Devotional Guide for the week of September 18th

1.      The Israelite’s journey across the Jordan River is a journey through “liminal space.” “Limen” is a Latin word that means “threshold,” so liminal space is a time when you have passed through one doorway, but have not yet entered through another. It is a “betwixt and between” space where something has ended but another thing hasn’t quite begun. Liminal space is not knowing the answer and not being able to fix, solve, or rescue something or someone. In your journal, describe a time when you were in liminal space. What did the space teach you?

 2.      It is said that liminal space is the place where transformation occurs because it takes the space of not knowing the answer for us to learn new things. Respond to this quote from Richard Rohr:

“Much of the work of the biblical God and human destiny itself is to get people into liminal space . . . we actually need to fail, fast, and deliberately falter to understand the other dimension of life. We need to fast instead of eating, maintain silence instead of talking, experience emptiness instead of fullness, anonymity instead of persona, pennilessness instead of plentifulness. What could break more assuredly our addiction to ourselves? (Adam’s Return 136-137)

 3.      Consider the work of the Holy Spirit is to bring us more deeply into the places where Christ is formed in us, and that means liminal space. Another quote from Rohr:

“In liminal space we choose the chaos of the unconscious over the control of explanations and answers. Thus the language of initiation is the language of darkness not light, desert not garden, silence not words. People have to be taught and guided in how to live in such an uneasy place. In many initiations that I studied, the boys were left to sit in meaningless silence for days—until they actually yearned for direction and guidance . . . .” (Adam’s Return 138)