Thin Spaces
Curating the Liminal in a Spirit-led Life
The following is from a message I taught at a Sunday night gathering of young adults at our church on May 25th, 2025. I’ve re-recorded the audio for clarity and optimized some wording. However, the vast majority of content and the spirit of the message is the same. Hope you’re encouraged.
The USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor hovers over the ship where 1,177 sailors and Marines were killed in the brutal attack on Dec. 7, 1941. I’ve been to it and I can tell you something feels different there; you can sense in your spirit the fleeting nature of the thin veneer gliding between this world and the other side.
The space is thin.
A particularly potent moment in the story of Jesus comes in Matthew’s Gospel.
Six days later Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves. 2 And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light.
— Matthew 17:1-2
Hot on the heels of the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus and the boys go on a road trip up to Caesarea Philippi (a creepy, dark region on which I’ve written about before). Not an idyllic scene for a would-be Savior. Nevertheless, Peter’s famous confession of Jesus as the Messiah proved a strategic move on God’s part. The fisherman received a divine revelation, one that makes Jesus celebrate as a miraculous intervention in the natural order. Mere days later, they go to a high mountain.1
The four of them hike to the top and Christ, Yahweh wrapped in flesh, reveals His divine glory. Umm, wow. Are you kidding me?
All of a sudden Moses shows up, and then Elijah shows up, talking with Jesus while Peter, James and John get a fleeting taste of the heavenspace on the mountaintop. It’s an unbelievable, transcendent moment. And then the Father speaks:
5 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!” 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground and were terrified. 7 And Jesus came to them and touched them and said, “Get up, and do not be afraid.” 8 And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus Himself alone.
9 As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, “Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man has risen from the dead.”
— Matthew 17:5-9
The three disciples see what few have ever seen – the glory of Almighty God with their own eyes – and then everything’s back to normal. They found themselves at a point where Heaven and Earth were so close they were overlapping, integrated. It was a taste of Paradise, on the cusp of glory in the in-between.
It was a thin space.
The fact is our reality is one of two worlds: the spiritual and the physical (Genesis 1). These weren’t created to be apart: in the Beginning, they melded together in the Garden, like pb&j.
When Mankind ran wild and free through the orchards of glory with God Himself, breathing the atmosphere of Heaven with their innocent feet planted on earth.
God’s nearness was everything: His Presence.
Many of you have felt His Presence. Maybe where you discovered a glint of greatness in you, or if you were in the room when a baby was brought into the world, or in a moment of awe and worship, or when God did a miracle for your family. There is nothing like His Presence, His closeness. C.S. Lewis once chimed in:
“We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade the presence of God. The world is crowded with Him.”2
Even the spiritual world in general is so much bigger and more real than we could imagine. Scripture shows us we are in an active, cosmic struggle, and it’s closer to us than we think. We experience that in the thin spaces. Some scholars call it liminal space; it means to be on the threshold of something transcendent or unfamiliar. Every time we worship God, the Uncreated Holy One Who is unlike anything else, whether we feel it or not, we straddle that line on this side of eternity. We’re in the thin space.
It’s the idea that God is imminent — He’s close.
Have you experienced His closeness?
As wonderful as it is in the beautiful and joy-filled hours, the seasons of struggle operate in the same way. Ancient Israel went through it as God was a pillar of cloud and of fire along their journey – He was close in the season of struggle. The recently passed Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann offered this idea on God’s nearness in the wilderness:
“Wilderness experience is the place of spiritual formation and testing, a place set apart where God speaks in freedom.”3
You know what’s interesting?
This is where God usually meets us. This is where the space is thin. The wilderness.
“Biblical liminal spaces like the wilderness, the pit, and exile are formative environments in which the identity and faith of God’s people are shaped and reshaped.”4
— Thomas J. Rundel
See, for us it’s easy to see Jesus’ glory revealed in our victories, but it’s hard to see Him when the darkness closes in. The wilderness and the struggle and the testing is where the space gets thin; are we looking?
