Time

 LIVING A KAIROS LIFE IN A CHRONOSE WORLD.

Daniel 2:12-16 KJ21 - 12 For this cause the king was angry, and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon.

13 And the decree went forth that the wise men should be slain, and they sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain.

14 Then Daniel answered with counsel and wisdom to Arioch, the captain of the king’s guard, who had gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon.

15 He answered and said to Arioch the king’s captain, “Why is the decree from the king so hasty?” Then Arioch made the thing known to Daniel.

16 Then Daniel went in and desired of the king that he would give him time, and that he would show the king the interpretation

Everything we do is marked by the steady march of time. Seconds lead to minutes to hours to days to weeks to years to decades to centuries.

The problem for all of us is that the clock is always running the wrong way, and we simply cannot stop its precipitous crawl toward the next tick. We lose moments to the past, out of our reach, never to be regained.

Where did all the years go?

The kids have grown and gone. We're muddling along in a career, making a living, just existing out of habit more than anything.

Did I miss out on my chance to make a difference?

The Greek language has a couple of words that mean "time." The first is the most familiar—chronos. It means the chronology of days, governed by the carefully calculated earth's sweep around the sun. God himself ordained this measurement of days on the fourth day of Creation, spinning the heavenly lights "for seasons, and days and years."

Boy, do I know about time? The wrinkles etched on my face; the wrinkles etched on my heart are the visual reminders of Chronos.

But another word for time is also used in the New Testament—kairos. This speaks more to specific, God-ordained times throughout history, sometimes called the "right time" or "appointed season" (Titus 1:3). Kairos is God's dimension—one not marked by the past, the present, or the future.

When Jesus came, it was a fulfillment of promises past, a cosmic collision of the sacred and secular. It was an intersection of the holy will of God and the stubborn ways of man. It was a perfect moment. John the Baptist said in Mark 1:15 that "time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand."

This godly kairos pierced its way into a creation at just the right time, slicing through chronos with a cry of a baby in a manger.

The cross was another Kairos moment. Romans 5:6 says, "For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly."

Kairos moments then—and now—allow us to get a glimpse of the "other side." We peek around the corner at eternity. We glimpse how God works.

As the omniscient, omnipresent Deity, God is not bound by the confines of space or time. That's why He flows into our existence when we least expect Him. When we ask for something right away, it might not always come. Or when we don't ask at all. But he shows up. It can be frustrating, "With the Lord one day is as a thousand years." It can also be surprising "a thousand years as one day." (2 Pet 3:8).

We should always live our days looking for those moments, those inexplicable times when His will and his way intersect with our daily walks.

And they can happen anytime! A friend calls you out of the blue to give a good word. A child's innocent joy pierces a long, hard day of struggle. A coworker takes a moment to lend a hand. God is always surprising us with his perfect, kairos timing.

Am I ready, waiting, and watching for him to move in my life?

Ecclesiastes 3:11 AMP - He has made everything beautiful and appropriate in its time

Time is our most precious resource. It is perishable and irreplaceable.1 God in his grace has given us all the same amount – 24 hours per day. The quality, joy, and impact of our lives are directly related to how wisely we use the time we have.

This does not mean that we have to hurry or hustle through.

I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.

Ecclesiastes 9:11-12 AMP - 11 I again saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift and the battle is not to the strong, and neither is bread to the wise nor riches to those of intelligence and understanding nor favor to men of ability, but time and chance overtake them all. 12 For man also does not know his time [of death]; like fish caught in a treacherous net, and birds caught in the snare, so the sons of men are ensnared in an evil time when a dark cloud suddenly falls on them