In 1582, the pope's astronomers updated the calendar – and 10 days were lost forever
Ricky Schroder shares how he leans on his faith to overcome challenging times
Ricky Schroder opened up about how turning to God and praying "multiple times" a day has helped him overcome tough times in life.
Today is Leap Day. We gain a whole day and February is not quite as short this year.
Once every four years is a Leap Year, where we add a day to the calendar so we are correctly aligned with the Earth’s rotation around the sun. A year is about 365.25 days long so adding an extra day every four years is necessary to keep our calendars accurate.
Six hours may not seem to be such a big deal. But after 10 years without a Leap Day the calendar would be off 2.5 days, after a century a whopping 25 days. Over time the natural seasons would literally occur in a totally different time of year. Imagine summer in November.
A year is about 365.25 days long so adding an extra day every four years is necessary to keep our calendars accurate.
Before the modern Gregorian calendar, people used the 365-day Julian calendar created by Roman emperor Julius Caesar in 46 B.C. He included a leap year every four years, but his math wasn’t quite right – there were 11 extra minutes a year. This gradually shifted the calendar off course.
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In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII’s astronomers identified the error and implemented the calendar and leap year system we use today. But since the calendar was off by 11 minutes for over 1,600 years, something had to be done to correct it.
The pope decided that to bring the calendar up to date, 10 days would have to be removed from it. So, Oct. 4, 1582, was followed by October 15, 1582. Ten days were removed from history forever! Whatever happened during those 10 days is not part of the historical record.
It’s remarkable to think there are 10 days in history that never happened. Imagine if you could choose 10 days in your past and remove them from history.
Ten days where your deepest disappointments, biggest mistakes and greatest failures never even happened.
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It can happen to you because it’s happened to people before. Their stories fill the Bible. Isaac was afraid so he lied and said his wife was his sister. Moses got angry and killed an Egyptian. David lusted after Bathsheba and committed adultery. Peter was intimidated and denied he knew Jesus – three times. Paul hated Christ’s followers and persecuted them.
But God forgave them and forgot their past. He used all of them in amazing ways. Your past does not define your future. Your story can be rewritten.
New stories have been written for centuries. People have left their shame and put their past behind them. They have changed their ways and made a positive difference with their lives.
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One of the most uplifting unknown movements in America is how the incarcerated are training to become pastors. Prison Fellowship and other ministries are educating a whole new group of men who have experienced forgiveness from their past. They want to use their life after prison to share the message of forgiveness and hope for the future.
It can be hard to believe such a wonderful message. It seems too good to be true, especially when those around us like to bring up the past. Too many want to remind us of what we did in our past.
But 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Anyone who belongs to Christ is a new person. The past is forgotten and everything is new." This means all our foolish decisions, immoral actions and hurtful words never even happened.
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When we confess our sins and accept Christ into our lives, God forgives us and forgets our past. He gives us a fresh start, a do-over, a new beginning.
We are justified, meaning not guilty in God’s eyes. We have been acquitted; our record is clean. We can let go of our past regrets and refuse to dwell on them anymore. They are removed from our history and God forgets they ever even happened.
Today is the perfect day to reflect on what you can add and what you can delete from your life. Add forgiveness and hope - delete guilt and shame.
Hanging on to the past keeps us from enjoying God’s blessings today. And blinds us to our bright future.
Move forward confidently and leave your past behind.
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Rick McDaniel Rick is the President of High Impact Living, speaker, writer, host of the Point of Impact podcast and the author of eight books. His latest is "This Is Living: Daily Inspiration To Live Your Faith." You can find him on Twitter at @rickmcdaniel and Instagram @rickmcdaniel_official.
