In music, we can often find themes that tend to transcend time. From Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Landslide’ (‘Well, I’ve been afraid of changing…’) to John Mayer’s ‘Waiting on the world to change’ to Harry Styles’s ‘As it was’, we can resonate with that feeling of standing in the middle of a life transition – when something old has ended, but something new has not fully arrived. Sometimes we didn’t choose the change, but time and life happens whether we provoke it, respond to it or have to wait for it.
There is a word for that experience of being in-between seasons – liminality. It is the space of transition where an old identity, certainty or season has ended but the new one has not fully arrived. We experience liminality in moments like grief, or when the need for career change becomes evident, the nine months of pregnancy, children are growing up, teenagers who are not yet adults, moving house, relationship changes, the journey of illness, uncertainty or even simply realising we are no longer the person we once were.
In theology, liminal spaces are often where transformation occurs. The Bible repeatedly tells stories of people in transition – wilderness journeys, exile, migration, waiting, threshold moments – and suggests that these uncertain spaces can also become places of encounter, growth and grace.
These times of liminality can be challenging, yet it is where character gains muscle and values shine. We often speak about our values of Care, Respect and Growth – and perhaps these values matter most when life feels uncertain.
In seasons of transition, Care reminds us that people rarely move through change untouched. Behind confident appearances, many carry grief, anxiety, loneliness or questions about what comes next. Care invites us to walk alongside one another with gentleness rather than judgement.
Respect asks us to honour the complexity of each person’s journey. Not everyone moves through change at the same pace. Some embrace it; others mourn what has been lost. Respect creates space for different stories, struggles and ways of becoming.
And perhaps the most important to notice in ourselves is Growth. We must remind ourselves that transformation is rarely immediate. Growth often happens slowly, quietly and invisibly – in the waiting, the uncertainty and the in-between spaces we would often rather rush through.
Our culture tends to celebrate destinations: achievement, arrival, certainty, success. But liminal spaces suggest that there can also be value in the journey itself. Sometimes we become most deeply human not after the transition, but within it.
There is a story in the Bible referred to as the Road to Emmaus. Two disciples of Jesus were walking back to Emmaus from Jerusalem, after Jesus’s death. They are between despair and hope, between what they thought their future would be and what it had unexpectedly become. Understanding comes gradually, through conversation, companionship and finally around a table in the sharing of a meal. The ordinary experiences of life. Reflection and insight brings wisdom and growth. ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road…?’ (Luke 24:32) It is a beautiful story of liminality and knowing in their hearts that the journey was essential to growth.
Rebecca Loveday
Junior School Chaplain
