Praise - Day 27
Praise God for His presence in the waiting.
As Easter is tomorrow - I can’t help but praise God for His presence in the waiting.
A couple years ago a colleague spoke in church about being in liminal space. That time between what was and what is to come. Do you know how a trapeze artist moves from that space of being let go to being grasped again? Perfect precision in that moment. The liminal space - is that weightlessness in between. The courage to let go with the belief and trust that you will be caught again.
Liminal space. Without it you’d never do anything- or go anywhere - you’d just swing back and forth.
I think Easter Saturday is a great example of liminal space. The time between His death and His resurrection. The time between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. I have often struggled with the Saturday between. Good Friday (while sobering) gives me something to grieve and reflect upon. And on Sunday I rejoice in His victory over death, and His resurrection.
But Saturday... it’s the day you try to manage through as quickly as possible as you eagerly wait for Sunday.
I struggle sometimes in the waiting.
I want to be on to the next thing.
I don’t like the tediousness of passing the time....
Over the past three years I have lived in a variety of seasons of waiting. It’s stretching and painful, and frustrating. I want to be thinking about what is coming next not sitting in the pain of now.
But in it- I am learning. And I am learning more and more about the importance of that liminal space in between- without which we’d never let go and never move on.
First- waiting isn’t meant to be about just letting time tick by. I’ve learned I can actively wait or apathetically wait. Actively waiting for me involves two things. One- I’m reminiscing about what I’ve learned from the previous season and two- I’m looking at how I can prepare myself the best way I can for the coming season. Actively waiting doesn’t mean I need to try to force the next thing to happen- but instead trust that precision and timing are perfect to be caught into the next season.
Growth happens in this space. If I just kept running from one thing to the next I have no chance to learn from my mistakes and to develop better for whatever’s next.
I also believe that I have felt God more closely in these growth times than ever before. It’s probably because I call out to Him more loudly and more consistently. “Oh God where are you?” It’s in these times of wanting that I feel Him closest.
Today let’s praise God that He’s in the waiting as we look forward to the next season! After all, we can trust that His timing is always perfect. He is the way maker. Even if we don’t see it, or feel it, He’s working out His plan for good.
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