The Right Moment: Seizing Opportunities in the Time of Kairos

The disease of “hurry” is a pandemic few people mention.

Horns honk in traffic by drivers running late for work. When you need something for dinner, the grocery store has a single line open, and the checker is waiting for a price check.

The tick and tock of the clock measure life’s cadence.

We can blame it on the 12th century.

Somewhere in Europe, someone installed a “clock” (a word which in Old English meant “bell”). The ring of the bell indicated the time. It had no hands and no display., only the gong of the bell.

Until then, people would measure time through the slow march of the sun through the sky. Many saw the clock as “independence from the sun.”

By the time the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, clocks had hands indicating the minutes and seconds added.

Then, in 1865 came the wristwatch. As one writer has said, “the clock and the light–they gifted us with time, then they stole it away.” With time on our wrists, we lost sight of what time was.

We are minute people. We slice time into small slices and forget the whole.

Yet, the Bible has a different word for a better kind of time. In Greek, it is called kairos, the season, the right moment.

We see it in Paul’s letter to the Galatians:

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9, NIV)

There is a proper time, the opportune time. No one can rush a harvest, but it comes at the right time. A doctor can chart the birth of a child, but a baby comes when it is time.

The wise man does not ask, “what time is it?” He recognizes the season.

Jesus healed a woman with a years-long hemorrhage because the opportunity presented itself. With Zaccheus in a tree, he used the opportunity to change a life.

Think of the opportunities that become available. The chance to hold a child or grandchild comes and then goes. One day, it won’t be available. Take advantage of the time.

The time to tell a parent or spouse, or friend that you love them is an opportunity to use. The day will come when regret replaces opportunity.

What is your season, and are you responding appropriately to the season?

God gives each of us 24 hours. But don’t fool yourself; you have many more opportunities to help, serve, and love than the clock ticks off. They come and go, and we must seize the season to have the time, regardless of what our watch says.

So, today, take the right moment to do the right thing for the right person.