An Extra & Undeserved Day

This is LEAP week!

This is the week … every four years … when we are gifted with an extra and undeserved day.

A bonus 24 hours!

A benefit of 1,440 minutes!

86,400 seconds that are all yours to spend … all yours.

Let me tell you about it …

Nearly every four years, we add an extra day to the calendar in the form of February 29, also known as Leap Day. 

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.

Is this too much science for you? You got this … read on.

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 sync with the heavens.

So now that you know why you have been given an extra day … what are you going to do about it?

Every night, when the clock strikes midnight, you are the recipient of a brand new, shining gift whose value is incalculable. 

Unlike the kind girl in the fairy tale of old, you will not morph into a pumpkin, nor will you be given the gift of glass slippers. 

However, at the stroke of this dark and inky hour, you will be given a gift so meaningful and so miraculous that even the stars twinkle in wonder. 

Will you receive this gift from your Creator? 

We all receive the same quantity of this prized gift regardless of weight, age, education, job description or marital status.  

When each new day raises its sleepy head, you are the sole owner of 1440 of the most powerful commodity ever known in the history of mankind.  

Each day of your magnificent life, at precisely one second after midnight, heaven opens its windows and gives 1440 untouched and valuable minutes for you to spend.  

How you spend your minutes is entirely up to you.  

Perhaps you will agree that although time is free ~ it is also priceless.  

• During your 1440, you can either gossip or you can worship. 

• You can choose to be filled with anger or you can exhibit a heart overflowing with gratitude. 

• You can jog 5 miles or watch television all day long. 

• You can spend this amazing amount of time reading a book or going to the mall.   

You, and you alone, determine how you will capitalize on this extravagant and priceless gift.  

• You can choose to laugh until you cry or to cry until you ache. 

• You might decide to whine your life away or to rejoice despite your circumstances. 

• We each determine whether our mindset and therefore our speech will be negative or positive. 

• It is up to you to elect to be bitter or to be better.   

“Furthermore, as for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, He has also empowered him to eat from them and to receive his reward and rejoice in his labor; this is the gift of God.” – Ecclesiastes 5:19

These 1440 precious and never to be replaced pieces of time belong to you and to no one else but you.  

While it is true that there are demands placed upon your time, you are the one who controls how you accomplish those things required of you. 

We all deal with people who depend upon us to accomplish a long list of daily needs, however, we must respond to even demanding people with a sweet willingness to serve and a heart filled with grace.  

You might maintain that the 1440 you have received is simply not enough to complete the claims that others have made on you and that even 1880 or 2020 would not be sufficient. 

However, take a deep breath and allow me to have about 5 pieces of your 1440 so I can help you shift your perspective on the gift you have been given. 

As you recognize the time you have been given as a rare and meaningful gift from the Father, you must also realize that He is trusting you with the stewardship of such a gift. 

You must not squander nor misuse the gift of time, but you must spend every second of each day honoring Him and encouraging others. 

There is simply no other or better way to live. 

“I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one’s lifetime;

moreover, that every man who eats and drinks sees good in all his labor—it is the gift of God.” – Ecclesiastes 3:12 & 13

While it is also true that most of us must work, it is also true we choose how we will work.  

Will you go to the office with a chip on your shoulder and allow yourself to be filled with angst and negativity? 

Or will you choose to walk in with a happy heart and a solid work ethic while praying for those in your office?  

Certainly, you can choose to hate every minute you are at work and then waste time by participating in office gossip, playing computer games, and finally sneaking out the door 5 minutes early.  

Or you can acknowledge that God has set you in this exact environment to be a blessing to others and to bring the excellence and character of God into your workplace. 

You can embrace your workplace as a mission field and know that even your job is a divine appointment from the heart of the Father. 

Assuredly there will be seasons in life when you must take care of aging parents, raise a brood of children, or work more hours than you desire. 

Nevertheless, you get to choose how to do your “have-to's”. 

“Serve God by doing common actions in a heavenly spirit, and then, if your daily calling only leaves you cracks and crevices of time, fill them up with holy service.” – Charles Spurgeon

You can march through life with heavy steps and a frustrated heart, or you can elect to perform all the necessities in life with patience, love, and joy. 

Even taking out the trash can become an opportunity to smile at neighbors, pull a weed or two, or whisper a prayer in the process. 

“Right now counts forever.” – R. C. Sproul

What is the greatest tragedy in life?  Is it cancer or death?  

I believe the greatest tragedy in life is being alive without receiving the joy of the 1440.  

Certainly, the worst calamity one could ever endure just may be to ignore the invitation to bask in the awareness of all that is wonderful about life. 

“He has made everything beautiful in its time.  He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” - Ecclesiastes 3:11 

Thanks for listening to my heart this week.  As you know by now, my heart is truly not a perfect heart but it is a heart that is filled to overflowing with gratitude for the life I have been given and for the people who walk with me.  And, it continues to be a heart that is relentlessly chasing after God and all that He is! 

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If you long to live a life overflowing with hope, peace, and joy, perhaps what your life needs is an intentional center. We all have one―that nucleus upon which we obtain our energy and discern our purpose. Perhaps until now, your center has been based on shopping, entertainment, or sports. Or maybe you are like many others and have centered your very existence upon your children, family, or career. What if those things you’ve placed at the center of your life will not bring you the abundance you desire? What if you need a true center?

Bible scholars through the ages have insisted that the book of Colossians is the most Christ-centered book in the entire Bible. If that is true, then we, as twenty-first-century believers, must choose to study this Jesus-centric epistle with enthusiasm and with intention. By the end of this deep dive into the sacred pages of Scripture, your life will shout to the world, “I am Christ-centered! He is my source, my joy, my all in all!”