Between the Almost and the Not Yet

Ask any kid on a car journey about liminal space, and they will stare at you blankly.  But they all know the experience of liminality.  And so do you.  We find ourselves in liminal spaces all the time. How do I know?  Ever asked or answered this question on a road trip? “Are we there yet?” If you have answered with the words, “almost” or “not yet”, you understand the concept of  a liminal space. They are those transitional spaces in our lives that come between the Almost and the Not Yet.  They are transitory spaces.  Places where you cross one threshold but you are not quite to where you are going. 

In a house, we would call them entryways or hallways.  A place, not to stay, but to get from one place to another.  Get trapped in an entryway by someone blocking your entrance and someone behind you wanting to get in and you experience one of life’s teaching moments.  There is nothing quite so awkward as being stuck in a liminal space. An elevator would be another great example of that.  It is used to get from one floor to another, and that is extremely helpful,  but to get stuck in one can suddenly become frightening. Even hanging out in a stairwell of building leaves us feeling out of sorts.  Use it the way it was designed, and it is useful.  Stay there too long and it begins to feel a bit creepy.

In our world today, we find ourselves at that awkward place of liminality.  We are not yet through the pandemic, but almost.  We can see light at the end of the tunnel, and we certainly aren't where we were a year ago, but we aren’t yet back to normal.  That teen with a learner’s permit? Liminal state.  That pursuit of a degree?  Liminal stage of life.  They are phases to pass through but not to stay.  To be in a liminal state means that we are in transition,  moving to another stage, another place or another level. We have left one place and stage, but we have yet to arrive at our new place or stage.  And liminal phases almost always leave us feeling unsettled, unfinished or unresolved. There is something about leaving that liminal place and crossing into a more permanent or resting place that gives us the resolution we crave.

Moving from the kitchen down the hallway to the bedroom gives our purpose fulfillment.  We find sustenance in the kitchen and rest in the bedroom, but the hallway is not a place we typically hang out.  Its main purpose is to be the thoroughfare that gets us from one place to the other.  Necessary, to be sure, but not designed to be a destination.

Consider that one of the greatest liminal spaces for the Christian, that place between the Almost and the Not Yet, is simply called…mortal life.  Consider this: we know we have salvation in Christ as believers, because of what He did for us on the cross, and once we believe, we have left our old life behind,  but the fulfillment of that in its entirety is not yet.  And it won’t be until we cross the portals into heaven. This life, though it has many places of fulfillment and resting and enjoyments, albeit countered by pain, sorrow, loss and death, is really only a liminal space. 

From the womb to the tomb, this journey we are on is not a place we are to crave staying, any more than we would desire to always stand in the foyer or camp out in the hallway.  And even when we arrive at the tomb, it too, in reality, is only a liminal place.  We are, for lack of a better way to view it, stuck between the almost and the not yet.  In fact, according to scripture there are only two ultimate destinations-Heaven or Hell. And that isn’t so much a place as it is a Person. While I believe heaven and hell can be physical locations,  I believe they are more accurately descriptions of either being with Jesus or away from Him.

All through scripture, God continues to remind us that, though we were born here, this is only the hallway to heaven.  He seeks to help us understand that He intentioned more for us in the beginning, and though we blew that plan to pieces through our sin,  through Jesus, God desires to rescue us from our liminal spaces, both physical and mental, and deliver us to a place of true destiny; our ultimate destiny.   A place where we will finally discover in totality, who we really are, and how we can live into that for eternity. To know and be truly known…and totally belong.

That destiny can start here and now.  It is one of purpose and intentionality: to pursue the Creator God in personal relationship, to seek and discover how God has put us together and to utilize those gifts to help others see the futility in seeking anything on this earth as a final destination.  Wealth?  Fleeting.  Power? Fickle and damaging.  Fame? Here today, forgotten tomorrow.  All liminal spaces.  None of them are permanent destinations.  Those who pursue them find, after attaining a certain amount of any or all,  that there is still more of each to seek after.  And even if you could attain all of the money that exists in the world, all of the power that is available and all the fame you possibly could attain, the burning question would still be: Is this all there is?  Now what?

They are the same questions that all seek.  And the answers?  No.  This isn’t all there is.  You have an ultimate destiny and it is found in the person of Jesus Christ. Now what?  Perhaps Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived, can answer what we are to be doing until our ultimate Destiny-Jesus, comes to take us to our ultimate home-heaven, as we wait between the Almost and the Not Yet.

Eccl. 12:13    That’s the whole story. Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty.

Heb. 12:1    Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. ² We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.

Hold on my friends…until the FINALLY HERE arrives.

Don't Forget Compassion!

Have you noticed that the worst part of this coronavirus thing is the mental game. That's where the most agony lies, because let’s be honest…aside from not being able to find toilet paper on the shelves, for most of us, technically our lives haven’t actually been changed a whole lot.  Sure, our routines are changing daily from what we would “normally” do.  Normally, we wouldn’t be glued to a 24-hour news cycle while wringing our hands in anxious dread and hoping and praying that we don’t get the Covid-19 virus.

