"Liminality is a place in between. It is emptiness and nowhere. Adolescence is the liminal
space between childhood and adulthood. But liminality is more than a point along the
way to somewhere else. It represents anti-structure to structure, chaos to order. The
place between two world views is a liminal place. It is a place of dying and rebirth, even
of metamorphosis, the place where the caterpillar spins its cocoon and disappears from
view. Liminality is Israel in the desert, Jesus in the tomb."
Leonard Hjalmarson
Waiting: For what? How?
liminality: being on the threshold between spaces or spheres or seasons.
space between childhood and adulthood. But liminality is more than a point along the
way to somewhere else. It represents anti-structure to structure, chaos to order. The
place between two world views is a liminal place. It is a place of dying and rebirth, even
of metamorphosis, the place where the caterpillar spins its cocoon and disappears from
view. Liminality is Israel in the desert, Jesus in the tomb."
Leonard Hjalmarson
Waiting: For what? How?
liminality: being on the threshold between spaces or spheres or seasons.
My friend describes a segment of an authentic but agonising journey through time and space:
Richard Rohr says, "I am convinced that without experiences of liminal space (that place where all transformation happens), there is no truthful perspective on life. Without truthful perspective, there is neither gratitude nor any abiding confidence. It is precisely this deep gratitude and unfounded confidence that I see most lacking in our people today . . ."I'm thinking about my 187 days of waiting.
Wondering about the hidden preparation that has overtaken me...
Why do I remain in this 'liminal space'?"My ways are not your ways," (Is. 55:8)...echo's in my mind. Isthis the cosmic patience of God making me wait and wait?
"Our ways, you see, are the ways of instant-knowledge and instant-solutions and instant-gratification... We {must} begin picking up the deep rhythms of the Spirit, the heart beat of God. We begin thinking in terms of years and decades rather than minutes and hours." (Foster)So, instead of pondering what I've lost, I should be...where?Reality is that place between the sea and the foam.
Irish Proverb
Am I still stuck in my own INDEPENDENT ways? Is that what this is all about?
I feel as though I've been thrashing and wrestling with something...could it be the independence of my own ideas and desires?
Do I understand how to slowly release the need to manage and control life and instead find delight in God working to will and do his good pleasure in me?
I'm still there...thinking.
For what do you wait?
For a pdf download of Hjalmarson 's paper on Forty Years in a Narrow Space.
Click to read further within Conversations@Intersections on liminality, the being on the threshold between spaces or spheres or seasons.
Photo: C. La Shure
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