Jesus models this in His Passion and suffering for us. One writer calls the Passion “the events at the center of the universe, the stories to which all reality points”, and I don’t know if any pen has graced a better description. It evokes the dire moments when the glorious Son, Who showed Himself in power on the mountain, was beaten and despised and at His lowest.
37 And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed His last. 38 And the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. 39 When the centurion, who was standing right in front of Him, saw the way He breathed His last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”
— Mark 15:37-39
Peter, James and John saw His glory on the mountain, where the space was thin. But the centurion saw it, too — on the hill of suffering. The space of sin had made coming close to God’s glory impossible for humanity, but now, in the thin spaces of Christ’s last labored breaths, the barrier was eliminated.
“IT… IS… FINISHED.”
Head dropped — the pneuma vacated His weakened flesh. Thunder cracked.
A tremor shook the ground outside the city. Within, on the Temple Mount, a ripping of fabric could be heard. The curtain veil was torn from top to bottom, giving access to the Holy of Holies. This is why the Apostle Paul was able to write:
But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
— Ephesians 2:13
Jesus’ work on the cross is at the center of everything. It’s the magnetic force pulling us into the thin spaces of God’s Presence. That’s why the Early Church kept the cross at the center of worship at the Lord’s Table. To keep the spaces thin, to feel the breath of God in every gathering of hagioi, the redeemed holy ones, the saints throughout the earth.
Because here’s the truth:
The thin spaces aren’t found, they’re forged.
They’re forged in the monotonous, the mundane, the boring spiritual disciplines. In the struggle and the pain and the impossible situations. In the courtroom battles and ominous stacks of medical bills. That’s where we have the opportunity to make ourselves aware of God’s Presence… or not.
“Think often on God, by day, by night, in your business and even in your diversions. He is always near you and with you; leave him not alone.”5
― Brother Lawrence
As Christ-followers — people of the Spirit — we are curators of thin spaces. Spaces that reveal the beauty and nearness of God. John, who beheld Jesus’ glory on the mountain and suffering on the hill, was passionate about this:
What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life— 2 and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us— 3 what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.
— 1 John 1:1-3
That should be true of us: telling the story of what we’ve seen. We’re people that have become at home with God’s proximity because we remember that He was the One Who was there.
He was there when the devil tried to kill me as a baby.
He was there when I was baptized in a church where people loved me.
He was there when I struggled with deep loneliness and depression.
He was there when I felt the power of heaven through the strings of a guitar for the first time.
He was there when I was an academic failure.
He was there when my friends abandoned me.
He was there when I made sacred vows to my wife on this stage.
He was there when I had no sense of direction and felt like a failure.
He was there in my greatest wins and moments of victory.
He was there in the dark hours of frustration and languish.
He was there in times of breakthrough.
And He was there on the worst day of my life, when we lost our son who was growing in Sarah’s womb: in the bathroom of the yellow house on El Tejon Avenue, and I felt my soul being smashed by the weight of grief.
He was so very close.
18 The Lord is near to the brokenhearted
And saves those who are crushed in spirit.— Psalm 34:18
Have you realized how near He is to you?
Have you leaned into the thin spaces? Word of caution: the enemy is in those places too. If you’re not careful, he’ll lure you into trying to experience nirvana or pleasure or value or glory apart from God, expanding the space between you and keeping you from the life that is in Christ. Sadly, many “Christians” adopt practices that pull them away from the liminal space of intimacy with God. Maybe you’ve done so. Maybe you’re doing it now, with things like:
— Sleeping with your girl you’re not married to.
— Abusing substances to get a transcendent high.
— Counting down the moments where no one’s looking and you can get away with sin.
— Taking advantage of others and using deception to get ahead of the pack.
— Cultivating a bramblebush of bitterness and hatred for people instead of a garden of fruit grown by the Spirit.
Let me just say: Jesus didn’t die for that nonsense.
He didn’t suffer and rise again and do the impossible so you could phone it in when you owe Him your entire life.
