Pastor Ron Burcham
Have you wanted a little extra time, feel like there are not enough hours in the day to do all that you want to do? Have I got great news for you! This month you get an additional 24 hours! Now you can get in a few more rounds of golf, clean out the garage, get caught up at work, spend some extra time with grandkids, or just get a few more hours of sleep! My goodness the possibilities are endless.
This is going to take some…time to decide how to spend your extra time this month. Oh, no! Who wants to waste time deciding how you are going to spend your extra time! In fact, you probably shouldn’t be wasting your time reading this article…well, let’s not go overboard with this! The good news is this is the first article you read when you pick up the paper so you have the maximum amount of time to decide what to do with your extra, um, time.
How, you may ask, are we so fortunate to gain 24 hours this month? Leap Year! Although I cannot confirm this I think the name itself stems from people jumping for joy because of the extra 1,440 minutes allotted to them this month.
Leap year it seems, stems from the fact that it takes the earth 365 days, five hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds to circle the sun, but the Gregorian Calendar only has 365 days in a year. If we did not add one day every four years or so, in 100 years our calendar would be off by 24 days. We would be losing time instead of gaining it!
February this year has something more than just an extra day. February 10 is Ash Wednesday. For the Christian Church this marks the beginning of the season of Lent. The Gospel writer Matthew records the following: “From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” (Matthew 16:21)
Lent is a time for reflection. We look back on how we have spent our time in this world. We have done both good and bad things with our time.
The good news is that Lent is followed immediately by Easter, the celebration of Jesus rising from the dead. In His death He took on the punishment for all the wrongs we have done and His resurrections says that we are forgiven and have been given a new life!
Here is an idea, why not spend some of that extra time this month in church, perhaps on Ash Wednesday? Even if you haven’t been to one in a long time, after all you will have the time this month! You can experience God’s love first hand.