The story behind my name..."Kairos"

Kairos Elizabeth Johnson Rawert

The ancient Greeks had two words for time, both of which appear in the New Testament. The first was "chronos" which is man-made time. It is the seconds, minutes, days, and years that are measured systematically by a clock or calendar. This notion of time permeates our western culture today. The second word the Greeks used for time was "kairos" which is God's time. It is the time in which God acts and moves. It is the right or opportune time as chosen by God Himself. It is God's appointed time in which His purposes are fulfilled.


Mom and Dad's lesson in embracing kairos all started 3 years ago in September of 2005 when they started to "try to have a baby." The timing would be perfect, they thought. The baby would come in the early summer of 2006, just as Dad was finishing up a school year and Mom had completed all of her graduate coursework, leaving only her dissertation research left to get her Ph.D. So they tried to have a baby that month - but no such luck. So they tried the next month - and still nothing. So they tried the next month and the next month and the next month and the next month and the next month and the next month and the next month and the next month and the next month and the next month - which brought them to September of 2006 - and still nothing. In chronos time, a year seems like a long time to try to have a baby. And yet it turned out that Mom and Dad would have to wait even longer before they were blessed with a LittleBit; 2 1/2 long years passed by before the timing was truly perfect.


Those 2 1/2 years of waiting were very tough, but over the course of that chronos, God taught Mom and Dad a great deal about kairos. He taught them how to surrender their plans and calendars to God, have patience, trust in His will for their lives, and believe in the fact that God's timing is always better than our man-made timing. Mom and Dad also learned that while you can "try NOT TO HAVE a baby", you can't "try TO HAVE a baby", because as Christian author Margaret Brownley states, "Conception is truly a kairos moment."


With our limited human perspective, our idea of perfect timing is often flawed. Only God, with his infinte knowledge and eternal perspective can know what the right time is. He is the God of everything; He is the God of time. The Bible is full of reminders of this truth:


"In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps." -Proverbs 16:9


"For I know the plans I have for you" declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." -Jeremiah 29:11


"He makes all things beautiful in His time." -Ecclesiastes 3:11


It is tempting for us to plan out all of the details of our lives, leaving no room for God to enter in. James warns those who fall into this trap by saying, "Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow...Instead you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that" (James 4:13-15). It was only once Mom and Dad stopped counting days and planning out the details 9 months in advance that God could work in their lives. God wanted to teach them how to detach themselves from the chronos that controlled them and instead, embrace an attitude of kairos that delights in knowing that things will happen, "if it is the Lord's will."


So according to chronos time, I was 2 1/2 years late. But thanks to God, I'm a kairos baby, and that makes me right on time!