“Oh, that’s holiness doctrine—”
Umm, the Bible is “holiness doctrine,” bro. Quit saying things like that just because you’re insecure about what you’ve got hiding under the floorboards of your life. The Word says to “be holy as your Father in heaven is holy.”
“I can wear what I want and post what I want—”
Have you considered what Jesus wants is a pure bride, one without spot or blemish who hasn’t succumbed to the sensuality and perversion of a hyper-sexualized and intimacy-starved world?
“Be holy as your Father in heaven is holy.”
Is there forgiveness? YES! What I’m saying is that Jesus’ sacrifice in laying His life down for us due to humanity’s sin is an invitation for us to, likewise, lay our lives down. So do it. Lay down whatever it takes to walk in the thin spaces, to behold His glory, because the enemy will try to hold you back. The demonic realm is busy and they’re watching you. It will always be worth it to lay stuff down and enter into deeper waters with the Holy Spirit. You will LOVE following Jesus. Really.
It reminds me of the old spiritual that rings “You can have all this world, but give me Jesus.”
I would add: all this world needs for you to give them Jesus.
Stop sleepwalking through sin. Stop letting the ways of the world pull you away from His Presence. Stop inviting the darkness to have its way: cut it off.
Each of us is destined to undergo a similar metamorphosis, a transfiguration typified by Christ’s own glorious unveiling. Our fragile human bodies will experience a heavenly change, one that takes us from weak and temporal to powerful and everlasting (1 Corinthians 15:35-57). With this future glorification in mind, we should desire to grow closer to God through the indwelling Holy Spirit, Who God gave us as a deposit of the New Creation. Even now He is stirring within you, hovering over you with peace as He hovered over the waters of Creation (Genesis 1:2). He is changing us, little by little every day, as we seek His communion in the thin spaces of spiritual life.
Changing us into what? The image of the Lord.
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
— 2 Corinthians 3:17-18
I’d like to suggest a few ways you can embrace and lean into this process of unveiling in your wilderness journey.
1. Stop yourself.
Find ways to slow down to engage in sacred union with God. Life moves fast when you’re out of control. Let the Holy Spirit meet you at set times of quiet without distraction. Be still for a while (Psalm 46:10).
2. Follow Jesus’ model of prayer.
The Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) is a structure, a model for engaging God — on His terms. Surrender your will, attention, your constant striving and your pride to the King. Glorify Him. Pray for others. Wait. Listen for His whisper. Intercession finds its form in the liminal space.
3. Be awake.
Spiritually speaking. Instead of drudging through life with your eyes down, make sure your spirit is aware and alert. What is God doing this week? How can you recognize Him working in your day-to-day, the conversation with a co-worker, or when you get bad news? Are you watching for the enemy’s tactics in the middle of an argument at home, or when you are hit with a random thought? Be sober and keep your spiritual eyes and ears up (1 Thessalonians 5:6-8; 1 Peter 5:8).
4. Serve someone.
Jesus came to lay down His life in sacrifice for others (Matthew 20:28). That’s the blueprint for how we are to live in the world; we will be known by our fruit and our love for others. When you serve other people, you are in the thin space; that’s where the heart of God rests, in the sweat and discomfort and brokenness of vulnerable humanity. If you’re looking for God, I’d start at your local rescue mission or church outreach opportunity. You’ll find Him.
The world urgently needs people who know Jesus. Who’ve seen His glory. Who remember His suffering and walk in the liminal. Who give everything to live in the thin spaces.
Longstanding tradition has held this to be Mount Tabor, while other scholars have followed the stream of thought that it was actually Mount Hermon, along the modern-day Syrian-Lebanese border. For geographical, narrative and theological reasons, I’ve become convinced that the latter makes more sense.
C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.75, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Brueggemann, Walter. The Message of the Psalms: A Theological Commentary. Augsburg Fortress, 1984, p. 91.
Rundel, Thomas J. Liminal Spaces: A Narrative Spirituality of the Bible. Doctor of Ministry Dissertation, George Fox University, 2015. George Fox Digital Commons.
Brother Lawrence (1905). “The Practice of the Presence of God”, p.32, Aeterna Press.