Kairos Time in a Chronos World
This is a piece I wrote for the High Calling Blog network.
Physicists say that time is the 4th dimension. If that is true, it makes understanding time a bit tricky for us, mired as we are in a 3-dimensional world. The full, fluid reality of anything includes its changing over time. But we experience time as a single moment we call the present.
What I’m saying is, comprehending time in its fullness is beyond us.
The Greeks understood that time was too complex to be contained in only one word, so they had two words for time: Chronos and Kairos. They were caught in the same 3 dimensions that hold us, so they couldn’t understand time any better than we can, but I’m impressed that they made the effort. Chronos is the kind of time that you and I are most familiar with. Chronos time is marked and named. “Two o’clock,” and “Three-thirty o’clock.” These designations are “of the clock,” meaning they belong to the clock, which is the great measurer of Chronos time. We strap small clocks to our wrists and call them “watches,” because with them we can watch Chronos time coming and going.
“Look, four o’clock is coming. Here it comes: 5,4,3,2,1, it’s four o’clock! Yay, I’ve been waiting all day for four o’clock. Wasn’t that nice? I love four o’clock. Oh well, now it’s gone.”...
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Time
Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 09/14/2009 - 13:30.Thanks for this. I thought I had NO concept of time, but it is just that I am living "Kairos Time in a Chronos World".
very relevant
Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 09/15/2009 - 08:48.wow. hmm. This is really interesting and helpful, I think it will help me understand a lot about the shape of my life right now.
I am meeting with our church's very understanding personnel committee today - a lot of what we will talk about is Chronos time; and I am very enamored with delineating things in Chronos. I like organization a lot. But, I also often feel compelled to let things just take as long as they take. I never realized that's part of what is meant by Kairos time. You're right, there is a lot of this in church. So, there is a bit of an ongoing tension in me about time.
One of the things I think will be a relief and a soul-filling peace about "the afterlife" (whatever that is) is that it is eternity - no more worries about time, or thoughts about it at all, good or bad. All aspects of time feel like a subtle continuous anxiety to me in this life. Not achingly so (usually), just always there in the small background.
Looking forward to digesting this some more, and maybe sharing it with others who might find it useful as well. thanks.
Holly