[BE] Still and Know

Our mortal existence has limits.
When we are born, the clock starts.
Life [BE]gins.

Regardless of what we do to speed up or slow down the clock, one fact is indisputable. One day, the clock will stop. The sand will run out of our glass.

It’s not something to fear
Nothing to protest.
It just is.

But here is the great mystery.
The incarnation demonstrates that THIS mortal life,
this limited, fragile, time-sensitive life
is worth the journey.

It is so worth the journey, that God stepped into the human experience to live, breathe, grow, eat, drink, sleep, live, laugh, love, dance, cry, pray, and play.

God came to [BE]!

It was to THIS world, this limited, fragile, time-sensitive life that John referred when he penned, “God so love the world that he gave his only son…”

God entered into space and time, to demonstrate on a cosmic level that while limited in number, any minute can be packed with eternity. Every temporal bundle of 60 seconds can be infused with eternal significance and beauty.

That’s why the New Testament uses two words for time: Chronos and Kairos.

Chronos is a word that means clock time.  It is the root of “chronology.”
Chronos is sequential time: the measuring or tracking of the minutes on the clock or the sands in your hourglass.

Kairos describes a different kind of time altogether.
Kairos is time that is pregnant with possibility.
Kairos describes a moment of opportunity and grace.

In fact, that may be the simplest way to understand it.
Chronos is a minute. Kairos is a moment.
Can you feel the difference?

The good news that Jesus came to proclaim was that your life,
this one, the one you’re living,
whether elated and exuberant,
or depleted and void of anything that even resembles hope;
THIS life can be infused with moments of holiness, grace, beauty and love.

And here’s where the good news gets even better.
Those moments are not constructed by our energies and efforts.
They are not made by our striving, nor our best intentions.
They come to us as Grace from a God who has intended for life to [BE] this way.

Fact.
We cannot manufacture Kairos moments in time.
But there is one thing we can do.
We can learn to see them, so that we might live into and out of them daily.
We can discipline ourselves recognize those moments when they are near.
We can steady the mind and still the soul.

We can steady the mind and still the soul.

Is this what the Psalmist meant in Psalm 46:10?

“[BE] still, and know that I am God.”

“[BE] still, and know that I am…”

“[BE] still, and know…”

“[BE] still…”

“[BE]”

Have I told you lately how much I love being your Pastor?
Well, I do.

Shaun King
Senior Pastor
Johns Creek Baptist Church