lives.
We're never alone.
It's clear there's a you in this you.
There's that backward self who's tender,
Innocent,
Hurt,
Excited,
There's the present self who's patient,
Open,
Awaiting,
There's the future self so alive,
Ready to rise and become the skin and bone,
The flesh and beauty of you.
This is the place of full potentiality.
We go through it as we stare at a blank canvas,
Wondering how to begin.
The knowledge we've acquired from our past investments with this brush rest in us.
The ideas we presently hold gently nudge and yet stand also.
At this threshold of blank canvas.
And that hope is this blank canvas as well.
The knowing this,
The knowingness that is experience telling you this will become.
It will all work out.
Hope is not a vague belief.
It is a certainty we are guaranteed when we go through the process and believe no matter how things turn out we are victorious.
Rise.
Take courage.
The liminal space is the gift of your human life.
You can live forward from here.
Rise.
Stand at the threshold.
And awaken creative.
Let today be your Sunday.
