When I was first introduced to the idea of a liminal experience it was in the reading of a book by Richard Rohr. Admittedly, I had to look the word up in the dictionary, but truth be told, I do that a lot anyway.
The word liminal means a threshold and liminal experience means an experience that takes you to that threshold.
Having a liminal experience is to find your breaking point.
As of recently, my personal encounter with this would be doing the Ironman (an iron distance triathlon) in 2013. Between working full-time, traveling, having three kids, adopting our fourth child – a baby boy – and my wife working full time, it was a little bit crazy and at times pushed me and my family to the threshold. Said another way: we felt like we were going to fall apart at the seams; we found our breaking point.
In some church circles you hear the term “break through” a lot. More often than not, I think the cultural definition of this is: a deeper or higher level of personal relationship with God. It’s a longing to have God break through your circumstances and make changes. He is completely capable of this and the pursuit of this is worthy, for sure.
Because words set things in motion and have premium value in God’s economy, it’s important that when we are using the term “break through” we are grounded in the biblical prophetic tradition and in way of Jesus. Our definition and understanding often shape our expression, so “remembering” – getting back to the basics – is a vital component to discipleship and orthodoxy.
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