Liminal

I learned a new word today.
lim·i·nal
1. relating to a transitional or initial stage of a process.
2. a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold.
This word is beautiful, both in sound and meaning. And utterly applicable to my current stage in life. It’s from the same root as lintel, a marking between rooms in a house, or between the inside and the outside. Liminality is standing with a foot on each side.
In anthropology (according to Wikipedia) it’s a stage in coming-of-age rituals where the rite has already started but is not yet complete. It’s too late to turn back but too early to see the end.
This where creation comes from, the tension is uncomfortable but tension is where art is made. Every project, every script or book, goes through this stage. That moment where it goes from brain to page, where the physical act of writing begins. That’s both a physical and creative threshold. Crossing it is both exhilarating and immensely difficult. Once you’re into it then it isn’t so bad but getting your entire mind and will over the line is a hurdle.
From that point of view the entire Christian life is liminal. The process of becoming what I will be has started, I’m in too deep to go back now. But I also can’t see the end. I know the goal but not how I, specifically, will get there. The entirety of my life will be lived out in this place of in-between.
I’m trying to hold onto that idea in my life. A tremendous amount of my life right now feels like it’s on this threshold. Teetering on the edge between two worlds. That the tension I feel right now, as uncomfortable as it is, and as much as I want to dump it and run, is the very thing I need to grow.
