For most of us in the northern hemisphere, August’s end marks a time of transition from summer’s end to new beginnings; a transition into a new school year or a return to business after vacation days. Farmers are anticipating harvesting summer’s final fruits. Suburbanites and city dwellers are planning and preparing to implement new objectives.

Life seems defined and structured by the cycle of beginnings, transitions, and endings. And amid it all is the tension of time. New pursuits provoke eager protagonists. The race against newly imposed timetables and event calendars begins again. Faced with this reality in my own life, I wrestle with the integration of chronos and kairos. No, these are not new diseases! They are philosophical and biblical terms.

Chronos refers to biological and sequential time. In our existential tension between time and eternity, we are plagued with the illusion that we are sovereign over history. We have to face reality. There is a structure of time (chronos) that we cannot manipulate or make subservient to our own power, as much as we desire or try.

The Good News is that God is the Lord of history. And He stepped into time in a special way. Kairos is God’s time. Jesus himself announced it: The Kairos is near… “The time of fulfillment is near. The Kingdom of God is at hand” (Mk. 1:15).

This truth invites us, right now, to stop. Recognize God’s presence, here and now.

It only took a second.

Now, as your calendar fills up, be sure to make space—a minute here, five minutes there—amid your daily race, to glance upon the truth: God is present and active always and everywhere. He is the real protagonist and Sovereign Lord over time. Kairos integrates with chronos; and there He is.

Your Friend in Christ,

Jennifer Ristine
Jennifer Ristine is a Consecrated Woman of Regnum Christi dedicated to spiritual and faith formation through teaching, conferences, writing, and spiritual direction. She served in Ancient Magdala and authored Mary Magdalene: Insights from Ancient Magdala, Nine Days with Mary Magdalene, and Becoming Magdalene, a historical fiction novel.