Liminal Space

Listen: “Unconditional I (Lookout Kid) by Arcade Fire

I was recently hiking through Parkville Nature Sanctuary with a new friend, and I was describing the last three years of my life to him. He commented, “It’s like you are in a ‘liminal space’ in your life.” It’s not a term which I had used to describe my life, but as we discussed the meaning of the term it certainly fit. In architectural terms, it’s a transitional space between two locations, like a hallway or a foyer. In horror movies, it’s the frightening, suspense-filled spaces which create emotional tension in the plot line. Used psychologically, it’s an uncomfortable space in life which feels like an empty void or even death, but it holds a person on the precipice of a new beginning.

Richard Rohr compares a liminal experience to “the sign of Jonah” (Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer, pp. 43-55). Jonah was an ancient Hebrew prophet depicted in a fantastical ancient Hebrew story. The story is unusual in many respects, but two things stand out to me in relationship to this blog. Firstly, Jonah was called upon to deliver a message to the most vicious, bloodthirsty kingdom in the ancient Near Eastern world—The Assyrians. It would be comparable to a Jewish person called to deliver a moral message to the Nazi’s in Germany in 1936. Most Hebrew prophets were called to deliver messages to Jewish people. Jonah was called upon to deliver a message which held out hope for redemption and grace to one of Israel’s most despised enemies. The potential for grace and love for one’s enemies was an unusual message for a Hebrew prophet to deliver. Secondly, Jonah resisted the call to go to Nineveh (the capital of the ancient Assyrians) and ran in the opposite direction. This led Jonah to one of the most iconic liminal experiences contained in all of human literature—the belly of a whale.

That’s right. Jonah was so repulsed by the call that he hopped on a ship sailing in the opposite direction of Nineveh. A storm ensued—the imagery is magnificent—and the shipmates determined that Jonah was the cause so they threw him overboard and Jonah was swallowed by a whale. He spent three days in the belly of the whale before he was vomited up on the shore and called once again to go to Nineveh. Listen to the prayer which Jonah prayed from the belly of the whale:

I called out from my straits

   to the Lord, and He answered me.

From the belly of Sheol I cried out—

   you heard my voice.

You flung me into the deep, in the heart of the sea,

   and the current came round me.

All your breakers and waves

   streamed over me….

Water lapped about me to the neck,

   the deep came round me,

      weed was bound round my head (Jonah 2:3-6; Trans. by Robert Alter).

Liminal experiences create a void which only love and grace can fill. Liminal spaces in life can be created by our own choices (good or bad), the choices of others, or circumstances beyond our control. In these uncomfortable, painful experiences, our answers, our certainty, and our God seem to collapse around us—water is lapping around our neck, the deep is engulfing us, and we are adorned with rotting seaweed (paraphrase of Jonah’s prayer).

Richard Rohr gives some sage advice for the spiritual work to which we need to tend in liminal spaces:

1. We typically give answers too quickly, take away pain too easily, and too quickly stimulate and sooth ourselves. In terms of soul work, we dare not get rid of pain before we have learned what it has to teach us.

2. Jonah (and Jesus) shows us the mysterious pattern of transformation through death and rising. We must go inside the belly of the whale for a while. Then and only then will we be spit upon a shore and understand our call.

3. We must learn to stay with the pain of life, without answers, without conclusions, and some days without meaning. When we avoid darkness, we avoid tension, spiritual creativity, and finally transformation. In essence, we avoid God, who works in the darkness—where we are not in control! Maybe that is the secret: relinquishing control.

4. Simone Weil said, “It is grace that forms the void inside of us and it is grace alone that can fill the void.”

5. Everything belongs and everything can be received. We don’t have to deny, dismiss, defy, or ignore. What is, is okay. What is, is the great teacher.

I would not wish a lengthy, painful, liminal experience upon anyone. But, I have always desired to grow in love, to be transformed by love, and to be propelled by love. This motivates me to pause, to listen, and to learn all I can in this liminal, transitional experience of my life.

Shalom

©realfredherron, 2022