Happy Leap Day!

I have always been fascinated by the fact that we have a date on our calendar that we only see once every four years.  Seems odd, doesn’t it?

So in case you aren’t aware, here’s a paragraph from the synopsis of Leap Year from the History channel:

“Put simply, these additional 24 hours are built into the calendar to ensure that it stays in line with the Earth’s movement around the Sun. While the modern calendar contains 365 days, the actual time it takes for Earth to orbit its star is slightly longer—roughly 365.2421 days. The difference might seem negligible, but over decades and centuries that missing quarter of a day per year can add up. To ensure consistency with the true astronomical year, it is necessary to periodically add in an extra day to make up the lost time and get the calendar back in synch with the heavens.” (http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/why-do-we-have-leap-year)

So Leap year is a calendar mid-course correction.  After four years, we are off by one full day; so to get back on course, we add a day. If we didn’t start adding that day back into the calendar during the reign of Julius Caesar, we would be completely off from the solar calendar. We would probably be celebrating Christmas in July and having our pool parties in January.

That makes me think of human nature.  Every day of our lives we are faced with decisions. These decisions create our character, habits and eventually our lifestyle.  Each decision adds upon the next and the next.  And if we do not make constant mid-course corrections as we see our decisions get off-track, we will eventually be so far away from who God created us to be and from our God-given purpose, that we will have to make a drastic adjustment to get back in sync.

But the good news is that even if we are now reaping the consequences resulting from our lack of attention to the ramifications of our decisions, we can have a Leap Day!  Jesus came to redeem all who are lost.  So if you feel like you have lost your way, lost your zeal and your peace, you can regain them through a relationship – or restored relationship – with Jesus.

He came to bring Shalom, which means “Nothing broken.  Nothing missing.”

If you want Jesus to bring you to the place where nothing is broken and nothing is missing, just reach out to him in a prayer and ask him to restore you.  You don’t have to use fancy words or know anything about the Bible.  All you need is the honesty to admit that you’ve gotten off-track combined with faith and a desperation to see your life be back in alignment and full of peace.

Happy Leap Day!  May the peace and joy of the Lord be yours today.