Life in the Sliver

There is a narrow space that exists between two possibilities.

One sliver of existence between left and right, up and down, forward and backward.
One iota of time and you move between two worlds. Love and Hate. Happy and Sad. Good and Bad. Right and Wrong.
Feelings that bounce back and forth like the volley between two competitors with a net between.

Emotions. Feelings. Producing words you may not ever use in any other situation. In spontaneous resolve, it takes only a second to bounce between the extremes. It’s turbulent. Tumultuous. It takes a lot of energy to keep the feelings in check, and you struggle with knowing exactly how you feel. Why?

My bride and I watched this happen recently. Fiction? Yes. Representative? Definitely. But we took special note that in the moment of emotions, you more easily move from one side of an emotional rollercoaster to the other side. Quickly. It’s a volatile equation.

It’s that sliver of reality that keeps you guessing, “What’s coming next?” Can the moment of hate, sadness, or feeling bad, be reeled in to be put away like fishing equipment stored in the garage? Or is the net simply cast too wide?

A fresh thought just came to my mind. Disney. Space Mountain. It’s an inside Roller Coaster. Dark and cold. Mimicking deep space and you are flying through an asteroid belt. Your ride is the spaceship dodging between the boulders. The pilot dodges this way, then that. Up, then down. Fast, then slow. Trying to survive the ride you do not know what’s going to happen next. 

You never know what’s coming!

We all experience life in the sliver. It’s that edge of life between two extremes that have the ability to go one way or the other. Often, we are trapped between the two as we watch life unfold. Which part of life will be lived next?

As I pondered this between late last night and early this morning, two stark biblical images come to mind. What do you do when you are trapped in the sliver? Trapped between two extremes?

The Western Wall of Jerusalem. Most commonly called the Wailing Wall because this is where Jews come to pray. It is the wall closest to where the Temple once resided. Between the blocks of stone that make up the wall and foundation, little slips of prayers are written and stuffed in the cracks.  Someone made up their mind that life in the sliver would be full of prayer. These prayers are never discarded, rather, they are freed periodically and buried because prayers are sacred.

The Apostle Paul was caught between two worlds. Here and there. In Philippians 1:21 he states, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” In one analysis, he saw no difference between leaving this life or living this life. To live was Christ. To die was gain. Though he was “hard-pressed” between the two (verse 23), I wonder, was it his choice? Maybe. Perhaps he could simply give up and give over to his own wishes, but he recognized one particularly important point: To live is equally a blessing for others, but his reward (gain) was to go to Christ.

Here’s my thought. My prayer this morning. I’m tired of all the bouncing back and forth. Emotions which push you high and then bring you low. The wrong emotion, in the wrong moment, equips you to make decisions that you may not have been willing to consider had your motions not been wrecked by the moment. Emotions are crucially involved when making decisions – right or wrong! Wrong emotion? Wrong choice? Wrong destination.

There must be a balance on how to live… There must be a way to choose to live positive rather than negative! And you need to recognize the power of your emotions that point you down a path not well thought out!

I want to be on the side of a life well lived, handling the negative in a positive way, and never slipping to the other side of the sliver.

Listen to how Jesus taught in his Sermon on the Mount (and I’ve been to where they think it occurred):

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. …” (Matthew 6:24 NKJV)

Your choice is not to live thinking there is a choice. Rather. You choose to have a good life, even though there are times you are momentarily trapped in the sliver of life between two extremes. Withdraw from the dark side. Live for the light.