One-Third Over!

Today is July 1 and summer is 1/3 over! It's hard to believe that June passed so quickly. Paraphrasing Paul Simon, "Slow down, you move too fast. Got to make the summer last."

Time passes either slowly or quickly, depending on what we're doing. When we're bored, an hour can seem interminable. Boredom slows time down to the painful ticking of seconds off the clock. But, when were engaged in something interesting, we hardly notice the passage of time.

We know that time, as measured by clocks, passes at the same rate. But we also know that our perception of time has an internal component that can speed it up or slow it down.

In the New Testament there are two Greek words for time that capture the external and internal components of time. Chronos is the word used for "clock time" or "calendar time." The passage of chronos was constant and measured by minutes, hours, days, months and years.

The other word for time is kairos, which roughly means "at the right time" or "at the appropriate time." Kairos is internal time and can be applied to events that unfold in on their own timetable. The birth of a baby, the maturing of a person, falling in love and spiritual awakening-- these happen when they're ready to.

Kairos is also used in the New Testament for "God's timetable." In the spiritual realm, most things don't happen on a set schedule-- they happen when we are ready.