Kairos vs. Chronos

Aaaahhhh……

That was how today felt. After some stress-filled and very busy days, we relaxed a bit today. We got up late, had a nice mid-morning breakfast, caught up on some emails and blog posts, and just relaxed. Our only real commitment was a 2:00pm meeting at the Gabonese National Office for the Christian & Missionary Alliance, and we made the most of the rest of the day.

Time is a funny thing. The last several days have been so incredibly packed full that even the 16-hour car rides seemed to fly by. When things are busy, time hurdles along like a runaway train (or a Gabonese bus driver). But when life slows down, time seems to do the same thing. The morning seemed to open up before us, and suddenly there was time: to read, to eat, to talk, to get a few things done… and to rest. So we did.

We arrived to the National Offices a little after 2:00, and had a grand reunion with Pastor Guy Roget. After joyful greetings all around and a brief tour, we headed into a conference room, and were soon joined by several other members of the National Office staff. I won’t bore you with the details of our hour long meeting, but it was very good and gave us a great path to walk on as we dream about our future connection with the Gabonese church in Equatorial Guinea.

The key thing that we found out at the meeting is that the Gabonese church is much further down the path than we are when it comes to the work in EG. The way Steve put it as he translated my words to the National Office team is that if the work in EG is like a book, they are on chapter 3 or 4, and we’re just a few paragraphs into the Introduction. While I assured them that we are fast readers, it will still take us a little while to catch up. They understood this reality, and are charging forward on their own, while we determine exactly what our role in EG will look like.

It wasn’t until after the meeting that I realized God’s incredible timing. We had initially scheduled this trip in the fall of 2010. In fact, a significant amount of planning had happened and we were just about to buy tickets when we found out that the missionary couple that we would be working with had some difficulties and the trip couldn’t happen. At that moment, we were so discouraged and disappointed that the trip couldn’t go forward. However, had that trip happened, we would have been on exactly the same chapter in the metaphorical book—and based on the way our two cultures operate, it’s likely that we would have already read a few pages ahead! Based on what we know now about the work in EG and the need for Gabonese church to take the lead in this initiative, that would have been disastrous. But with this timing, everything is exactly right, and we all walked out of the conference room greatly encouraged.

We walked of the room and immediately turned to our left, into the “Chapel of Prayer for the Nations” so that we could dedicate this work to the Lord in prayer as a group. As we did, thunder was beginning to rumble in the distance, and the sky was quickly darkening. We stood in that chapel, held hands in a circle, and began to lift our voices to God, all at the same time. Our voices died down, and after a brief song, one of the National Office leaders began to pray. Almost as soon as he started to pray, the rain started. It was only a little at first. But as his voice picked up in intensity, almost as if choreographed, the rain did as well. The storm rolled in with power, and soon, the National Secretary was shouting his prayer over the thunder and the pounding rain on the metal roof. He declared “Amen” and we all began to sing “Hallelujah.” And as we did, it was as though God Himself was declaring “YES! I’m for this!”, with the mighty voice of the storm thundering over our loudest singing. Once again, perfect timing.

One of the things that we lose in our English translations of the Bible is that there are two different Greek words for “time.” Chronos time is clock time. It’s the normal way that we see time. It’s objective. It’s predictable. It’s minutes, hours, days, schedules, and agendas. On the other hand, Kairos time is totally different. Kairos is the “right” time. The “opportune” time. As our great friends Todd and Belinda often remind us, kairos time is God’s time.

Today, we operated in kairos time. The rest we got, the discussions we had, the incredible African thunderstorm we witnessed… all of them hit at just the right time. However, what we hadn’t realized is that every detail of this project has been caught up in kairos time. The delay of 18 months ago. Postponing the trip for two days due to visa issues. The connections with Pastor Frederico’s church. The events of today. Each one at just the right time.

Now, we must walk forward in the same way. Not rushing ahead, not lagging behind, but waiting on God. His kairos time is perfect.