Tomorrow is my birthday and another year has passed. The older we get the faster time flies, and we measure it in years rather than days.

There’s never enough time for everything we want to do, even when we’re retired. But there are two ways of thinking about time: the Greek word ‘kronos’ is about the linear time of minutes, hours and days that govern all our lives.

It gives us deadlines, appointments, working hours – and exhaustion! The other Greek word is ‘kairos’, which speaks of a moment in time, and is more about the experience of time standing still. We lose awareness of time passing (kronos) and live in the moment (kairos).

Lifestyle gurus tell us that we need more kairos-time in our lives, hence the promotion of techniques such as mindfulness, meditation etc. Christians look to the example of Jesus. Reading his story, he always seems to have time for people, he seems in control in every situation, and he never rushes from one thing to the next.

His secret? Every morning he goes up into the hills to pray. Those are his ‘kairos moments’. He connects with the God who is outside of time and yet who chose, in Jesus, to share our experience of kronos time. Jesus only had three years to pack in all that he came to do, and yet he found the kairos time to power his spiritual batteries ready for the pressure of each day.

Mindfulness looks to whatever resources we have within ourselves. Prayer looks for a strength from beyond ourselves; so that when we come to the end of ourselves, and we have nothing within ourselves to give, we can still connect with the God who has all the time in the world. So why not try praying?