Foggy Bridge
Oboedire | June 1, 2026
The spiritual journey includes bridges, crossovers that get us from one place to another. In the Wisdom Pattern, they are referred to as the disorder period between leaving of an old order and entering a new one. Awakenings are crossover periods We are in one now. Father Jeffrey Ross, describes crossovers using insights from Celtic spirituality,
“In the Celtic tradition, thresholds are holy places. They are neither the place we have been nor yet the place we are going. They are liminal spaces—thin places—where the Spirit often feels closer, more active, and sometimes more unsettling. We do not rush through these spaces. We listen in them. We pray in them. We trust that God is already at work there as we expectantly seek the Divine.” [1]
Reading his words, we find multiple insights into the importance of crossovers. First and foremost, they are holy ground. As such, we do not rush through them, even when they are uncomfortable—especially when they are. We linger at the threshold, contemplating them to see and hear where God is present and active in them. That’s why Matthew Fox is correct in naming prayer as the beginning point for the spiritual life [2], why John Wesley called prayer the chief means of grace.
At the crossovers we stop, look, and listen—what Henri Nouwen called “active waiting” [3], attentiveness that trusts God is at work and will, in due time, invite us to be cooperators in it. Standing at the crossovers with this disposition keeps expectancy alive in us and morphs it into the experience of joy as we find our place in the larger work of God.
[1] Shalem eNews, January 2026.
[2] Matthew Fox, Prayer: A Radical Response to Life
[3] Henri Nouwen, Finding My Way Home
Steve Harper 2024
Courtesy Photo
The Rev. Dr. Steve Harper is retired seminary professor who taught for 32 years in the disciplines of Spiritual Formation and Wesley Studies. Author and co-author of more than fifty books.. He is also a retired elder in The Florida Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church.