Crossing the Threshold
Whether we crawl curiously through a rabbit hole and take a sudden drop like Alice, make a deliberate decision as Neo did to take the red pill, or take the risk of kissing a talking frog like Tiana, we will, sooner or later, come to the point of Crossing the Threshold; leaving the known world behind and venturing into unchartered lands. It is an essential part of the Hero’s Journey, and for all of us who rarely fall into the hero category it’s an intimidating and exciting part of our ordinary lives.
The start of a new year can be terrifying – the last few years have proved that we do not have the foggiest idea of what is coming. It can be exciting, because there is so much potential for the unknown to be good, better even than we had imagined. Crossing the Threshold between one year and the next is inevitable, but we can choose how we approach it. There’s a story that plays out time and time again, across cultures, across history and in all different kinds of storytelling; it’s called the Hero’s Journey, and it identifies a pattern that we see in millions of stories from Babylonian myths to Star Wars. Crossing the Threshold marks the decision of the hero to go into the unknown to risk pain and danger, but also to explore and discover something new.
Anyone standing at the threshold must do two things: one is to look back at the Known, at all that has already happened. The other is to look forward to what is coming – to look carefully into the Unknown and see what might lie ahead.
Looking Back
Many of us review the year when we reach the end of it; we look at achievements and personal goals, where we succeeded and where we failed. We look at the big events, what we celebrated this year, and what we are grieving. We might even take stock of how we reacted – with hindsight it is so much easier to see that the tests we were dreading were not that big of a deal, or to see where we totally underestimated what would be the biggest challenges. But I don’t think I have ever previously (although I will make a point to do it this year) looked back at who accompanied me through the year. Which friends cried with me in the difficult times? Who celebrated my small successes? Who kept in touch, even though I’m terrible at keeping up relationships? Who reached out to me when they needed help and who offered to help me even when it cost them?
This year for me has been marked by uncertainty. My husband has been job hunting since March and it is unclear which city, or even which country, that will take us to next, how long we’ll stay where we are, and therefore what we can commit to. Family members have been in a similar position, except that their search was far more urgent. I shopped a book around to publishers (so far, no takers) and questioned how to best spend my time; writing, babysitting, meeting with friends in need, running the kids work at my church – there are many possibilities and I’m not good at decision making, or organising my time.
But one thing I can say with certainty is that God has been with me the whole time. He has answered prayers and given me love and patience in exactly the situations which annoy and frustrate me the most. I’ve seen him help others through my actions, even when I was flailing and floundering to get anything done. And, despite my natural inclinations, I’ve matured in the exact areas he promised that any Christian would grow in as they followed him: love, patience, and self-control. Most of all I can look a long way back, over 2000 years, when God himself exchanged a throne in heaven for a feeding trough crib, gave up the company of angels to be surrounded by shepherds and became a human like me. If he loved me enough to do that for me then, how could he not be willing to be with me whatever tomorrow brings?
Looking Forward
That is the thought that carries me into this new year: wherever I go, whatever I do, God will be with me. The next year for me is murky: I don’t know where I’ll be living by the end of the year. I don’t know which of my projects I can commit to, or what I’ll be able to finish. I have very high hopes that this year will be the one I deal with my biggest flaws and develop good habits, but reasonably low expectations based on past experience. I’ve made plans to spend February prepping a novel, but I can’t work out when I’ll have time to write it. The Unknown for me is a mix of both good and bad, as it is for every fictional hero who crosses the threshold. The hero’s journey through the Unknown always includes failure, as well as success; the struggles and joys will be different to last year, as will the people I go through the year with. Even if I were an expert planner, I can’t plan for everything. But whatever comes I will not face it alone.
Everything I look back on in my past says that God will continue to do what he has always done: he’ll listen to me, give me strength and comfort when things are hard, and encourage me to live the kind of life I am made for at the moment I’m tempted to let my worst self go unchallenged. Whatever lies in the past, whatever resolutions are made, whatever fears we have or surprises we face, there is a safe way to go into the New Year if we go with God by our side. And as I cross the threshold between the known and unknown once again, I am so grateful that I have this absolute (and absolutely wonderful!) certainty to cling to.
~ By Hannah Lewis