Normally, we don’t give a second thought to jumping in the car and heading to a place where hundreds or even thousands of people are gathered; a movie theater, a ball game, or the mall.  Now we have fewer options to choose from, amid the growing cry of social distancing.  And the more isolated we become, the more we are glued to our devices for news and more news—all bad—as we simply “wait it out.”

But in reality…most of us are still healthy.  Still have homes.  Still have family that love us.  Still have jobs.  That hasn’t changed for most of us…yet we are already living as if it had.  We are already acting like animals with a survival of the fittest mentality, making sure that we are the ones with the most stock-piled to last the longest.

Am I saying that we should act as if everything is fine?  No.  We should be cautious and do our due diligence.  But we have to guard the very epicenter of our souls if we are to come through this thing with our humanity intact, as well as our own mental health.

The wisest man who ever lived said this back in the day.  

NIV Prov. 4:23 Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. 

The New Living Translation even says it better.

Prov. 4:23    Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

Great, Pastor Don…so what exactly does that mean?  It means that, as a human being, your life and actions will always be determined by what you harbor in your heart.

If you allow your heart to grow fearful, and you harbor anxiety and worry as a full-time companion, your ability to be totally human will begin to diminish, and acting towards others with graciousness and love will become extremely difficult.  

In fact, if you allow fear to dwell, you will succumb to a survival of the fittest mentality and you will do things that you currently despise in others.  When selfishness rules the day,  the heart shrivels to a hard callous, as the lives of others grow cheaper in comparison to the big “I”.  Without saying it, our lives broadcast the message, “You are not nearly so important as I, and I will do everything I can to make sure that I survive, even if you don’t!”

If you are a Christian, then recognize that this is the very mindset that Christ calls you away from…not just when times are easy and because you have compassion to spare, but precisely when times get difficult and the rest of the world has swept the shelves bare of everything to give them the best chance of survival.  Recognize that Christ is calling you to demonstrate the difference, not because it’s easy, but because it is hard and in fact, is counter-intuitive to what the world is doing. I believe it was for times like the ones we find ourselves living in that he said, in John 13:35 “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are My disciples.”

There are some who would call that insane.  There are others who will sit up and take notice of the difference.  Christians through the ages have always waded into the mire to be difference makers.  To rescue others.  To lift up the discouraged.  To be the hands and feet of Jesus to a world that is dying without Him.  Not because it was easy, but because it was a hard thing, yet the right thing, to do.  It is the hard thing…but it is always the thing that makes us more human, more in the image of the God we claimed to be created by.

Again, I’m not saying be stupid. Be cautious, take precautions…but don’t lose your compassion.  Don’t allow fear to shrivel your heart.  Instead recognize that we can live this way because we have a different focus.  A different perspective.  We understand that this world is not all there is.  We know that we are just traveling through and that one day, sooner or later, we will all die here.  It all ends the same here, no matter the cause.  We die.  Car accidents, plane crashes, homicide, suicide, war casualty, heart attack, stroke, cancer or corona virus.  We can’t outrun death forever.  But even as we face death, we recognize that death simply doesn’t have the final word.  It’s only a temporary stop on the way to eternity.  

Our hope is not in this world and in the mess we have here.  Our hope is in a person, Jesus, and He is of another world and because of this fact, we recognize that it is far more important to be eternally safe than it is to be physically safe here.  So instead, we set our sights on a better world.  A better kingdom free of the junk we deal with down here.  

The book of Revelation describes it for us: Rev. 21:1   Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. ² And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

Rev. 21:3   I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.^a 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”

Rev. 21:5   And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.”

That’s what makes a difference in how I can live through the uncertainty of the next few weeks.  I’m not looking to just survive…but to thrive…for eternity.  I write this, not as a young, healthy, not-much-to-worry-about-from-this-virus person, but as one who has been identified as a high-risk, potential casualty should I contract it.  And yes, I’m taking the prescribed precautions, but I will not let a virus rob me of my humanity.  I will seek to reach out, even if it is from my keyboard to your screen.  I will seek to encourage you.  I will continue to pray for you. And I will seek to remind you that this world is not our home.  And I hope you do the same for me.

Heb. 12:1,2    Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. ² We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.^a Because of the joy^b awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.

Of Rulebooks and Roadmaps

I went to college in the late 70’s at what was then known as Southern Missionary College, in Tennessee. There’s nothing unusual about that. My parents lived in Arizona. Here’s where the problem lay. If you know anything about United States geography, you know that there was no quick route home. As a matter of fact, during the days of the 55 mph speed limit, it took about 36 hours by car to go between the two. That’s a long way to drive by oneself. So I didn’t.

My cousin, Paul, who also attended Southern, but lived six hours further away, in Southern California, purchased the coolest truck from the California Highway Department roads crew. It was a 1972 Dodge step-side pickup. Oh, it didn’t look like much when he bought it. Road-crew yellow. Plain. Ugly. Not the sort of vehicle college guys try attracting women with. The only ones that would have been attracted to it would be ones that naturally wear safety vests around the house—which weren’t exactly the types that we were interested in. We at least wanted ones with a full set of teeth.

