I was sitting in a board meeting the other day and the agenda called for a moment of prayer. One of the board members began his prayer by thanking God for our time to be together. He specifically thanked the Lord for “both chronos and kairos” time.

Those two terms caught my attention, so I went looking for definitions. It seems there are two Greek concepts of time. Apparently, “chronos” time is quantitative. It is a sequential measurement of time, and it is counted by minutes and hours.

We see an example of “chronos time” in our Bible as the days of creation are accounted for: “There was evening and morning-the first day”. You can almost see the pages of a calendar turn.

But “kairos time” is qualitative. It refers to key or special opportunities. The moments in “kairos time” are significant. And in the scriptures, these moments are often when God intervenes in human history. It is on “kairos time” (“the fullness of time”) that Jesus was born, went to the cross and was resurrected.

As I considered my friends prayer, it occurred to me that most of us spend an immense amount of time preoccupied with our chronometers, our watches! We are focused on the passage of minutes and hours. Here in California, we don’t even use miles to indicate distance, we use “chronos time.” (i.e. “It is about 20 minutes away…”)

And when we are fixated on the tick, tick, tick of time, we can become unresponsive to God’s movement in our lives. We might miss what He is doing with “kairos time.” We might be racing to get dinner on the table, but our sweet child might just need some “snuggle time.”

Or maybe the irritation of a spill of some kind on the freeway might just be an opportunity to allow us a few moments to “chill a bit” before our upcoming meeting. It’s not how long we wait those matters, but how we use those “kairos” moments that matter.

So maybe this week, let’s all take a proverbial deep breath and increase our sensitivity to “kairos time.” Let’s be alert to circumstances that seemingly “interrupt” our day. Let’s watch for moments that can turn into life altering events. Let’s seek out “pauses” that will refresh our thinking and enrich our relationships.

Watches, clocks, phones with digital alarms and calendars can all be helpful. But keeping our attention on the passage of “chronos time” sure can grab our attention away from people, events and opportunities that really matter.

“Kairos time” might afford us a moment that lasts for eternity.