Keeping Faith in Liminal Times

What do I do with the in-between time? The time between the current thing and the next thing? That space between what was and what is to come is referred to as liminal space (from the Latin limen which means “threshold”). Liminal space can also refer to a space of transition, like a hallway or a parking lot.

We are stuck in a liminal time—after Christmas and before New Year’s—and we are most likely not in a normal rhythm. Perhaps you have family around, messes to clean up, kids to keep occupied, family to visit, or travel to complete. These liminal times can be disorienting. Personally, I sometimes forget what day it is!

Liminal time has existed as long as there have been humans maturing and interacting with one another. The Israelites spent forty years in liminal time and space before they entered the promised land (Numbers 11-21). Esther lived in a liminal time in the royal courts (see the book of Esther). The disciples lived in a liminal time between Jesus’ death and resurrection (Luke 23-24). Paul lived in a liminal time between his Damascus Road encounter and the scales falling from his eyes (Acts 9).

You might think that you have never lived in liminal time. I would suggest that you have. Maybe not to a biblical extent, but you have lived in liminal time.

Have you:

• Finished school and waited on that first job? You were graduated, but not yet employed.
• Been pregnant with your first child? You were a parent, but you couldn’t see your child.
• Been approved for an adoption? You were someone’s parent, but you didn’t know who.
• Bought a house? You were a homeowner, but you hadn’t moved in yet.
• Driven home from work? You have left work, but you weren’t home.
• Separated from a spouse? You aren’t together, but you aren’t single.
• Put in your last two weeks at a job? You weren’t going to be there, but you were there.

Liminal times often feel unsure. We aren’t fully in either space, yet we are in both spaces at the same time. It can be uncomfortable or even painful to remain in liminal spaces. Sometimes we pull back into what was because of the pain and discomfort of the new space. This can be why we go back to a bad relationship or stay at a bad job.

Never have we been in a more liminal time than during these years of the pandemic. There hasn’t been an end like we hoped there would be. What makes this liminal time seem extraordinary is that we are all going through it at the same time.

Our faith is the thread that binds liminal times together. We may feel unsure in the time and space between what was and what will be, but we can trust God to see us through. My husband and I often remind each other, “God didn’t bring us this far to let us down now!”

If you read about each of the biblical events listed above, there are some scary situations there: homelessness, captivity, death, blindness. In each of those situations, the people involved didn’t know when the end point would come or what it would look like. They were stuck in the unknowing of liminal time and space. But what we see in these examples—and throughout the Bible—are the powerful ways that God brought his people through liminal time.

Friends, we can draw strength and resilience from those stories. When we are faced with liminal time, we can trust that God will show up in a powerful way. While we are waiting, it can be painful and hard. It was that way for the psalmist as well, in Psalms 13:

“O Lord, how long will you forget me? Forever?
How long will you look the other way?
How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul,
with sorrow in my heart every day?
How long will my enemy have the upper hand?

Turn and answer me, O Lord my God!
Restore the sparkle to my eyes, or I will die.
Don’t let my enemies gloat, saying, “We have defeated him!”
Don’t let them rejoice at my downfall.

But I trust in your unfailing love.
I will rejoice because you have rescued me.
I will sing to the Lord
because he is good to me.”

God is good to us. He loves us. Trust in his unfailing love in the liminal time.

Annie Carlson is rooted like a turnip to the plains of North Dakota where she raises great food, large numbers of farm animals, and three free-range kids with her husband. You can find her with either a book or knitting needles in her hands as she dreams up her next adventure.

Photograph © Dillon Kydd, used with permission