Being Time Not Wasted

Wellspring post:  Being Kairos

We had a guest preacher on Sunday who spoke about time.There are two kinds of time talked about in the Bible, he said. Chronos time, which is calendar time—the gradual ticking away of the minutes—and kairos time, which is God’s time.

He referred to kairos time as a special occasion--the arrival of God’s promised fulfillment.

A couple weeks ago we welcomed another guest. She spoke about the Kingdom of God being here—right now…among us. So, I started thinking about these two sermons, how they go together—how the arrival of the Kingdom of God is a promise fulfilled and if it’s already here—among us—then…kairos time must be available to us…right now.

The preacher this past Sunday agreed and he wondered: How do we make chronos time in to kairos time?

The scripture reading was from Matthew 25: Jesus said, I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.

The preacher tells us that we are able to enter kairos time in our treatment of the least of these. I think about this as I give to the needy. I ponder it as I go through the boys’ fall clothes,weeding out donations for the clothes pantry. I try to see Jesus in the hands of the man on the side of the road when I hand him a few dollars. I feel it. I do. In those moments of giving, I feel the Kingdom of God.

It feels good.

But I think there is more.

There is this aching need to give in other ways…to give to those impoverished in spirit. To give beauty and let it be rest, to give words and them be peace restored, to give love and let it be a shelter.

The Kingdom of God is here. Kairos time is at our fingertips. All it takes is noticing…All it takes is being in each moment.

Madeleine L’Engle, in her lovely reflection on faith and art, Walking on Water, says that “being time is never wasted time. When we are being, not only are we collaborating with chronological time, but we are touching on kairos, and are freed from the normal restrictions of time. In moments of mystical illumination we may experience, in a few chronological seconds, years of transfigured love.

She tells the story of a small village that had an old clockmaker. When he died, there was no one to repair the peoples’ watches, so they abandoned their time-pieces. When the town was visited by a famous clock-maker much later, the people clamored for their old watches to be repaired. After examining the time-pieces for many hours, the wizened clock-maker told the people he could only repair the watches that had been kept wound. These, he said, were the only pieces able to remember how to keep time.

L’Engle concludes, so we must daily keep things wound: that is, we must pray when prayer seems dry as dust; we must write when we are physically tired, when our hearts are heavy,when our bodies are in pain…at least we can keep it wound, so that it will not forget.

When I lift each moment to God…I enter into His time. It is a gift from the Star-namer. It is a promise fulfilled.