Monthly Archives: February 2024

Leap Year

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Today, I am taking a little privilege with the “devotion” and turning it into a history lesson. We will all experience the “extra day” this week, February 29th. It only comes around every four years and since it’s my birthday, I thought that I’d share these facts about my special day. I’ve posted this history lesson before, four years ago exactly, but I thought it was worth doing again since many more people are reading this today than there were four years ago. The chances of having a birthday on February 29th are 1:1500. The leap year’s extra day is necessary because of our Solar System. One earth year does not take an exact number of whole days; it takes 365.2422 days, plus or minus. It wasn’t until Julius Caesar came to power that changes were made. People before Julius Caesar observed a 355-day calendar – with an extra 22-day month every two years.

This was not a solution to the celestial problem since feast days began sliding into different seasons; so, Caesar ordered his astronomer, Sosigenes, to simplify things. Sosigenes opted for the 365-day year with an extra day every four years to scoop up the extra hours. This is how the 29th day in February was born. It was then fine-tuned by Pope Gregory XIII. Check this out: Every fourth year is a leap year, as a rule of thumb. But that’s not the end of the story. A year that is divisible by 100, but not by 400, is not. So, the year 2000 was a leap year, as was 1600. But 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not leap years. “It seems a bit arbitrary,” says Ian Stewart, emeritus professor of mathematics at Warwick University. But there’s a good reason behind it. “The year is 365 days and a quarter long – but not exactly. If it was exactly, then you could say it was every four years. But it is very slightly less.”

The answer arrived at by Pope Gregory XIII and his astronomers when they introduced the Gregorian calendar in 1582, was to lose three leap days every 400 years. The math has hung together ever since. It will need to be rethought in about 10,000 years’ time, Stewart warns. But by then mankind might have come up with a new system.

Why is February 29, not February 31, a leap year day? All the other months have 30 or 31 days, but February suffered because of the ego of Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus. Under Julius Caesar, February had 30 days, but when Caesar Augustus was emperor, he was upset that his month – August – had only 29 days.  Compare this to the month named after his predecessor Julius (July) which had 31. “He pinched a couple of days for August to make it the same as July. And it was poor old February that lost out,” says Prof Stewart.

For those than know me personally, the fact that I’m fifteen tells the rest of the story thus, explaining my sense of humor. Every once in a while, I deviate from the norm but hey, my birthday is only every four years so why not now?

A Positively Negative World

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I’m finding it harder these days to be positive about many things. Everywhere I look there is turmoil and chaos; some people are stoking it and others are embracing it. Everyone seems at odds with each other and if you have a different point of view or opinion, you are attacked or outcast. Television shows seem to base their stories around personal conflict, even the comedies aren’t funny. No one wants to take responsibility for their actions, so they blame the observer. We’ve lost the “common” part of our senses and now we appear to be on the brink of losing our senses altogether.

Originally, I set out to write about being positive in the workplace as leaders, now I find it hard to be positive. The moral of this negative post on positivity is that no matter your leadership position, people look to you for reassurance – always. No one wants to be “gaslighted” as my mom used to say but they also don’t to hear from someone who never has a positive thing to say. Leaders must speak the harsh truths, but they also need to find the sunshine in those cloudy moments to maintain hope. Once we lose hope, we have lost it all. I was in need of few rays of sunshine and where did I find it? The Bible of course! In a rare (for me) Bible quote from the Old Testament.

“30 Tremble before him, all the earth! The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved. 

31 Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let them say among the nations, ‘The LORD reigns!’ 32 Let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them! 33 Let the trees of the forest sing, let them sing for joy before the LORD, for he comes to judge the earth. 34 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. 35 Cry out, ‘Save us, God our Savior; gather us and deliver us from the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name, and glory in your praise.’ 36 Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Then all the people said ‘Amen’ and ‘Praise the LORD.’” 1 Chronicles 16:30-36

Comedian Tom Papa has a Netflix special “You’re Doing Great” and he talks about the good old days – bathing once a month and wearing a lot of leather goods. Now, the Old Testament times are really the old days! Even my worst day is better than their best day. We are being encouraged here to rejoice in everything because the “Lord reigns”. Seas, fields, forests are encouraged to rejoice, why not us? “God’s love endures forever”.

If you break apart all of the troubles of this world, they are nothing that God’s love cannot overcome. In all things, let love abound. We only have each other and we only have today so let’s make the most of them both. There is nothing negative in love, only in the things that keep us from loving one another. Remove the obstacles to love and just as God’s love endures forever, keep love out in front and live your life loving each other.

Spirit of God

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I came across a passage this week, 1 Corinthians 2:1-16, and it really spoke to me; in a way that I haven’t felt in quite some time. I immediately knew that I needed to share it today as one of those Bible verses that needs little explanation. What struck me was how the Apostle Paul’s message for the people 1900 plus years ago was still relevant today – for me particularly. Why do I keep writing these devotions and by what “authority” do I find the gall to write about God meant in any of the verses found in the Bible?

“1And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. 4My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.”

 “6 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9However, as it is written: ‘What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”- the things God has prepared for those who love him – 10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.’ The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 

“11For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no oneknows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. 14The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 15The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, 16for, ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.”

We ALL have the spirit of God within us, giving us strength to go on, giving us strength to overcome adversity, giving us the strength to fulfill God’s plan in our lives if we simply allow God’s words and Christ’s example to fill our lives. It was end of verse six that opened my mind to let the rest of these verses work with me. I pray that they do the same for you.

Ask The Lord

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Unfortunately, there are times in our work lives that we will be supervised by someone who doesn’t do a good job of showing how much they care about us or worse, they literally just don’t care. The first type of person is far easier to work for that the later and honestly, the ones who don’t know how to show it are more prevalent in the workplace today. As the Baby Boomers are leaving the workplace, Gen Xer’s are now supervising people making today’s workplace a little frustrating. This type of working environment puts the responsibility back on us if we want to make “work” a little more enjoyable.

The higher up the “ladder” a supervisor goes, the less they pay attention to the things that their people need, and we need to remind them what we’d like to accomplish. Author John Maxwell describes 360º Leadership in his book with the same title; we can use this as a tool to help us achieve goals that we have set for ourselves. Being forward with our own supervisor is not something that feels natural but when we are dealing with our own future and needs, sometimes we need to push ourselves a little. If you are a leader, don’t forget to take care of your own needs but don’t do it at the expense of your people. God put you in this place and at this time for a reason, ask questions and seek opportunities for personal and professional growth.

Luke 11:9 – “So I say to you: ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”

We are taught here to ask the Lord for what we need. We need to learn to put our trust in God so that He can deliver us what we need. The real truth of the matter is that what God delivers is not always what we want or plan for but it is what we need. Sometimes God gives us pain or suffering for our growth, other times he gives us joy and peace. Despite our belief in our own greatness, God knows what we need.

Another thing that frustrates us is that God will not do it on our timeline but on His. Today, with the microwave we cook faster, with streaming services, we get tv shows when we want them, and the Internet gives us information in an instant. This verse reminds us to ask, seek and knock on the doors that God provides. Behind some doors are scary opportunities in which we feel alone in our thoughts and in our decisions. God has promised not to leave you. He gave us His only Son in order to keep us close and we should never forget that. Pray and have patience, He will open the door for you.