I have been in Sierra Leone for the past week and a half with all 3 of my children. It’s been a long-anticipated vacation and a return for them to a place that is partly home. It has been 5-10 years for each of them since they were last here, and they have long had a desire to return. Of course, returning as a young adult to a place you remember as a young teen has its own set of discoveries, disappointments and processing opportunities. Also, throwing 3 exceedingly different young adults, and one middle-aged mother, into 2 weeks of travel and challenges is its own adventure…
I sit this morning, New Year’s Day 2020, pondering what I had thought or hoped this day would look like. I had hoped to spend some time in contemplation, prayer, journaling, and planning – looking back over the last year (and decade) and reviewing all that God has done, and all that has happened in my own life and heart, and looking ahead to things I would like to walk forward into and expect from God in this new year and decade. But alas – the best laid plans of mice and men…
So this morning, as I sit on my balcony, with only the sounds of birds and the pastoral scene of a rice field, forest, and mountains around me, I was struck by a thought about time. Perhaps you, like me, had a New Year’s Eve that wasn’t what you thought. We started the evening playing an escape room in a box game that quickly devolved into arguments and fighting. We then ditched our escape room to resort to Dutch Blitz, which was a more evenly matched activity. That went relatively well. Then people scattered to their own activities for a while. I’ve had a cold for the past few days which intensified yesterday, so I wasn’t feeling that great, and decided that I would ring in the new year in bed – because 2020 would still be there when I woke up this morning. (I’m pretty sure this is the definitive mark of getting old…) But, as motherhood would have it, my children (or at least 2 of them) would have none of it. After I was settled comfortably in my bed, under a quilt – because harmattan is upon us and perhaps I had a slight fever – 2 very large man-boys decided that they could not leave me alone to ring in the new year, and it would be their purpose at the conclusion of 2019 to ensure that I made it to the new decade loved and awake. They surrounded me with hugs and snuggles and (loud) declarations of their desire to be with me. (You can trust me when I say that this sounds way more cuddly than it actually was…) And so we rang in the new year. They promptly then removed themselves to their sister’s room (who had also decided to ring in 2020 in bed) and rang in the new year with her (much to her dismay). After that exuberant celebration, I promptly went to sleep, despite multiple ringings of my phone – because its Sierra Leone and New Year’s and all the watch-nighters have to call to wish you a happy new year within the first 15 minutes of Jan 1.
Which leads me to this morning, and my ponderings on time. I was feeling a little disappointed that New Years Day had arrived and I had done nothing toward reflecting or goal-setting or anything. Like I had kind of missed the opportunity. Of course, I do realize that it was not truly missed and that any time in the next week (month?) or so is fine for doing so. But still… And then I began to ponder how preoccupied we are with time. Clock time. Calendar time. Time spent. Time wasted. Chonological markings of a day or month or year or decade. We celebrate time. We spend time. We save time. We mark anniversaries of time. We’re obsessed.
And yet, our God is outside time. Beyond time. Unfazed by time. And also, Christ is Time itself. Our calendar literally celebrates His birth every time it turns to a new year. Two thousand twenty in the year of our Lord.
There are 2 types of time in the Greek – chronos, the sequential kind of time we generally think of – days, months, hours, years, and kairos, the appointed moment for the purposes of God, the opportune time to say or do the right thing. Chronos is quantitative. Kairos is qualitative. Both are important and given by God, but kairos is the time that God uses to determine his plans and purposes. This is why predicting His second Advent based around a chronos calendar is particularly futile. It also frees us up to release ourselves from the tyranny of the calendar as we know it, remembering that kairos is the time realm in which He operates. In the “appointed time.” “But when the fullnessoftime had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman…” (Gal. 4:4) “…making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him…” (Eph. 1:9-10) This is also why we often feel that God is slow and we are impatient. We are evaluating Him on a chronos scale, and He is operating on a kairos scale.
So, if your New Year, like mine, started a little differently than you planned, or you didn’t accomplish what you had hoped in planning and preparation for the upcoming year or decade – don’t fret. Keep your heart open to the kairos moments, when He will provide the “opportune time” for you to say or do the right thing. Our calendar does not limit our God.
May we be attentive to the many kairos moments in the chronos of this new year!
Happy 2020!
Kim