Anyway, back to the truck. After he and his dad did a makeover, this thing was one cool ride! Metallic-blue paint job. Mag Wheels. A topper on the back with a full carpeted deck to stretch out a sleeping bag or two and plenty of room underneath to pack all of our luggage. Along with all of that, in keeping with the rage of the late 70’s, it had a nice Cobra CB Radio to communicate with all the truckers across country. And for internal communication, there were windows in between the cab and the back for shouting through or even crawling between when we were tired of one or the other.

Once my cousin had completed the makeover, and knowing that my ’69 Ambassador Rambler was on it’s last leg, he called to offer to share the truck with me at college if I would help him drive it across each time. I was game. Three days later he pulled into my driveway driving what he had now dubbed “The Blue Burrito”, ready to head east. What a setup! One could stretch out in the back and one could drive. We could drive it straight through and feel good when we got there. It turned out to be a great way to go.

By Christmas, there were many more “westerners” wanting to ride with us back across. We quickly calculated that with 6 of us in the truck at 14 miles per gallon, if we split the gas cost among everyone, we could get by on about $20 each cross-country. (This is back when gas was at an unbelievable high of $.88 per gallon. Hard to fathom, I know. We were outraged.)

We crammed four in the back in sleeping bags and put two in the cab. Since there was no heat in the back, we figured that four across would add the extra warmth, with the warmest sleeping bags on the outsides. In the cab, one would, of course, be the driver, while the other rode “shotgun”. The person riding “shotgun” would be responsible for navigating through the cities to make sure we stayed on Interstate 40 and didn’t end up heading north or south. We would rotate teams every two hours for safety and to let someone in the back sit up for a while as well as warm up, and let the driver and navigator lay down in the back for some shut-eye. In this manner, we figured that we would always have an alert driver and navigator. Besides, after four hours in the back you were ready to get out and do anything but lay down.

We divided into three teams of two. Since each person would only drive every other time their team came around, we figured that each person would only have to drive 9 of the 36 hours to Phoenix. Paul would have to drive the additional 6 hours to Southern California himself.

It was 4 a.m. The back of the topper door was abruptly jerked open and cold air blasted in to awaken us. “Keele, Jansen—your turn to drive.” Paul was already scrambling for his shoes, knowing that he was the next driver, and as such, he had to pump the gas so that he would be fully awake to drive. I slid out of the back and just slipped my feet far enough into my shoes to allow me to step on the heels and tiptoe around to the cab. I was seat-belted into the “shot-gun” position in the warm cab in no time, and with my head on a pillow against the door, was quickly back in dream land.

Abruptly Paul jerked open the driver's door, slid in behind the wheel, and slammed the door shut. I sat up, eyes half-open. “Well, navigator,” Paul said, “Which way?”

“Wha?” I half-responded.

“Which way?”

“West, you dufus!” I leaned my head back against the door and started back to slumber city.

“Yeah, that’s what I mean? Where’s the freeway, and which way is west?”

I sat up and looked around. The station that the last team had selected was out in the middle of nowhere. Looking all around us, I couldn’t see the freeway either north or south of us.

“So do we go left or right?” Paul asked.

“Go left…no right…no—hold on.” I opened the little window from the cab to the back, but they had the topper window shut tight against the cold. I banged. No one moved.

I got out and walked around and jerked open the back window. “Hey, which way is the freeway?” I shouted. One guy looked up and said, “It’s down there,” and pointed toward the roof of the topper. He abruptly broke into a snore and I was sure there would be no more helpful information coming from his direction. The other three never moved.

I closed the topper door and walked back around to the cab.

“Do you think we should ask for directions back in the station?” Paul queried.

“What, and break the man-code?” I gave him a shocked look. “No—we’ll find it! Besides, I got a small clue from the dead-heads in the back. They said, it was ‘down there’, so that means we need to turn South. So go left.” I was proud of my powers of deduction and Paul seemed to be satisfied.

He turned the “Blue Burrito” left and we headed out. After about three miles, he turned to me and asked, “Are you sure this is the right way.”

“Well, no, not exactly.”

“Why don’t you check the map?”

I flipped on the cigarette lighter, flexible-necked map light from K-Mart and opened the glove compartment and started fishing around.

“Will you look at this?” I exclaimed, drawing out a California Highway driver’s manual. I flipped it open and began to read.

“Seat belts are now required of all occupants traveling in a motor vehicle. You got your seat belt on?

“Yes, but are we going the right way?” Paul countered.

“If you’ve got your seatbelt on and I’ve got mine on—looks like we’re doing fine. Oh, look at this. It says you are not supposed to follow any emergency vehicle closer than 500 feet.” I scanned the dark horizon. “Look dude, I can’t even see any emergency vehicles, so we’re doing great!”

“Yeah,” Paul said weakly, “but are we going the right way?”

Point: The Bible is the Word of God—not a rulebook, but a roadmap.

Heb. 4:12 says For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

2Pet. 1:21 For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

The Bible isn’t there to just let you know all of the rules. God gave you the Bible to help you get where you need to go—heaven. Has it ever occurred to you that you could be doing everything right and still miss The Way?

NOTE: For those of you who remain curious. Yes, we did turn around and yes we found the freeway about 4 miles back.