Kairos time

Two anecdotes and a reflection:

On Thursday, the bus I take to work passed me by without stopping; the next bus came twenty minutes later, and I got to work late and sweaty.  Luckily my boss is very flexible about my hours, but the frustration of sitting powerlessly in the Austin sun for half an hour left me sunburned and in a cranky mood.

This morning I was late to church when a member of my caravan showed up ten minutes after we were supposed to leave.  Normally I'm calm about being a few minutes late, but knowing I was missing the beginning of a church service made me extremely anxious.  If I had been the driver, I would have left the tardy worshipper behind; fortunately for him, the driver has much more patience than I do.  One of the seminarians in the car reminded me that we cannot rely on our own, human time -- chronos time -- but that we need to give ourselves up to God's time -- kairos time.  Although it was hard to see in the moment, it was much more important for all of us to go to worship than for me to arrive promptly at 11.


My transportation foibles are the most obvious example of being beholden to another's schedule, but my days are filled with things that force me to work around or depend on someone else -- working in an office, living in an intentional community, planning and participating in meetings.  God willing, this year will help me find the balance between chronos and kairos in my daily life, being prompt when I need to be and at peace when I can be.


This is a great resource on chronos/kairos time.

Peace of Christ!