When to Trust Time

In our hurried society we often forget the most important ingredient to healing—time. Many viruses, infections and colds can actually be healed with time. The body is powerful like that. Give it fluids and give it time. Yet many of us get scared and want a quick fix, so we run to the doctor begging for an antibiotic. Then we continue our impatience and stop taking the prescription once we feel better. It’s a vicious cycle that has led to a mass immunity of many antibiotics. Ideally we only resort to antibiotic use for dire emergencies. This post, however, is not about the antibiotic debate. It’s about time. When time is the cure.

 

First, take a moment to reflect on some of the pithy sayings you’ve heard about time.

 

How about, time cures a broken heart? Or, the ‘early’ bird gets the worm? Then there’s, time is relative. (If you have a favorite time quote that comes to mind, please feel free to share it in the comments section!:))  

 

I imagine all of these wise dictums exist because they have proved true. The problem is that we forget the simple solutions and need to be reminded of them. Not to mention, waiting can be uncomfortable. Plus, the ‘time is the answer’ isn’t always the answer when there’s a ‘window of opportunity’ that’s closing. So how can you tell the when to wait and when to respond?

 

Perhaps in discerning that answer, the concept of time needs to be explored a bit. The Greeks had two definitions of time. One was chronos time and referred to chronological time. Or clock time. It’s when you put a cake in the oven and set it for one hour and then it’s done. One minute over and it can burn. One minute under and it it’s mushy in the middle. Chronos time is precise and the need to act becomes apparent immediately. Like when your child has a 106 fever—that’s an emergency. A broken bone is another emergency that requires action (get X-ray and cast) and then allow chronos time to heal.

 

Kairos time is the other explanation of time the Greeks identified. Kairos is Divine Time or God Time. It’s the ethereal relative time concept. Like when you missed the train and discovered you were right where you were supposed to be. Serendipity and ‘no coincidences’ exist in Kairos time. I believe prayer and miraculous healing happen in Kairos time as well.

 

Kairos time happens alongside chronos time. I think it’s a lot like the concept of Heaven and Earth. The two realities co-exist yet only one can be seen and measured.

Still, Kairos time has a way of being seen and felt in magical ways. In addition, there’s the point where Kairos and chronos time merge.

 

You may recall the expression, the teacher shows up when the student is ready?

 

Nature provides us with abundant examples of the merging of chronos and Kairos time. (Almost as if nature itself serves as one of our teachers when we are ready to learn from her.)

 

Think about the time it takes a seed to sprout. You might recall the activity in elementary school of placing a seed in a plastic bag with a wet paper towel and waiting weeks to see it finally transform. It was miraculous. It also appeared to occur in chronos time. 

 

Some seeds differ. They sprout in their time. That difference of accepting a seed to sprout in its time begins to touch on the lessons Kairos time teaches us. For instance, the lesson from the bamboo tree is significant.

 

Just when you think nothing in your life is going to change, the bamboo reveals to us that change can still happen if you are patient. The bamboo seed when planted does not produce anything in the first year. Or the second year. Or the third year. Not even the fourth year. (How many people would have given up that first year and figured it was dead??) Then all of a sudden in its fifth year, it shoots up 25 FEET like Jack’s bean stock.

 

If that’s not impressive, wheat cannot flower until it has lived through its first hard winter. Get a couple of years without the proper cold snap and it patiently waits. Apparently, hardship can produce amazing results.

 

There’s also one of my favorite examples of time and its cosmic planetary connection to life deep within our seas. Many know the critical importance of the coral reefs to our planet’s overall health. They are endangered and can only reproduce one time of year—in August. The time is precise as the coral reefs begin to spawn exactly seven days after the full moon in August and 30 minutes after the sun sets. Magical clockwork. Chronos and Kairos time combined.

 

What can we learn from the lessons of chronos and Kairos time? Whatever is happening in your life and with your health can be cured by this same combination of time. Have Faith and Let Divine Time guide you…and heal you. It’s actually already happening in your life right at this very moment. Reading this was just a reminder to let you know it. See, there’s no coincidence you read this article.:) You are right on time! Blessed and healing wishes your way!

Comments

[Liz]

Thank you Kimberly, your timing was divine! I suppose 'haste makes waste' fits in there somewhere. The impatience we all experience while slogging through change or healing can sabotage our lives in so many ways. Fear can get us by our inner human clock and make that minute on either side of perfect feel like an eternity. Isn't it so often our own fear induced intervention that disrupts the very healing we need so badly? My father had some great 'made up' words. One was 'mucksing'. When he would see me messing around with something not needing my hands, words or ideas he would say, "Quit mucksing with it" or "Quit your mucksing". At times I find myself not only 'mucksing' with my own healing, but doing the same with others. Sometimes the real truth is that when the teacher is ready, the student appears.

[Kimberly]

Mucksing!! I love that!!! Ahh, see that is yet another lesson I get to learn from a treasured teacher! Mushy love and more!