Day 14: “What time is it?”

Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic
A series of daily reflections for people of faith
by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor
WEEK TWO: SATURDAY 27 MARCH 2020
“What time is it?”

“Now is the time to build on our relationship with God.” - Carolyn Huff, member, Patuxent Presbyterian Church

St. Augustine, 354-430 AD, bishop of North Africa, said “I thirst to know the meaning and purpose of time.”  What about us? What do we do with time? We mark time, we waste time, we redeem time, we lose time, we save time, we kill time, but do we really understand, as Augustine put it, “the meaning and purpose of time?” 

There are two kinds of time in the Greek New testament: kairos and chronos. Let’s look at chronos time first, as we can grasp that more easily. Chronos has to do with a quantity of time: “How much time will this take?” Kairos has to do with the quality of time: “I think it’s time we made an important decision.”   

All time is in God’s hands – “My times are in your hands,” confessed David in Psalm 31:15. And within this chronos time, this measured time in which we live, God has embedded kairos time, opportunities, perhaps chief among them kairos time to spend more time with the Lord, reading His Word, time in prayer for those we love and others, reading devotional material. 

Years ago I attended a service in a congregation of the Church of God in Christ, a black Pentecostal denomination. I guess the pastor tired of seeing people looking at their watches asking themselves, “What time is it?” So in bright neon letters across the wall in the front of the church directly above the choir he put the answer to their question:  “It is time to seek the Lord.” - Taken from Hosea 10:12, I would concur. What about you? What time is it?

Reflective scripture: Hosea 10:12 – “It is time to seek the Lord.”  Hosea 10:12

Reflective hymn: Take Time to be Holy (#656)

Take time to be holy, speak oft with thy Lord; 

abide in Him always, and feed on His Word.

Make friends of God’s children, help those who are weak; 

forgetting in nothing His blessing to seek. 

Reflective prayer: Write your own.