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In the Liminal Space: Embracing Uncertainty · Infinitely Precious

• 0:00
  Intro: Welcome to the infinitely precious podcast produced by infinitely precious LLC. Your host is James Henry. Remember, you are infinitely precious and unconditionally loved for the gift you already are.
• 0:12
  James: Beloved, one of the challenges that we all face is when we're going through periods of transition. The challenge in the midst of that is you're not yet where you anticipate being and you're no longer where you were. And let me just say a little bit about that. You realize in the middle of that space when you're in a transitional space that the time at what you're doing is limited and the not yet hasn't come. If we're really honest, this is the way every moment is.
• 0:54
  Every moment is a moment of transition. We are in this moment right now not knowing what the next moment holds and unable to change anything about the moment that came before. So this is just a macrocosm perhaps. It's, you know, in the universal sense maybe not a macrocosm but in our lives a macrocosm when we're talking about transitions moving from one job to another, one house to another, from having someone in our life to no longer having that person in our life, from not having someone in our life to having someone in our lives. Those periods of transitions, those moments in between are the moments that when we find ourselves there we're not sure what to do.
• 1:42
  There's a part of us that out of fear wants to rush back into what was before because that was a space we knew, that we understood, that we that we felt good about being a part of, at least most likely. I certainly did. And so I find myself here in this space where I'm packing boxes, you can see them blurrily in the back behind me, there are lots of boxes around, lots of things I've gotten rid of, letting go of things in my life, sorting through my closet, discovering things I will never wear, haven't worn in years, didn't even know were there, boxes that I find in the basement of books that have been in the basement of this house for the thirty three years since I came. And looking at them all clearly, I didn't need them thirty three years. I think there was one or two I kept because of sentimental value.
• 2:44
  They were books that had been given me by people who are no longer with us. So transitions are those uncertain times when we can only be in the moment. We can only sort through. We can only be where we are. Despite our desire to rush back into what we know or to look to the future and try to live into that future, plan for every possible contingency of what may yet come when we don't know, we don't really know.
• 3:18
  I think that laying the groundwork for the future is important during transitions and laying that groundwork is learning to be present in the uncertainty, in the in between time in what some might call the liminal space, the transitional space. What was isn't any longer, what will be is not yet known. So, we are in the middle hanging on kind of trying to figure out what do we do in the midst of this? And what I want to encourage you to do during a transition is to show up right where you are. When you start to feel the fear, the uncertainty of the future tug at you, the desire for what you may think of as certainty in the past starts to tug at you to catch yourself.
• 4:11
  This is a time to be aware of what's driving you, of what's coming up for you right now and then to practice something that's very important, letting go. It's hard to do that particularly if you've come to know a way of life and it's really become embedded. If you've come to appreciate the rhythms that have come with life. I have. Thirty three years in the same place, the rhythms have changed over time.
• 4:42
  But oftentimes I had a hand in changing those rhythms and I found that those rhythms were good for me. It was a good place to be and now I don't know what the rhythms will look like. Does it cause me trepidation? Sure. Are there moments when I feel anxiety about the uncertainty rising in me?
• 5:09
  Absolutely. Am I excited about new challenges? Sure, I really am. Am I sad about the things that will no longer be? Yes.
• 5:22
  Yes, I am. And all of those are part of the package of transitions. Letting go is an important thing. What's most interesting, as I've been doing a little bit of study in the Aramaic, the original language of Jesus, and I was looking at the Lord's Prayer in particular, did a sermon series at St. James about it.
• 5:45
  When we get to the for the forgiveness phrase, forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us, that forgiveness word, Shabokan, is a release. The word itself in its roots is you know, release. It's really we can translate it as forgive. That's certainly a meaning behind it but another meaning is release. Let go.
• 6:18
  Let go of the debts of the brokenness in our lives. Let go. Let go. Release. That sense of releasing is part of our lives.
• 6:35
  Every moment goes by and as much as we may want to grab onto the best moments, they go too. The best we can do is be in every moment so when the best moments come, maybe every moment could be a best moment, I don't know, but when the best moments come, we're really there to really be immersed in the moment that's come to us. It is hard. It's challenging in times of transition and change. The unknown future, the longed for golden age of the past as if and in most cases golden ages never existed except in our memories.
• 7:20
  We want to hold on. We yearn for the new and yet we're fearful of the new. And so we're kind of caught in the uncertainty. What I'm saying to you is recognize where you are, claim where you are. If you're in the midst of those transitions, let them rise.
• 7:46
  Feel them. Admit them. Own them. Write about them. Talk to someone you know and care about about them.
• 7:54
  Take a break to really check-in with yourself. As things change in your life, it's helpful to know what you're bringing to this moment and what you want to be intent on keeping. I have some intentions, I'd like to keep these moments, they won't appear on the St. James page, they'll certainly appear on my personal, my personal YouTube channel, Infinitely Precious LLC, on YouTube and probably in my timeline, my personal timeline on Facebook. I'm not sure, my intention is to continue these kinds of moments.
• 8:35
  I don't know what my, what the future holds. So what shape they'll take and how I'll do them, that part's still unknown too. So we'll just have to see. We'll just have to see. Setting an intention is not a bad thing, but judging yourself because you didn't quite live into the intention and spending time beating yourself up is not a good thing.
• 8:59
  I want to say it has been a deep joy to do what I do, to be a part of your lives, the ones of you that join me in these moments. It's been a real joy to be a part of it. I'm wishing you all the very best and if you listen to these words and they're a part of my Infinitely Precious podcast, then know that they will return, that they will be there and that the Infinitely Precious Podcast is something I do personally. It is separate from the work that I do as a pastor most of the time. And so I encourage you to continue to perhaps listen in that way.
• 9:52
  No matter what though, I wish you all the very best. Please remember if you remember nothing else that you truly are infinitely precious, unconditionally loved for the gift you already are. What a joy it is to be a part of this world in which we live, changes and all. All the best to you my friends.