dailydatewithgod

As people who measure our life by time in hours, minutes, years and so on it may appear as though there are delays.  We are waiting for someone because they are delayed.  We were hoping for a package to arrive and it is delayed.  We are on a trip and our car breaks down and causes a delay in our arrival.  Through the lens of chronological time, there are delays all over the place.  It almost seems like we spend our life navigating around the delays.  God invites us to open the eyes of our hearts to reframe the perspective through which we see a delay.  I attended a retreat in high school called Kairos.  Chiros versus Chronos both from the Greek language referring to two different understandings of time. Chronos is the minute measurement and Chiros or Kairos is God’s measurement.  The first thing we had to do was turn in our watches.  We were given the chance to let go of watching out for and dealing with delays.  Those in charge would instruct as we needed to know. There were probably all kinds of delays that occurred over those 4 days but I was not aware of most of them.  I trusted the faculty and students leading the retreat to not let us miss out on anything.  There were conversations and laughter, long (at least they felt like long) meals and recreation time.  In the space of Kairos we were able to be.  Chiros is the lens of our hearts.  Through it we see a delay as an unexpected gift and a chance to surrender to God’s vision for our day instead of ours.  It took me many years of our daily dates for me to be willing to let go of my idea of a delay and open up to God’s idea of an opportunity.  It is not easy to let go of one’s agenda and find a reason to be frustrated by any kind of delay.  Often I simply need to pause, take a breath, open my heart a bit and ask God, what is the gift in what I think is delay?  What is the unplanned pause you are showing me making room for today?  This is not easy when it comes to a delay on the road or a delay of needed information but what is the point of trusting God if I cannot show it by being willing to let go?