Your Time Has Arrived

 

Each fall, I remind our school leaders, teachers, and especially our 8th graders that we hold them to high expectations. For our soon-to-be graduates, the sand in the hourglass is slipping quickly. Their time with us is short—what will they do with it before they leave for high school?

I began my remarks this year with the phrase: “Your time has arrived.”

The Greeks had two words for time: Chronos and Kairos.

• Chronos is measured time—minutes, hours, days, months, years.
• Kairos is “God’s time”—the right time, sacred time, a moment of opportunity.

As leaders in our school, our students live in both. The question is: will they seize the opportunities before them, or will they let them pass by? This moment will never come again. Will they seize the day—or sleepwalk through the year?

Time, of course, has always captured our imagination. Jim Croce wished he could save it in a bottle. Cyndi Lauper sang about “Time After Time.” The Rolling Stones insisted that “Time Is on My Side.” Hootie & the Blowfish named a song “Time,” while Darius Rucker admitted, “Time ain’t no friend of mine.”

And then there’s the Byrds, who took their hit Turn, Turn, Turn straight from the book of Ecclesiastes:

• A time to be born, and a time to die
• A time to plant, and a time to reap
• A time to kill, and a time to heal
• A time to laugh, and a time to weep

That same scripture also reminds us that for God, there is a time to judge every deed. For those of us further along in life, Judgment Day can feel daunting, especially when we recall the words of Matthew 25:

• When I was hungry, did you give me to eat?
• When I was thirsty, did you give me to drink?
• When I was naked, did you clothe me?
• When I was sick, did you look after me?
  
  

On that day, God may not dwell on why we failed in certain moments. Instead, He may ask: Did you use your time to care for the least of your brothers and sisters?

But here’s the Good News: we still have time. Each morning brings new opportunities to live differently, love better, and serve more generously. Some say life is not a video game—that there are no do-overs. I would argue that, while life isn’t like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, where you relive the same day until you get it right, God still grants us fresh chances every single day.

Every sunrise is a new beginning. Every encounter is a choice:

• To affirm someone’s gifts, or to pass them by unnoticed.
• To see each person as a beloved child of God, or to “walk on by,” as Dionne Warwick once sang.

 So the question remains: What will you do with your time?