Happy Leap Month! Every four years, this month brings the gift of an extra day. It’ll seem like any other Saturday
and we will manage to fill it with the tasks we normally undertake on that day—washing
laundry, vacuuming carpets, etc.—so it may pass without special notice. But
make no mistake, the 29th is a day we normally wouldn’t count in the
year.
We think we don’t have
enough time to do what really matters to us, but in fact we do because we make time. Clocks, schedules, and calendars direct our
days—but who made them? Who set those alarms? Who agreed to those deadlines? We
did.
The same is true of February 29. We made the day. And when
it rolls around, we’ll decide how to use it.
If we can give ourselves a day, why not an hour? Why not use
that hour for our own purposes, as we do with the extra day we’ll give ourselves four
weeks from now?
Here's a Leap Year proposal: When you find yourself thinking, “If only I had the time…,” give
yourself that time and use it for your personal priorities. Writing, for
example.
Joe Allison writes both fiction and nonfiction, and has been a member of the Indiana chapter of American Christian Fiction Writers since 2010. He lives in Anderson, IN, with his wife Maribeth and daughter Heather.
Thank you, Joe. I have wanted to use my time to better serve others, which means sometimes I cook a meal for a shut-in instead of getting to the writing. Sometimes, I'll give my elderly mother in a distant state the time of an extra-long phone call, and a writing task doesn't get done. Sometimes, my writing is a personal letter to someone who needs to read encouraging words. And sometimes I get the joy of my words flying off the page as they glorify God!
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