Hello friends,
This is Mark Gladman,
Also known as Brother Frederick James,
Your friendly neighbourhood Monk-in-Docs,
Welcoming you to Day 7 of Towards the Light,
An Advent Journey.
Today we're going to reflect a little bit on God's timeliness.
Time governs so much of our lives in the modern world,
Doesn't it?
The clock ticks,
The calendars fill,
And we measure our days by minutes and deadlines.
Now this is chronos time.
Chronos is the linear,
Ordinary flow of seconds and hours.
But Advent invites us to step into a different kind of time,
One that doesn't rush and doesn't demand.
This is kairos time.
Kairos is the sacred,
And I stress that word,
Sacred,
Appointed moments where God moves in ways that we cannot predict or control.
Ecclesiastes reminds us,
There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens.
Yet,
How often do we find ourselves bucking the preacher's words and being frustrated by God's timing?
We want answers now.
We want a resolution to our problem yesterday.
But God's timing,
Kairos time,
Asks us to trust the unseen and to lean into the mystery of waiting.
John Ray Nguyen wrote,
A waiting person is a patient person.
The word patience means the willingness to stay where we are and live the situation out to the full in the belief that something hidden there will manifest itself to us.
Let me read that for you one more time,
And I invite you to particularly allow that part of what John Ray Nguyen is saying here to sink really deep.
Again,
Nguyen wrote,
A waiting person is a patient person.
The word patience means the willingness to stay where we are and live the situation out to the full in the belief that something hidden there will manifest itself to us.
Waiting isn't empty.
Waiting is transformative.
Waiting shapes our hearts.
Waiting deepens our faith and prepares us for what God is doing in and through us.
Consider the words of Habakkuk,
The prophet.
Habakkuk writes,
For the vision is yet for an appointed time.
It speaks of the end and will not prove false.
Though it linger,
Wait for it.
It will certainly come and will not delay.
End quote.
Habakkuk wants the people that he's writing to and speaking to to know that God's timing is never late.
Just as true,
Though,
Is that God's timing is never early.
It arrives exactly when it is meant to,
Bringing with it the fullness of God's purposes.
Perhaps today might be a good day to reflect on where in your life you're wrestling with the tension between our Kronos and God's Kairos.
What would it mean to surrender to God's perfect timing,
To trust that what feels like delay may actually be preparation?
And so may you find peace in the waiting,
Trusting that God's timing is always good.
May you embrace the moments of Kairos,
The holy interruptions where God's purpose shines.
May your patience be rooted in faith,
Believing that what God has promised will come to pass.
And may you rest in the assurance that even in the silence,
God is at work weaving your story into something beautiful.
And may grace,
Peace and love go with you every step of the way.
God bless you and be at peace,
My friends.
Until tomorrow.
Bye for now.
