Have you ever been in at a time and space in your life, where the past season ended but what comes next is far from clear? Five months ago, I finished up my part time job and left a faith community I belonged to for over twenty years. I had a sense that I was heading into a new season, albeit unknown, but I figured that the waiting in between would be over as soon as I caught my breath and had a rest. It has not happened quite as I expected.
Even though I chose this step, not everyone who finds themselves in this space does. Sometimes it is an unexpected job loss, or a chronic illness that interrupts life, or a divorce that looms through no choice of your own. It might be a stage of life or a stage of faith. This closed door can bring us into a new space of bewilderment and profound unknowing.[i] Often impatient for the new, and desiring to just move one, this season in between feels like we are stuck, and we are desperate to move on to the new. Some may numb out, choosing sugar, alcohol, or drugs. But what if this transition space has a purpose all its own?
The ancient Celtic monks call these in between times liminal spaces or thresholds. This transitional space is often the result of leaving behind something that feels comfortable and safe. It can also provide space for God’s spirit to do a deeper work within us. Christine Valters Painter in ‘The Souls Slow Ripening’, says that in the monastic tradition they have a custom called statio, which ‘is a holy pause full of possibility’ and involves the practice of stopping one thing before beginning another. It is also the practice of pausing prayerfully. This practice invites us to let go of what was behind us, so we can fully step into what comes next.[ii] In a material sense, it is like arriving at the threshold of a doorway, to pause and reorient one self, before moving through.
What then if this pause is longer than we thought and instead of being wasted time, is a gift instead? Mandy Bayton suggests that some of the gifts can be found in this space, where we ask questions and wrestle with answers, where we might re-examine faith, or grapple with doubts, or confront fears, and where we get to explore hopes and reimagine dreams.[iii] While we are not to stay in this space, it promises to be transformative space that encourages us with the possibility of the newness to come.
I’m not done in this space, so I cannot name the gifts I have found – yet. I have been journeying with others who are guiding me in this space. What I do know is I would be negligent to ignore its grace and value. I pray that you too will meet Jesus in your liminal spaces, and you too are transformed and encouraged by the gift of grace found here.
Image by Leonhard Niederwimmer from Pixabay
[i] Christine Valters Paintner, “The Souls Slow Ripening,” Sorin Books, Notre Dame, IN, 2018, page 3.
[ii] Ibid, page 9.
[iii]Mandy Bayton, “How to live in the tension and grace of the liminal space.” 18th May, 2018. Christian Today. https://www.christiantoday.com/article/how-to-live-in-the-tension-and-grace-of-the-liminal-space/129256.htm
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