Let me picture the scene for you.
Recently at Stanstead airport I was waiting for a plane, something lots of us have done. I could smell wafts of pasties loaded full of cheese and ham being consumed, litres of coffee and coke, full fat being chugged. To my right-hand side I could see a group of people on their third pint and finishing off with a cheeky glass of prosecco. All normal stuff.
To get to this place I walked through the brightest tunnel of lights ever, illuminating seemingly endless shelves of perfumes and make up with fellas frantically spraying themselves with 8 to 10 shots of the latest must have scent.
Ok, so all of this is normal, but here’s the deal, it was 6am and I realised I was in ‘that place’. An in-between world where time and normal life seems to be in transition. Like stepping into an old wardrobe that was about to release me into a dream world. I was in between two moments. To explain this let me impress you with my extensive vocabulary, I learnt a posh word for this recently, to be honest I heard it in conversation and had to Google it.
The word is: Liminal.
A liminal space, as far as I can understand is that moment where, for example, as you walk through the threshold of a door, you are neither in the room you once where or in the room you are heading for, you are in a liminal space. Basically you are in the middle.
Now, I don’t want this to be fatalistic, (look at me, another big word) where I talk about how we are just passing through life on earth and we are not yet at our final location, and in some way present the current moment as irrelevant. That’s not what I want to do.
What I do want to do is perhaps take us to that incredible moment instead in Dead Poet’s Society, you know the one! ‘Carpe Diem boys, seize the day!’
Here’s the deal, a liminal space invites you to make a choice, keep going forward and into the places and moments you need to or go backwards and retreat. There is no place for a man in the door way of liminality, indecision and hesitation. Go through or go back.
In my life I have realised that we get a load of these liminal moments, decisions and choices. Should I say sorry or not, should I buy that or not, should I marry or not, should I trust her or not…the list goes on.
As I sat there at the airport I realised that I was not in a liminal space with how I thought about Jesus.
I had heard all about him, read about him in the bible and gathered the intel needed to get me to that door threshold. He was an incredible teacher, wise man and the most compassionate, loving person humanity has ever seen. At the threshold I was faced with some more information, the bible says that Jesus is God’s son, and Jesus lived a perfect life, died a criminals brutal death and rose again to life after 3 days. The bible tells me that Jesus accomplished that to make a way for me, a sinful fella to be forgiven, have a relationship with God now and when I die, to share eternity with him.
OK, now I am well and truly on that door threshold. That is a lot of information to take in, should I turn back from the threshold? It’s ultimately my choice and there is no one pushing me through. So I stepped through.
I don’t have all my answers, far from it. I have discovered that following Jesus has cost me everything, but I know now that this was the best decision of my life. I couldn’t stay at the threshold, the in-between place, I had to make a choice. And so do you.
Image Credit: Kiwihug
