Chronos and Chairos: Time and God’s Time

Jesus points out the difference when he tells his disciples.  “The right time for me has not yet come; for you any time is right,” John 7.6. In fact, there are constant references throughout the Gospel to his time not having come yet, as when Mary tries to hurry her miraculous baby into action in the marriage of Cana.

Chairos. Chronos. In my own life, I am learning to wait for Chairos, the right time, God’s time.

I have many ideas, many things I want to do. I can’t do, or even start all of them right now. And that’s where waiting for the chairos time, the right time, God’s time comes in.
~ ~ ~

When the girls were young, I desperately wanted to write, and trying to do so with young children, exhausted me, and not that much got read, or written. The state of the house was a constant source of irritation and contention, and in retrospect, perhaps I should have prioritised getting the house together (though that is easier said than done).

Now, however, is the chairos time to write. I don’t have other duties or demands on me; the girls are quite independent, Roy’s does not need support from me in what he does; in fact, having retired early, he is able to run the house and the girls, and support me a bit in my work.
~ ~ ~

Both of us have lots of ideas to do with the expansion of our publishing company. However, each time, I pray about it, I sense it is not yet the chairos time to expand. Roy took early retirement in August 2010, after 21 years as a mathematician–all-consuming work. We are still recovering: sorting out the garage and barn in which we have boxes still not unpacked since we moved here from America in 2004!!, our investments could be looked at; the house could do with a bit more organizing and decluttering;  we want a large vegetable garden. There’s paper work, tax stuff to worked on. The business has some nuts and bolts which could be oiled. Roy wants to see to all this…

We talked over our lives with an older and wiser friend, who suggested that when one establishes the Kingdom of God (order, tidyness) in one’s external surroundings, other things fall into place. This would not resonate with everyone. It resonated with me. I see this everywhere. I am an organic gardener. If one gets the soil right and fertile, the bounteous crops automatically fall into place.

So it’s not yet chairos time to expand our business in the same or a slightly different direction. Soon, however–in a matter of weeks or months, it will be.
~ ~ ~

When it is God’s time, it’s amazing how everything falls into place. Finance comes, connections, friends, people appear, out of the blue, to help you, there are coincidences–God-incidences. So it is best to wait for chairos time before you force something through.

And the concept of chairos time explains why sometimes one might wait  and pray a very long time for something to happen–with no apparent results–and then it happens very quickly. For me, the times when things fall into place very rapidly is a hallmark of God’s activity.
~ ~ ~

I think of a reflection by Bob Pierce, founder of World Vision.

God answers all prayer.  He does not answer our selfish, materialistic begging.  He does not move into our sinful situation.  He moves us out of our sinful situation into Himself.  God sometimes moves slowly.  Sometimes we don’t lack faith, but patience.  Wait patiently for Him, and He will give you your heart’s desire.

That’s when miracles happen.  
                                      ~ ~ ~


I have experienced God’s go, Chairos time a few times. I had a very stimulating time as an undergraduate in Oxford, almost like coming to life. And then, I moved to America, where we lived for 17 years, 12 of them in Williamsburg, Virginia. (In fact, I have lived longer in Williamsburg than anywhere else  as an adult.) I did not like living in America, and I particularly, intensely, disliked living in Williamsburg. I never felt at home there, as if I belonged–and that was, of course, was because I did not.

Oddly, I felt home-sick not for India, but for Oxford, where, for some reason, I felt comfortable, as I did belong. A place were eccentricity is the norm, where conversations heady as champagne are not infrequent, with as much culture per square foot as New York or London–but so much easier to get to.

I hoped to return to Oxford for many years, but did not pray for it, since I saw no concrete way in which I could do so.
~ ~ ~

I used to find winters depressing in Virginia, probably because I stayed indoors so much. One November, I went on an individual retreat at Richmond Hill, Richmond. I probably planned to stay the week. However, I came across a book called Lift up your Eyes, by Glenn Clark about prayer. It goes through the different things the Father desires to give us –ideas, creativity, opulence and riches (if we desire them!!), friends.

I left within 24 hours. As I read that book, I felt I had found the key I had been seeking, the missing link.

I had been hoping, not praying, for so many things. I had the horizontal view, not the vertical view. I needed to lift up my eyes to the hills.

And so I did!
~~~

I put moving to Oxford on my prayer list in December 2003. In April 2004, we were in England, and we since we now have permanent residency, we are unlikely to voluntarily move, unless God taps me on my shoulder with new marching orders. (Please don’t Lord; please leave the boundary lines set in these pleasant places.)

I had wanted to leave Williamsburg for the 12 years I lived there. I really disliked it. But things happened spiritually in those desert-ish years. When I came I was a Christian in a sense that I spent 30 minutes a day in prayer and Bible study, but God was not as central to my thoughts as he is now, I did not live in the presence of God as much as I do now, I was more of a reed shaken in the wind, than someone living in the waterfall of God’s presence, her feet on the rock.

In Williamsburg, I discovered the strength of Scripture, and started devoting 90 minutes to prayer and Bible study, no matter what else I had to do, no matter whether I did anything else significant that day or not.

I found a mentor, who went through the Gospels with me and Roy bi-weekly for five years, as well as a theology course called Sonship which he had co-written. I met weekly with another mentor, Lolly Dunlap (obit). I taught several bible studies, and gained much from my immersion in the Bible. I spoke at various church events, and gained some practice in communicating my enthusiasm and passion for prayer and scripture.

And then, slowly, it became clear that it was time to leave. I had changed. I was different. And then all sorts of unlikely things happened very quickly. Roy won a prize for the best paper published in a scientific journal in the last three years, and various other prizes for some ground-breaking work. He was elected to the Board of Directors of the International Linear Algebra Society, co-edited a successful book, was elected to various boards, won prestigious grants including a 100K one from the National Science Foundation to go anywhere he liked for a year and study. Suddenly, job offers flowed in, from Canada,  and yes, the UK. We came to the UK, where he was a Distinguished Visitor at the Univ. of Manchester, and we used the NSF grant to spend a year at the Mathematical Institute at Oxford. Within a year of my prayer, I was in Oxford, and have never left.

And the last seven years in Oxford have been incredibly busy, but also creative. I have published two books, I have founded a publishing company starting with, like, zero business experience, I have become a blogger…
* * *
I give several other examples of how things tarry, then happen, very rapidly when it is chairos time, but I won’t ramble further.

These two words, chairos, chronos keep recurring in thoughts.

Roy and I are fairly energetic and there are so many things we want to do all at once–expand the garden, the business… That’s why it’s becoming more important for me to check in with God on a daily/weekly basis to get his ideas and his perspective on what I should be doing.

First things first is the title of a book by Stephen Covey, though Jesus, of course, concluded his sermon on the mount with the same thought. Seek first the Kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things (the things the pagans run after) will be added to you.

The thought does simplify prioritizing. The Kingdom of God on a micro-level, i.e. in each person’s life, will look slightly different. It basically means what your life would look like if Christ were ruling it/in it. For some it would mean evangelism, or feeding the poor, or preaching. For me, it would look like peace, quiet, domestic order, harmonious relationships, and using “that one talent which is death to hide” i.e. writing.

And knowing whether it is the chairos time to do something, embark on a new project, is partly determined by whether doing so contribute to ushering in, or retarding the Kingdom of God, the reign of God in my life.

And now at last, it is the chairos time for me to write–and so I just have to shrug off distraction–and get down to it.