October 24, 2024 Are You Marking Time or Living Into Your Time?
Thursday, October 24, 2024
Are You Marking Time or Living in Your Time?
Jesus declared,
“The time is fulfilled,
and the kingdom of God has come near.”
Mark 1:15, NRSV
There are two types of time: Chronos time, which is marking time by the clock; and kairos time. Kairos is a Greek word meaning a fitting season, opportunity, or occasion. Kairos time is the perfect moment in time designed just for “this,” whatever “this” is. Biblically speaking, living in kairos time is not marking time by the clock but living in the fullness of God’s time and timing.
Henri Nouwen observed,
Living kairos offers us an opportunity for a profound change of heart…We discover that cleaning and cooking, writing letters and doing professional work, visiting people and caring for others, are not a series of random events that prevent us from realizing our deepest self. These natural, daily activities contain within them some transforming power that changes how we live. Through them we make hidden passage from time lived as chronos (clock time) to time lived as kairos.*
Living in kairos time frees and opens us to endless possibilities in the moment. Because the kingdom has come and is here now. It is to experience the presence of God at work in and through us, even in mundane moments or those days when tethered to a packed schedule. It is to loosen our chains to living in chronos time and instead live in kairos. Hard to do but the most rewarding time of our lives.
Reflect: Which time is most prevalent in your life – chronos or kairos? How can you start seeing that the many events of your day, week, or year are not in the way of your experiencing a full life but are the way to it?
Pray: Lord, help me embrace kairos time, recognizing Your presence in every moment, transforming my ordinary activities into extraordinary encounters with Your grace. Teach me to live fully in Your divine timing, experiencing the fullness of life through even the simplest tasks. In the name of Your Son, who You sent in the fullness of time, Amen.
By His Grace,
Gloria Ashby,
Lay Leader
*Henri Nouwen, “What We’re Looking for is Already Here.” You are the Beloved. Convergent Books, 2017.