FOUR YEARS OF FOUR MINUTES

It’s so hard to believe that it’s been four years since I wrote a little article about leap year in 2008. It happens every four years, and here we are in 2012, expecting a February 29th once again.

Leap year happens because our time calculation of days, hours and minutes isn’t exactly the same as the earth’s rotation around the sun. The time between vernal equinoxes (the time when the sun is directly above the earth’s equator) is about 365.2422 days. Our year is 365 days long, which means that after 100 years, the calendar would be more than 24 days ahead of the seasons. To minimize the difference between seasons and dates, it was decided to add a day to the calendar every four years.

So what we have is a bonus twenty-four hours. Twenty-four hours is 1440 minutes. We have 1440 extra minutes to enjoy this year. If you spread 1440 minutes out over the whole year, it amounts to a little less than four minutes a day. So, some of us decided to use those four minutes in commemoration of God. At the end of the year, we would have given one whole day to the devotion of God.

[5:35]  O you who believe, you shall reverence GOD and seek the ways and means to Him, and strive in His cause, that you may succeed.

[22:77]  O you who believe, you shall bow, prostrate, worship your Lord, and work righteousness, that you may succeed.

I wasn’t perfect, remembering each day to set aside those four minutes, but I did it most days. And many times we expanded that four minutes to twenty minutes or more. It just became a phrase to remind us to remember God—“Let’s do four minutes.”

So here we are about to experience another leap year. God willing, I will continue with the four minutes so that at the end of the year, I have devoted one whole day to the remembrance of God. I challenge every submitter to commit to some form of “four minutes.” Whatever you want to do that brings you closer to God.

[73:8-9] You shall commemorate the name of your Lord, to come ever closer and closer to Him. Lord of the east and the west; there is no other god besides Him. You should choose Him as your advocate.

[74:7] Steadfastly commemorate your Lord.

[76:25-6] And commemorate the name of your Lord day and night. During the night, fall prostrate before Him, and glorify Him many a long night.

Lydia