I have a re-occurring dream which visits me in the night watch. I am at play practice and it is almost time for my lines. I have no script. I feel the lines should already be in my heart but remembering them eludes me. I ask for a script and begin hurriedly scanning the pages, looking for my parts. The pages remain unrecognizable and I awake.
In many respects, life can seem like a theatrical production with each act representing the many phases of life we pass through, beginning with birth. This concept is found throughout literature, going back to Greek writings, but really coming into populace thinking as far back as the 12th century. In 1511, Renaissance humanist writer Erasmus expressed the rhetorical question, “For what else is the life of man but a kind of play in which men in various costumes perform until the director motions them off stage?”[1]
William Shakespeare presented this same concept in several of his plays. In The Merchant of Venice, Antonio morosely declares, “I hold the world but as the world…a stage where every man must play a part, and mine a sad one.”[2]
I began to grasp the understanding that life really does have a script in early 1989 when I first began to recognize some of my kairos moments. I was sitting at my hallway desk at the Elizabeth Arden production plant in Acton, England. I was onsite at Arden working as a software implementation consultant and I was helping facilitate the implementation of ASI’s many products. The project was massive, spanning most of Europe and the entire international Arden business. This was 1989, before the Euro; every country had its own currency and exchange rates fluctuated hourly. Currencies had to be converted and each financial transaction properly processed. I was staring at a printout of the transaction codes being fed with each line item into General Ledger. Everything had to be perfect. It was heady stuff.
The cold winter air was ripe with a recent production run of the famous Lagerfeld cologne. A small dose of this scent on the right guy, would be most welcome. However, thousands of bottles of Lagerfeld tooling off the production line made the most sympathetic olfactory receptacles scream with overload! At this moment in life, my olfactory reception was complete and I had a headache.
I happened to look up at a devotional page I had taped to the wall above my desk. I had many papers taped to this space simply to cover up the aged, cracked mint green plaster and to provide a bit of cheer to this drab little hallway. Business cards, postcards from friends, phone numbers, international calling codes, etc. lined this small personal space. The verse attached to the devotional finally got my attention: “You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.”[3]
Just the night before I had puzzled over another passage: “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”[4]
My thoughts wandered back to the day in 1982 when I had my first interview with ASI. That day was rainy too, and I had just finished up my last day of employment with a downtown car dealership where I processed fleet leasing paperwork. My biggest account was Rollins. John Willis, the Account Manager at Rollins convinced me to consider talking with his wife. Connie Willis was the office manager at ASI. My work and cheerful outlook had brought me to his attention. He recognized I was bright and very capable. I found favor in his sight.
Since it was my last day, I had taken no lunch in order to finish out all of my paperwork. I was given my last paycheck but there was no time to go to the bank. Traffic leaving downtown Atlanta was heavy and my little grey Chevette’s gas tank was running on fumes. Piedmont Road had no gas stations through that part of town. I had no cash until I could get to the bank. As traffic inched past Piedmont Park, I muttered a basic plea for the gas to hold out. At that time in my life, my attention was not on God or His place and purpose for my life. I was living strictly for myself and my own pleasures.
Traffic backed up again and my car’s engine began to sputter. The rain picked up and soon it was coming down very heavily. As I drove parallel to the Rollins main office building on Piedmont Road, the car engine sputtered one more time and then it died. I managed to get the car into the center turning lane just before it stopped completely.
Panic gripped my heart. I was on my way to the ASI interview and I had no job to fall back on. My watch showed 6:15. I was supposed to be in Buckhead by 6:30. Now the rain was coming down in torrents and I had no umbrella. I tried, over and over to start the car, but I knew it was out of gas. I sat there for a few minutes, hoping the rain would lighten up but it didn’t. There was only one thought that kept coming to me: “Go see if Mr. Willis is still at Rollins.”
I opened the car door and stepped out into the heavy rain. Car horns blared on both sides of the busy, four-lane road. I managed to get across the road but the rain was so heavy I could not run without slipping. Fearing a fall, I hurried up the drive way to the security gate. The guard quickly met me and offered the use of the guard shack phone. He even called and found Mr. Willis still in his office at Rollins. This fact I still find amazing.
By the time John got down to the guard shack, I was thoroughly soaked and in tears. I had no cash for gas. I had tried to start the car so many times the carburetor had to be primed when John got gas for the car. Of course I was soaked and in no shape to go to the biggest interview of my life.
