A Tale of Two Economies....

Well it has been quite a blogging day for The Abbess!

Over at Jesus Creed, there is a discussion going on about Why Work? This is what The Abbess had to say in the comments:

I'm still resonating with my thoughts from the Preparation for Pentecost 19 thread....

I think it is the living of the Jesus Creed -- equally in both chronos and kairos time -- that is to be valued.

In chronos time we have scheduled appointments (both with God and with our obligations -- like work of any and all kinds) through which we contribute to day to day survival (ours and others -- physical and spiritual).

In kairos time we live in the awareness that all that we have and all that we are come from God and that he will provide for our daily bread according to the riches to be found in Christ Jesus -- and so we are told not to "worry" about day to day survival.

I think the challenge we are looking at comes from not recognizing that in addition to these two kinds of time, there are two kinds of economies. Let me explain some.

I have recently heard of a thing called "Time Banking" where their theme is that there are "no more throw away people," meaning that everyone has something of value to contribute to the community. [You may remember this post about it.]

In this "time banking" concept they have identified two different economies: the monetary economy, where things are valued in a financial way: money runs everything; and the core economy, and "is not primarily driven by money. It runs on a thin stream of money - but it is primarily powered by our minds, our spirits, our hearts. It runs on psychological energy: love and kindness, caring and compassion, encouragement and moral duty. And for some, we need to add guilt, and anger and shame. But it does run - and money is not the primary fuel." Take a look at their very interesting website: http://www.timebanks.org/

When we do not recognize and understand both kinds of time and economies, we can easily get our priorities out of alignment. Then, our means do not match our ends. We err when we value people and gifts and tasks and occupations using only the money economy instead of recognizing the significance of the core economy.

It is a wonderful connection that has been made here today between the two times and the two economies.... I will be pondering this more as I continue to see the process by which the Holy Spirit is helping me synthesize all that I've been reading and writing about CovenantClusters.

There is a simplex way of Kingdom Life that God is asking me to model in CovenantClusters ... and it's starting to come into focus. In the meantime, I'm....

Hanging with Papa, Jesus and Sarayu in Kairos Time!