Learning to Live in Liminal Space
Last Friday, I hurt my back. I’m not sure how, but the only likely culprit was a much-loved slow flow yoga class. I’ve been attending regularly since January, and nothing in that session felt particularly unusual or challenging.
Yet on Saturday, I woke up barely able to move. My husband, eleven years my senior, teased, “You’re just getting old.”
The truth is, reaching Medicare age means living in a constant state of transition.
Just days before, I led a coach approach retreat where we explored transition—the inner shift between an ending and a new beginning. These shifts can be triggered by personal events (birth, loss, health crises, relationships), societal forces (pandemics, wars, denominational uncertainty), or changes in work, home, or self-understanding. And sometimes, simply by growing older.
Richard Rohr speaks of liminality as sacred space: “We have to allow ourselves to be drawn into sacred space, into liminality. All transformation takes place here... We have to allow ourselves to be drawn out of ‘business as usual’ and remain patiently on the ‘threshold’ (limin, in Latin) where we are betwixt and between the familiar and the completely unknown. There alone is our old world left behind, while we are not yet sure of the new existence. That’s a good space where genuine newness can begin. Get there often and stay as long as you can by whatever means possible. It’s the realm where God can best get at us because our false certitudes are finally out of the way.”
Could this really be true? That when life feels most unclear, when I’m uncomfortable and uncertain, God can best “get at me”?
Honestly, I don’t like it. I don’t like having a hurting back. I don’t like feeling unsettled when the future, the plan, or my role isn’t clear.
And yet, I’m curious. What might I discover in this space of uncertainty—about myself, about others, and about how God works most powerfully in seasons just like this?
Here are a few more questions for pondering:
What is changing or ending in your life and/or leadership?
What perspectives or practices have helped you navigate transition in the past?
Where are you trying too hard—forcing outcomes? How might you balance effort and surrender?
What is God’s invitation to you in this liminal season?
I will be pondering these questions with you,
Vicki