The sun came up this morning . . .
as it has every morning for eons.
December 17, 2017
I derive comfort from that fact. Human experience is full of vicissitudes, changes, unpredictables, disappointments with the net effect of all that uncertainty being often an underlying anxiety: 'We are ultimately not in control. Is there a consistency, a reliability anywhere?'
Yesterday we began our annual Advent/Christmas time at the beach. Well before arriving, I begin anticipating arising early and with my cup(s) of coffee watching the sun rise over the Atlantic Ocean. It 'restores my soul' like few other experiences. The rhythm of the tide soothes me in ways that I can not articulate. About the best that I can explain it to myself is that I reset my life's clock to God's metronome .
It's a necessary contretemps to the pervasive pace and routine of 'modern life'. Additionally, for me, it allows a perspective that goes beyond the 'right now' (as important as the 'right now' can be ---sometime).
Our weather forecast for the next couple of days suggests that seeing the actual sunrise may be problematic because of the clouds. I find a helpful metaphor there. Again, the right now can be quite 'stormy' and not just 'overcast'. The 'theologian' Little Orphan Annie sang it: "The sun'll come up tomorrow ! " That's HOPE and not wishful thinking requiring a time frame beyond the clock and calendar. Somewhere in my theological studies I learned another meaning of "time" other than chronological. KAIROS (according Wikipedia) means "the appointed time in the purpose of God" for the fulfillment of greater issues than the evening newscast. With that I hear overtures for Advent, the preparation for greater meaning than the immediate.
Watching the sun rise over the waves reminds me to keep the chronos and the kairos in conversation. Perhaps a better way to say it . . . to allow the kairos to keep the chronos in perspective and not be the entirety of our existence.
Satchel
