CHRONOS AND KAIROS

We all have the same amount of time given to us in a day. Both the rich and the poor have the same seconds, minutes and hours in a day. The correct usage of time is a major factor that differentiate successful people from unsuccessful people. 

Chronos refers to the measured, continuous time. It is the forward moving time which is measured as seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years. Kairos on the other hand means the right or opportune time, a defining moment. What we do with our chronos determines what will happen to us in a Kairos moments. Most young people dream of how they will become successful one day without using their everyday (chronos )to prepare for that one day (Kairos). It is said that luck is when preparation meets opportunity. 

Let me explain with this analogy.

Students will be very familiar with this. Most students in the course of the semester do not really prepare for the exams they will be writing at the end of the semester. They use their chronos to play, sleep and do other things that will not profit them in anyway. At the end of the semester when exam is approaching (Kairos), you will now see student learning everywhere, on the streets, under trees, at the halls and so on. And you and I know the results most students who approach exam this way obtain. The students who always top the class are those students who always maximize their chronos by learning towards their Kairos moments at the end of the semester. Sometimes, they are able to score all the questions not because they were given the question paper prior to the day of exam but because they learned almost the entire content which the questions were selected from.

You've probably read about the water cycle. Before the earth experience rains, there should be evaporation of water from the surface of the earth and water bodies, condensation of the water vapor in the clouds and lastly precipitation ( rainfall). Before the earth enters its raining season, all the three will be done gradually, chronologically, making way for the Kairos season where there will be abundant rain on the face of the earth. Whenever ever you see the rain, just know that a lot of work was quietly done before it could rain. Similarly, when you see people having results, don't just say they're lucky. The results testaments of what they did secretly with their chronos.

A typical example is the young boy David in the Bible. We are all aware that David killed Goliath. But prior to that experience, David maximize his chronos in the bush by killing the bear, lion and learning how to use the sling. When David's Kairos time came, he was able to succeed because he had minimized his chronos.

John 5:1-11 also gives us a correct picture. There was a lame who laid beside a pool called Bethesda. Once each year (Kairos), an Angel comes to stir the pool and the first person to step into the pool gets healed of every sickness. The lame spent 38 years at the pool without getting healed. He never maximized his chronos so for 38 Kairos moments, he was never able to enter into his glorious destiny. 

Unfortunately, this is how most of us have lived and are still living our lives. We all believe we're destined for greatness and that someday somehow, we will just be ushered into that destiny. No! It doesn't work like that. What we do with our time everyday has a compounding effect on our lives. The Bible says that the same Lord is rich unto all. God is so good that within the lifetime of everyone, He gives us chronos to prepare ourselves and Kairos moments to take us from one level to the other. But very few people are able make good use their Kairos moments.

Use the time you have now to work on something that will lead you to your personal vision for your life. Never should there be a day you did nothing that will move you gradually towards your vision. Remember, successful people are people who maximize their Kairos by first maximizing the Kronos. 

What is the daily thing you need to start doing in order to achieve your definite chief aim in life?