Kairos time is God’s time. It is time divorced from the weight of checklists and tasks. It is time that brings heaven to earth and unites the temporary with the eternal.
QUESTION: What opportunities are in front of you today?
3.) Own our choices.
Here is a sobering but true reality: Our lives are a product of our choices. Yes, I speak generally. Not all circumstances are a direct product of our choices. But most are. The people who own their choices are the ones who experience peace and joy in life.
Love. Fear. Anger. Bitterness. Resentment. All of these are choices. The clothes we wear. The decisions we make. The places we go. The circumstances we are in. When I look back over my life, I feel the weight of this hard lesson. My life is my choices.
Even events in my life, such as malignant skin cancer, are a product of choices. As a fair skinned red head, I chose to expose myself to the sun, most likely increasing the odds of Melanoma. And once I got the cancer, I had choices to make. I could drown in my sorrows. I could play the “woe is me” card. Or I could accept the reality, trust Melanoma as part of God’s plan, and fight. I certainly had difficult days, but I couldn’t just lay down.
We have the power to play the victim card. For some of us, the card is warranted. But at our core, we know this card doesn’t produce life.
God has given us a great gift to choose. We must steward this gift well.
QUESTION: What choices do you need to make to increase your peace and joy today?
4.) Slow. Down.
In his book A Faith That Endures, Ronald Boyd-MacMillan tells the story of a conversation with Wang Mingdao, one of the most famous Chinese pastors in the last century. In this dialogue, Mingdao asks MacMillan, “How do you walk with God?” MacMillan responds by listing off spiritual disciplines, such as Bible study, prayer, etc. A common American Christian response.
To this, Wingdao, responds, “Wrong answer. To walk with God, you must move at a walking pace.”
To walk with God, we must move at God’s pace, not ours.
When I read that sentence, I was convicted. My life is so hurried. And this speaks to why I occasionally feel overwhelmed and distant from God.
We are running through life hurriedly, and God isn’t running with us. Because God doesn’t run. The longer we move at this pace, the wider the gap becomes between us and God.
Walking with God, enjoying the fruits of a meaningful, peaceful life, means we move at God’s pace.
QUESTION: Are you moving at the world’s pace or God’s pace?
5.) Learn the art of saying no.
The connectedness of our world affords us opportunities not available 50 years ago. The list of good things is endless. So, eliminating events from our schedule is not enough. The real battle to achieve rhythm in life comes in deciding which GOOD things to eliminate.
Yes, you read that correctly. We do too many good things. We sign up for all the outreach opportunities. We try to disciple every child at our church. We attempt to do every good thing on the schedule.
Seriously, what have we accomplished if our name is on every sign-up list at church, school, etc., but we are teetering on the edge of burn-out and exhaustion?
A life of rhythm frees us from the choking weight of dabbling in every good thing.
When we discover our calling and purpose, we create a filter for events. Because we know what areas line up with our gifts and talents, we have the power to say no to everything else. Without a purpose and calling, there is no filter. Every good thing is fair game.
QUESTION: You need to say no to some good things today. What are they?
6.) Write down our needs, and focus our time and energy on them.
A life of rhythm is the cadence of God. So, a life of rhythm will always focus more on the kind of person you are becoming than the activities you are doing. In the first post on rhythm, I mentioned Matthew Kelly’s four areas of need: physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual.
When we neglect these needs and focus on getting things done, accumulating large bank accounts or pursuing large followings, chaos is sure to come. God didn’t create us to pursue these things. He created us to pursue Him.
