Do you feel like you were made for something more?
Have you let go of an old season but are unable to find the words to explain your new one?
Do you have an idea, that will take a whole heap of courage to actually see it realise?
Are you stuck, but the only thing holding you from moving forward is fear of the unknown?
The thing you are most afraid of is called the Liminal Space.
The Liminal Space, is an artistic word to describe the space when you are on the threshold of something new and wonderful, but you are just not there yet.
Another way to put it, in my words “The in-between”.
We spend more days, in seasons of transition, than we actually do in seasons of success, so how come we feel so ashamed of describing our days this way?
If we told a friend, I am just about to do something cool, I just don’t know what it is yet, they would probably look at you a little funny and say “Okay, then.”
I love this idea of threshold.
the magnitude or intensity that must be exceeded for a certain reaction, phenomenon, result, or condition to occur or be manifested.
My definition is this…’we are destined for purpose, but are waiting in a position of hope for its discovery.’
The funny thing I am discovering about the Liminal Space (the moments right at the threshold of new) is we can so easily lose the potency of these precious moments, by filling our time with just anything, rather than the right things.
When my son Maximus had just turned one, I had a series of brilliant job offers. It was honestly the hardest decision in this season to say no, to these opportunities. I knew without a doubt that I needed to succumb to the in-between. I was on a journey of discovery and filling my time with anything, just so I could escape the Liminal Space, would have stopped the growth and potential in my in-between.
When we let go of an old season with finality and grace, it propels us into a new space of maturity.
When we hold onto anger, disappointment, lack of forgiveness and strife, it holds us captive in a holding pattern in the liminal and we will do anything to grab onto something that will drag us out of that funk.
I believe the space between the known and the unknown, teaches us more than any opportunity does.
One of my favourite writers Richard Rohr says this of the Liminal Space;
a unique spiritual position where human beings hate to be but where the biblical God is always leading them. 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 between your old comfort zone and any possible new answer. If you are not trained in how to hold anxiety, how to live with ambiguity, how to entrust and wait, you will run…anything to flee this terrible cloud of unknowing.
Are you willing to say no to some things, so you can say yes to great things, in the space of unknowing?
Are you happy to walk slowly in an open space of transition, rather than filling your days with something, just so you feel safe?
This is the walk of the in-between.
To keep hoping,
To keep discovering,
To keep dreaming,
but not to fill your days with something or someone, just so you can escape the terrible feeling of not knowing.
I have found, we need to take small steps, breathe deep breaths, read great words, think brilliant thoughts and reconnect with our true purpose in these seasons of change.
Beauty is awaiting discovery in the in-between.
Take a step.
Move with grace.
Don’t just fill your days with anything though, dig deep and move forward with purpose.
Let peace lead you home.
It has always been my best navigating friend.
