Henri Nouwen has written that a significant step in spiritual maturity and discernment involves the difference between cronos time and kairos time.
Cronos time is chronological time and has to do with calendars and clocks. When someone is making a decision based on cronos time, they look at the clock and say, “It’s time for the board meeting.” Whether or not everyone is present and prepared doesn’t matter, because according to the clock, the time has come.
Time has arrived.
Kairos time, however, has to do with readiness and timeliness. When someone is making a decision based on kairos time, they look at a pregnant woman and say, “It’s time for the baby to come into the world.” Whatever the clock or calendar says is inconsequential. According to the signs in the bodies of the mother and baby, time has come.
Time has become full.
Our world is ordered and ruled mercilessly by cronos time. The spiritual life is directed and led peacefully by kairos time. Being overly concerned with cronos makes us impatient, but being concerned with kairos produces the spiritual fruit of patience.
Being a spiritual person in the way of Jesus means reckoning with cronos while growing in sensitivity to kairos. It means moving from a life in which any time will do, to a mode of acting and being that is sensitive to the fullness of time.