Such are the elements of kairos moments. This Greek word uniquely captures these fixed, incredible, often chaotic and messy occasions. Kairos defines these opportunities as ‘convenient or inconvenient’.[5] Kairos implies that the moment is rare, fixed, of short duration and it can occur as a suddenly. Behind the broad meaning of the word is the understanding that kairos captures ‘a set appointed, proper time‘; a time that has been ordered up based upon a plan. In comparison to kairos is another Greek word, chronos – which speaks of an interval of time or a season; and it is chronos that drives the clocks and watches of life.[6]
Back at my Arden hallway desk, with my head throbbing from the rank smell of too much cologne, I suddenly understood it was a divine thing to have the right desires planted deep within my heart AND even more supreme to see them come to pass.
“In all things He is working for my good,” the apostle Paul wrote to the people in Rome – and eventually to all of us.[7] Some translations imply that “all things work together” but that is not how the Greek text reads. Paul made sure to use the preposition “eis” and through that simple word to declare that God was not responsible for all the bad things going on in life – BUT – in the space of time and set of circumstances, God was working even the bad things out for our good.[8]
Following the Biblical script of the life of Jesus, I’ve often contemplated the role of the priesthood as Jesus walked the earth. Moses (the Old Testament man God used to facilitate the deliverance of the enslaved Hebrew people from their Egyptian masters several thousand years earlier) painted a clear picture of the role of the priesthood in preparing the many different sacrifices required to cover the sins of the people. It was the job of the priests to receive the sacrifices, to prepare them based upon the defined handling procedures and eventually to slay the sacrifice and shed the blood.[9]
The priests of Jesus’ day stepped forward in angry rejection and jealousy of his power, his words and his miraculous works. God used the rejection of the priesthood and the people to facilitate His plan. In the Gospel of John, Jesus declares, “I AM the good shepherd…and I lay down my life…no one takes it from me.“[10]
The priests were on the stage of their lives – and they had fixed cures. They diligently studied all the scriptures, eagerly searching for the promised Messiah, yet when the appointed time arrived – their Kairos – they missed Him.
Kairos moments, throughout history, have shaped the destiny of every individual given life. The apostle Paul added one more interesting layer to the full meaning behind kairos. The people of Philippi had sorely mistreated Paul and his friend Silas. Jealous merchants incited a riot and caused Paul and Silas to be arrested and severely beaten without a fair trial. Yet, in the midst of the chaos and confusion, Providence prevailed. Paul eventually wrote back to the Philippians and made this amazing proclamation: “God is at work in you – both to will and to work for His good pleasure.“[11]
As my life progresses through the Divine script – through these stages as recognized by so many generations past – it is my desire to hear the cues and know my part, even if I can’t control the response of any of the other players. At the end of the day, I can only be responsible for myself and my actions. I have peace to respect this great truth AND I have hope – from Theos Elpis – The God of all hope – that in all things concerning me He is working for His good pleasure and ultimately – for my good.[12]
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[1] Erasmus, “The Praise of Folly,” 1511; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_the_world%27s_a_stage; accessed June 18, 2013.
[2]Shakespeare, William, “The Merchant of Venice,” Act I, Scene I; 1600, Oxford, England.
[3]Psalm 145:16, “The Comparative Study Bible – The New International Version,” copyright 1999, Zondervan Publishing, Grand Rapids, MI; page 1585.
[4] Psalm 37:4; ibid, page 1417.
[5]Kairos #2540; Strong, James, “The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible,” copyright 1995, 1996; Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, TN; page 45.
[6]Chronos #5550; ibid; page 99.
[7] Romans 8:28, “The Comparative Study Bible – The New International Version,” copyright 1999, Zondervan Publishing, Grand Rapids, MI; page 2883.
[8]Eis #1519; Strong, James, “The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible,” copyright 1995, 1996; Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, TN; page 27.
[9] Leviticus 8:1-36; “The Comparative Study Bible – The New International Version,” copyright 1999, Zondervan Publishing, Grand Rapids, MI; page 275-279.
[10] John 10:14-18,”The Comparative Study Bible – The New International Version,” copyright 1999, Zondervan Publishing, Grand Rapids, MI; page 2727.
[11] Philippians 2:13, “The Comparative Study Bible – The New International Version,” copyright 1999, Zondervan Publishing, Grand Rapids, MI; page 3019.
[12]Romans 15:13, “The Comparative Study Bible – The New International Version,” copyright 1999, Zondervan Publishing, Grand Rapids, MI; page 2901.
Not A Matter of Talk 