Time

The created sequential dimension in which we experience life in the eternity of God.

Story: Deal or No-deal?

Tom: We need to get this deal done quickly because I must be at the Airport at 5 pm.

Mai: Why are you in such a hurry? We have all day.

Tom: Well, I have other meetings scheduled and must stick to my schedule.

Mai: But this is an important business deal, Tom. We need to take our time and make sure we get it right. We can’t rush through it just because you have other appointments.

Tom: I understand that, but my time is valuable too. We need to make the most of our time and be efficient with our discussions.

Mai: I see. However, we believe building relationships is just as crucial as making deals. We take our time to get to know our business partners and establish trust before we move forward with any agreements.

Tom: I appreciate that, but I have a tight schedule. Can we just get to the deal?

Tom felt frustrated. He couldn’t understand why they couldn’t just get down to business and finish the deal quickly. He felt like he was wasting his time.

Tom: I’m sorry, but I can’t stay any longer. I need to leave now.

Mai: I’m sorry to hear that, Tom. We were hoping to establish a long-term business relationship with your company. Still, I guess we’ll have to wait until you have more time.

As Tom left the meeting, he couldn’t help but feel he had missed out on a great business opportunity.

Examples from the Bible

  • Jesus was present in the past during creation (John 1:1-4). He was before Abraham (John 8:58), and David was born (Psalm 110:1, Matthew 22:41-46).
  • Paul encourages the church in Ephesus to make the most of the moment (Ephesians 5:16) by using the word “kairos” (the appointed time) in this passage. However, this verse is often interpreted along the lines of making the most of the time you have available by LOR preachers.
  • Jesus is timeless. He is the one“who is, and who was, and who is to come” (Revelation 1:8).
  • The Israelites gather for the Feast of Booths (Sukkot) every year on the fifteenth day of the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar to remember their 40-year wilderness journey (Leviticus 23:24).
  • The Jews had sacred times. The religious leaders became angry at Jesus because He healed a man on Sabbath (Mark 3:1-6).
  • Jesus’ resurrection was of such significance for the early church that the day for worship became the “day of the Lord,” Sunday instead of Saturday (Acts 20:7).
  • Peter encourages the persecuted church, saying that one day is like 1000 years for God and vice versa (2 Peter 3:8).
  • In his Song, Moses writes that for God, past and present are not measured in human time because He is beyond time (Psalms 90:4).
  • Daniel used to pray three times a day toward Jerusalem (Daniel 6:10).

Real-life examples

  • Oral cultures would say make the most of the moment emphasizing the here and now while LOR people tend to say make the most of your time. We can’t add days to our life but we can add life to our moments.
  • Many HOR cultures think that when we call a meeting, the time we announce a starting time is unimportant. People get there as they can, and we don’t really consider someone as “late.”
  • “When Aboriginal people draw, sing and dance the story of Jesus and celebrate the Lord’s Supper, they do not think of him as being in the past. To them, he is jukurrpa, “he is present.”1
  • In many developing nations, we can observe that work, worship, and other official meetings follow the LOR model of punctuality. At the same time, all other leisure activities follow the relaxed HOR relaxed way of life. In the Philippines, for example, many churches start with a countdown timer on time. Still, the same people will be very flexible with the time when attending an informal Bible study.
  • A community development worker in Africa was trying hard to bring about change in a community by teaching them how to use analytic tools to plan for the future planting and harvest season. He was very frustrated because people did not adopt his methods. It took him a while to realize that if people’s needs for the here and now are unmet, they could not even think about the future.

Relevance

Time for some relates to the present in light of the past. Others relate to the present in terms of the present and future. Although it is not a universal principle, it shows some cultures’ tendencies to highly value a long-term approach to life. In contrast, others look at only today and what got us here. It is essential because this is how people see themselves as part of history and the world. Are we in an endless loop of time where everything repeats itself? Is God a part of time and space or outside of it? How we answer these questions depends on our worldview.

Where will you stand or sit when we tell a story in some African contexts? When is it appropriate to gather the entire group to share stories?

Cultures and religions have always practiced sacred times and places of defining significance. The Ramadan, Passover, and Easter feasts are some examples of sacred times.

Orality preference continuum

It is easy to see the two extreme ends of this continuum.

In the continuum, HOR cultures tend to seed time as circular (this is also greatly affected by religion). The activity qualifies time.

The tendency of LOR people is to quantify time by a clock. People from the LOR end of the continuum are very punctual and clock-driven.

In reality, there is no such thing as not valuing time. Also, HOR people can be driven by a clock when life demands it (workplace, for example). The following criteria give us a better understanding of time to HOR and LOR cultures.

Very highHighLowVery low
Our primary concern is what we are doing in our current activity. We experience it as it unfolds (kairos oriented).We see the activity of the moment with only slight concern for what might happen later (Kairos is affected by Chronos).Time is seen as how we look at the present with how it affects the future (Chronos is affected by Kairos).Time is measured, and is the rhythm measured in mutually understandable sequences (chronos oriented).
Considered “late” arriving hours after others or when the main event had already begun.
Lateness is qualified (if everyone is having a good time while waiting, it’s ok).		If others are still coming in, one is not considered “late.”Considered “late” after the meeting already started.Considered “late” if not present at the set time.
Lateness is quantified (everyone starts looking at the clock and knows how many minutes past).
The rhythm of life and nature is how we live out our days (seasons, sunrise).The rhythm of life aids our plans to start a task (preparing to pay for seeds to plant before the rainy season begins).I must pay for the seeds to be planted by the first of the month, or I will be charged interest.Time is defined by calendars and the clock. The seed store opens at 7:00 am and closes at 5:00 pm.

What has been discovered?

Time means different things in different cultural contexts. It gets at the core of who we are and how & when things are done.2

Monochronic time orientation focuses on one life event at a time, while polychronic time can focus simultaneously in multiple directions. This perspective (of Hall) led to many more detailed explanations – like high and low context cultures.3

“Clock time” is a novel invention and value system.4

Differences in time orientation drive emerging youth cultures and adults into potentially compromised relationships.5

Additional resources

  1. Jordan, Ivan, and Frank Tucker. “Using Indigenous Art to Communicate the Christian Message.” Evangelical Missions Quarterly 38, no. 3 (2002): 302–9). ↩︎
  2. Jelena Mraovic. The Perception of Time in Different Cultures.
    https://clockify.me/blog/managing-time/time-perception/#What_is_time_in_society_and_culture. ↩︎
  3. Hall, E. T. (1983). The dance of life: The other dimension of time. Garden City: Anchor Press.
    https://nobaproject.com/modules/time-and-culture.
    Levine, R., & Norenzayan, A. (1999). The pace of life in 31 countries. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 30, 178–205. ↩︎
  4. https://nobaproject.com/modules/time-and-culture. ↩︎
  5. Philip Zimbardo. The Secret Powers of Time.
    https://nobaproject.com/modules/time-and-culture. ↩︎
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Last updated on July 31, 2024