Kairos sweet
Friday, March 15, 2013
Fourth Week of Lent
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/031513.cfm
John 7:30
They tried to arrest Jesus, but no one laid a hand upon him, because his hour had not yet come.
There are two Greek words used in the Bible for “time.” Chronos is clock time; kairos is God’s time. Jesus knows that God’s time for him has not yet come. Moreover, the accusers around him are prevented from arresting him by this same “timing.”
In two weeks of chronos time, we will observe Good Friday. At the hour of 3 pm, the hour Jesus died, church congregations around the world will gather to walk the Stations of the Cross. However we can, we will attempt to enter Jesus’ world, experience inside ourselves what he experienced – his agony and death on a cross.
Will I experience Good Friday as God’s time as well as clock time? Is it always God’s time, and I am just more open to it now or then?  There do seem to be moments of epiphany and inspiration for us which we do not plan or schedule. Can i become more open to these? How?
God knows me better than I know myself. In the poetic language of Psalm 139, “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”  God frees me to make my own decisions, and then “knows” them. I don’t have to understand this paradox. It is a wonderful grace to accept it.
“How precious to me are your thoughts, O God.” This next verse of Psalm 139 offers me both the end and the means to “knowing” God. When I listen in silence, knowing how beautiful are God’s thoughts, they will indeed be precious, and I will live in “God’s time” more, rather than less.
How vast is the sum of your thoughts, O Lord? Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand on all the seashores. You created my inmost being. When I awake, I am still with you. Search me, know me, test me and lead me, Lord, along the Way everlasting.
http://www.christiancounselingservice.com/archived_devotions.php?article_id=1168
