Kairos Over Chronos
The Ancient Greeks had two words for time: chronos and kairos. Chronos is sequential, quantitative time used to measure our minutes, hours, days, months, etc. We think about chronos time when we schedule our days, and in the end, we wish we had more time to do everything we wanted to do. Kairos, on the other hand, is qualitative time that can easily fluctuate. It means that some moments present opportunities that are more meaningful than others. Kairos time is not structured; it is spontaneous and free-flowing. It is the name for those moments in life where it is easy to forget about chronos time because the experiences in the present moment simply cannot be measured. It is the moments where we intentionally pause and think, “Wow, God is so good,” and we take in the rich blessings of simply living in God’s grace.
I recognize my chronos of living in Greece is 65 days as of today. I am halfway through my Greek adventure. Just over two months have passed, and it feels like I’ve been here a long time, but it also seems to be going quickly. I think this is because I’ve been living in kairos. Besides attending my classes, submitting my assessments, and catching my flights, trains, or buses at a specific, planned time, chronos time has become less of a focus for me in Greece. Instead, I am more focused on making the most of the opportunities and experiences God has given me here. So far, I feel incredibly blessed and satisfied with how rich and meaningful my study abroad experience has been. I am growing through challenges, expanding my perspectives through many different and new experiences, and forming relationships and connections with many complex and interesting people. Living more in kairos has brought me so much joy and helps me see God’s hand in every aspect of life.
When I reflect on the goals I made before leaving the U.S., I realize there are several parts to each of the two goals I am working towards. Therefore, I cannot pick one of my expansive goals and say I’ve made the most progress on that particular one. I have seen growth in some areas more than others. My self-confidence and independency have definitely increased. Before arriving in Greece and in my first couple weeks here, I felt very inadequate and almost unprepared to take on this experience because I didn’t have confidence in myself and my abilities to find success independently in a new environment. However, since then, I have felt more confident and comfortable connecting with people from all cultural backgrounds. I have immersed myself in opportunities to learn more about Greek culture. I have found success in navigating public transportation, doing daily living activities in my neighborhood, and planning trips to places in Greece and abroad, even when these things started as struggles. One mini goal I have is to do something new every day. So far, there has only been a handful of days where I haven’t. Overall, I am very happy with my growth in these areas.
There are a few improvements I would like to make in the second half of my experience. My first improvement is focusing intentionally on forming concrete habits I can carry on in my life after studying abroad. One of my initial goals was organizing a routine for being in God’s Word and self-care. I feel I started strong in these areas during my first few weeks. However, as time passed, I found myself fitting these things around the travel days, new experiences, and course assessments. I want to focus on daily spending time with God in his Word and prayer in the morning before my classes instead of only listening to a sermon or devotion from home as I commute, run, or do apartment chores. Also, my workout schedule has not been consistent. I’ve started to run on the mountain trails and in the neighborhoods with a friend, but it has been very sporadic. We’ve recently made it our goal to stick to a schedule for running and participating in a yoga class at ACG afterward. My writing in my reflection journal has also been slacking recently. I have started bringing my journal everywhere so I can write during traveling and short downtimes. It’s challenging to find a time to intentionally reflect when all I want to do is experience, experience, experience. Finally, one of my goals is to travel around Greece and Europe alone. I have only done one solo excursion to downtown Athens so far, and that’s the extent of the progress on this goal. As of now, I don’t plan on traveling to other cities in Europe alone because I’ve decided I’d like to spend most of my time in Greece. However, I would like to make more solo day trips to places I have yet to explore in Greece.
The last area I would like to reflect on is adapting to Greek culture. One of the biggest culture shocks for me, initially, was timeliness. It’s uncommon to attend any event before the start time, whether it is class, an activity, or meeting a friend for coffee. From my experience, many Greeks show up 10-15 minutes late, which is normal. This was bizarre and a bit frustrating initially, but I’ve come to accept it. Also, public transportation is not always reliable. Recently, there have been several strikes to protest needed advancements in the Hellenic train system ever since the devastating, fatal tragedy of a passenger train colliding with a cargo train in northern Greece a couple of weeks ago. There have been times when I’ve wanted to take the metro or suburban railway, but an unforeseen strike had started, and I had to find another way. Traveling to downtown Athens from Agia Paraskevi sometimes takes an hour or longer. I have come to understand and expect traveling by public transportation to take a long time. Eating at restaurants or sipping coffee at cafes are also several hours-long events. This part of Greek culture I have really appreciated. It’s about stepping into kairos from chronos and enjoying your company with meaningful conversation and good laughs.
For the second half of my adventure, I plan to keep measuring my time in kairos rather than chronos; in meaningful experiences and connections with others rather than the things on my to-do list; in the moments where I can only pause and say “God is so good” rather than forgetting to thank and praise him for the countless blessings he’s given me. “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be the glory!” (Ephesians 3:20-21).
