From the distant past I remember an episode of the Howdy Doody Show in which the Indian princess Winter Spring Summer Fall had a birthday. It was only her fourth, yet she was a teenager. The entire show was centered on trying to figure how this situation could be. The mystery kept little folks like myself glued to the television while the search went on to find the answer.
The program reinforced the fact in young scholars that leap year and with it the date February 29 only comes once every four years. It is an unusual day caused by the irregular calendar we are forced to maintain. It throws off our sequence of days in the month. It keeps years from looking just alike. The unusual causes us to adjust our schedules, and for some people even their birthdays.
The unusual in our lives gives us both reason to celebrate and reason to feel dread. Routine can become so comfortable. It provides stability and assurance of reasonable expectation. When the unusual comes into our lives, we are forced to adjust, react, or intentionally ignore, all of which disrupts our routine.
Yet it is the possibility of the unusual, the uncommon, that can make tomorrow a thing to be anticipated or feared, rather than not considered at all. Tomorrow will not be like today. It will not be like yesterday. Our world will change. We will be a day older. What could have been accomplished today but wasn't will have disappeared into the past and be beyond our reach forever. We plan most often because we want something different to happen. Maybe we can describe what we want. Maybe we are trying only to create the context for something unexpected to happen. Whatever the case may be, we want the different, the uncommon, the unexpected, the routine disruptor to occur. We find the uncommon, the unusual satisfying our dissatisfaction.
This same motivation should be visible in the lifestyle of the Christian and the local church. Routine does not get the job done. Living the life of the world does not please God. We need the disruption that causes us to reevaluate what we are doing, why we are doing it, and how we are doing it. We need the uncommon, the unusual to shake us out of our complacency and satisfaction with the common and mundane.
A February 29th in the life of a Christian might be an opportunity to provide shelter for a homeless individual or family, to provide food for someone who is hungry, or to sacrifice something of value for someone who will never tell us they are grateful. A February 29th might be deciding to live a simpler lifestyle and give away what we have saved, focusing upon enriching the spirit instead of the bank account, or adopting the role of servant instead of master.
A February 29th for a congregation might be changing from a local church perspective to a Kingdom perspective. The unusual occurrence might involve focusing prayer more upon the unsaved than upon the physically unhealthy. A February 29th could lead to a congregation making a priority of every member being a minister rather than looking to the paid or ordained staff to carry on the work of the Body of Christ.
On our calendar the unusual comes around every four years. In the life of the Christian attuned to the voice and work of the Holy Spirit, the uncommon is there to be discovered every day. One tradition of February 29th is to offer a woman a chance to propose marriage to the man of her choice instead of waiting for him to take the initiative. A woman needs only to be bold enough to take that step. A February 29th can offer us bold, new opportunities.
The Holy Spirit does not wait for four years to offer such an occasion. He calls us to open our eyes and look around us. He calls us to see the hungry being fed with two fish and five loaves of bread. He calls us to see the hurting being made whole. He calls us to see the condemned being offered forgiveness and hope. The unusual is waiting for us to join in the experience and risk a different tomorrow.
