Take the Leap

by Dale Reeves

Story Pastor

What do the years 2024, 2028, 2032, 2036, and 2040 have in common? They’re presidential election years in the U.S. They are also years in which the Summer Olympics are scheduled to take place. And they’re all leap years, when the month of February gets an extra day added to its usual 28 days. Cultures across time whose calendars relied on the sun, moon, or both devised different methods to keep their festivals and planting schedules in line with the seasons. In 46 b.c., Julius Caesar had the bright idea of just adding a day every fourth year. His other contribution was naming a month after himself—July.

Since leap year only happens every four years, if you’re a leap year baby, or “leaper,” does that mean that you can go get your driver’s license at the DMV when you are four years old?! Why do we have leap year? “Common years” loosely define the number of days it takes the Earth to complete one orbit around the Sun. According to the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian,

“It takes Earth 365.242190 days to orbit the Sun, or 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 56 seconds . . . and that extra 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 56 seconds needs to be accounted for somehow. If we didn’t account for this extra time, the seasons would begin to drift. This would be annoying if not devastating, because over a period of about 700 years our summers which we’ve come to expect in June in the northern hemisphere, would begin to occur in December!”

Some people might be OK with this, since they enjoy watching Hallmark Christmas movies in July. You might be saying, “I live in Cincinnati, don’t we already have weather that’s a little wonky?” Take this February for instance. I’m not sure which coat I need to take with me every morning these days. Many people attribute the change in weather patterns to global warming. Actually, leap year doesn’t occur exactly every four years either. The next time a leap year will be skipped is the year 2100. It gets a little too complicated for my purposes here. If you wanna dig deeper into this, check out this link.

Leaping for Joy

The term for inserting extra time in calendars is “intercalation,” which doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. We refer to it as “leap year,” because each date on the calendar jumps ahead two days of the week instead of one. In 2023, we celebrated Christmas on a Monday. This year, Christmas will leap over Tuesday and we will celebrate on a Wednesday. That means you have one more day this year to get your Christmas shopping done! And, one more day to sing the lyric “ten lords a-leaping” from the “Twelve Days of Christmas.” See what I did there?

What does the Bible say about leaping? The Bible uses the term “leap” in a number of places. For instance:

—When the ark of the Lord was brought into Jerusalem, King David was seen “leaping and dancing before the Lord” (2 Samuel 6:16).

—When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby (John the Baptist) “leaped for joy” in her womb (Luke 1:41-44).

—King David exclaims, “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him” (Psalm 28:7, NIV).

—After Peter healed a lame man at the Temple in Jerusalem, the man jumped up to his feet and began to walk, “leaping, and praising God” (Acts 3:8, emphasis mine for the above verses).

Leap of Faith

The phrase “leap of faith” is attributed to nineteenth-century Danish theologian Soren Kierkegaard. Although this phrase is not found in the Bible, it is a common idiom, meaning “to believe in something with no evidence for it,” or “to attempt an endeavor that has little chance of success.” Kierkegaard argued that truth cannot always be found by observation alone but must be understood in the mind and heart apart from empirical evidence. Although we can see many proofs of God in nature every day, and we have scads of reliable evidence confirming the historicity of God’s Word, there are still times we have to simply accept God’s promises and take a “leap of faith”—especially when it doesn’t make sense to our finite human minds.

Can I ask you today:

“In what area of your life is God calling you to take a leap of faith?”

What do you need to overcome in order to take a leap of faith? What chains are holding you back? Some people in our church who have been battling grief and loss have taken a step of faith in saying, “I don’t want to stay stuck. I’m a little apprehensive about taking this step, but, trusting God, I’m going to take the leap into grief recovery.” I applaud their courage! Taking that first step so often is the toughest step.

This coming Sunday at Christ’s Church, our senior minister, Brad Wilson, will begin a new teaching series called “Overcomer” that will culminate on Easter Sunday. The Bible talks in numerous places about us being overcomers. I love the song that Christian singer Mandisa released some years ago, called “Overcomer.” Give it a listen today and believe the truth that can set you free.

By faith, young shepherd boy David confronted a giant with only a sling and a stone. By faith, Simon Peter stepped out of the boat when Jesus invited him to take a walk on the wild side with him. Exercising this kind of faith leap often requires taking a risk. When we trust God to go where the Holy Spirit guides us in spite of the fear of the unknown, we are taking a leap of faith. The apostle Paul explains, “For we live by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7, NIV).

Does that describe your journey of faith with God? Walking not by sight, but by trusting God even though you can’t see what in the world he is up to? Isaiah prophesied about the day the redeemed of God will enjoy the presence of the Lord forever in the future messianic kingdom, when the lame will “leap like a deer” (Isaiah 35:6). But until that day, keep stepping out in obedience to God as he calls you to take the leap. What are you waiting for? He is standing right behind you, ready to give you a gentle nudge off the cliff.