A colleague was telling me recently how she had spent a whole day convinced that it was Tuesday, only to be assured in the late evening that it really was Thursday after all. How often we use phrases like ‘the last week has gone so quickly’ or ‘it feels like years since the holiday’? Time, and how we measure it, is strange. But time and how we feel it can be even stranger.
We are about to mess with time once again, as on Saturday 28 October we will move our clocks backwards by one hour. Some of us will be glad of that extra hour and some of us will be sad at the even darker evenings.
Christians sometimes talk about time in different ways. There is what we call ‘chronos’ time, which is all about the measurement of time: whether we need the cake in the oven for 30 minutes or 35 minutes makes a big difference as all fans of ‘Bake Off’ will know. But alongside the important task of counting time, there is another concept sometimes called ‘kairos’ time, which was used in Jesus’ day to express more about how we feel time.
The Gospel writers use the idea of ‘kairos’ time to tell us that it was the right moment in history for something significant to happen. God is breaking into the world through Jesus and things will be different. Jesus is using this sense of ‘kairos’ time when he says ‘Now is the hour’ in John’s Gospel, meaning the right moment has arrived for him to face the cross, and fulfil his purpose.
As we go into the ‘clock change’ and it feels like autumn is truly here, now could be the right time to think about life and faith, or to do something different. In November, we are launching Pray like Hannah, inviting all of us to pray each day for children in creative ways – maybe it’s time to take a minute to do just that. Or maybe it’s the right time to reflect on where God is and has been for you in the past week, whether on the bus, playing with the grandchildren, answering emails or reading something new. Everyday faith is about being aware of the time we have, and how we are using it, wherever we find ourselves. In this coming season, I’m trying not just to measure time, but to feel time, and to notice how God is calling me to use time each day in ways that connect with God, God’s purpose, and God’s people.
For the month of November, we’re encouraging Christians to Pray Like Hannah. Each day of the month there will be post on our social media channels, released at 6am. If you would like to, you can share our posts or schedule your own using our material.
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There appears to be no comment, prayer or anything coming from the Church of England or any of the Christian community about the war between Hamas and Israel despite the fact that many Christians have been affected. Frankly this is just unbelievable and unacceptable.
Hello Diana, I would encourage you to look at the front page of this website, or at the various things happening constantly on Twitter – prayers, articles, comments, engagement in all sorts of community actions and protests. This may be a good place to start: https://twitter.com/JustinWelby