Meet your Kairos Moments
Most of us live in a world where time exists as appointments and due dates. This type of time is chronos. It is part of being human in our modern world.
There is also another type of time called kairos. This unique time is when our world can begin to shift. Kairos are the moments when we have an opportunity to create something truly incredible, make an impact, or simply connect more deeply.
Consider these questions as you explore kairos:
-
- When have you most recently experienced a kairos moment?
- How would your world begin to shift if you were to anticipate and engage intentionally with kairos moments?
What is kairos?
kai·ros (noun) | ˈ(ˈ)kī¦räs’
a time when conditions are right for the accomplishment of a crucial action : the opportune and decisive moment
kairos (n) | the perfect, delicate, crucial moment; the fleeting rightness of time and place that creates the opportune atmosphere for action, words or movement.
chronos: chronological
|
kairos: “higher” time
|
Why are kairos moments important?
Chronos is clocks, deadlines, watches, calendars, agendas, planners, schedules, beepers. Chronos is time at her worst. Chronos keeps track. …Chronos is the world’s time. Kairos is transcendence, infinity, reverence, joy, passion, love, the Sacred. Kairos is intimacy with the Real. Kairos is time at her best. …Kairos is Spirit’s time. We exist in chronos. We long for kairos. That’s our duality. Chronos requires speed so that it won’t be wasted. Kairos requires space so that it might be savored. We do in chronos. In kairos we’re allowed to be … It takes only a moment to cross over from chronos into kairos, but it does take a moment. All that kairos asks is our willingness to stop running long enough to hear the music of the spheres.
Sarah Ban Breathnach
but BEing time is never wasted time. When we are BEing, not only are we collaborating with chronological time, but we are touching on kairos, and are freed from the normal restrictions of time.
Madeleine L’Engle
The Greeks believed that time had secret structure. There was the moment of Epiphany when time suddenly opened and something was revealed in luminous clarity. There was the moment of krisis when time got entangled and directions became confused and contradictory. There was also the moment of kairos; this was the propitious moment. Time opened up in kindness and promise. All the energies cohered to offer a fecund occasion of initiative, creativity, and promise. Part of the art of living wisely is to learn to recognize and attend to such profound openings in one’s life.
John O’Donohue
There are two different types of time. Chronos time is what we live in. It’s regular time. It’s one minute at a time, staring down the clock until bedtime time. It’s ten excruciating minutes in the Target line time, four screaming minutes in time-out time, two hours until Daddy gets home time. Chronos is the hard, slow-passing time we parents often live in.
Then there’s Kairos time. Kairos is God’s time. It’s time outside of time. It’s metaphysical time. Kairos is those magical moments in which time stands still. I have a few of those moments each day, and I cherish them.
Glennon Doyle Melto
People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did,
but people will never forget how you made them feel.
Maya Angelou