Love Repents

The Year of Free Beef and the right way to live.

Don't be left behind!  Today, we are talking about loving better by learning to embrace repentance.

"Remember, you are loved, so go, love better!"

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Transcript

In New Brunswick, December 1, 1922 was the day the world flipped.  What once was left now became right.  Because on December 1st, New Brunswick, along with the other Maritime provinces of Canada finally decided it was time to drive on the right side of the road.

I’m Scott Beyer and this is the Love Better podcast where we explore the truths and lies about love and more importantly how to turn love into a skill – something we can get better at and hone along the way.

Until the 1920’s, for some odd reason, New Brunswick drove like the British – on the left side of the road.  Holding in solidarity with their English and Australian cousins, this small province on the far east of Canadian territory had refused to act like the Americans… or like their fellow Canadians for that matter.  But today, was the day.

A robust public service campaign was implemented.  The New Brunswick Power Company prepared by retrofitting their 30 streetcars to have exit doors moved to the other side of the vehicle, and even local stores got into the Drive Right campaign business.  We are cutting our prices right down to the right size so you will remember to shop right and drive right!

The benefits of making the switch were huge – apparently tourism was being hurt because people driving from other provinces or up from Maine were hesitant to visit New Brunswick due to their left-handed ways.  This was the moment they would join the masses of the Americas and all would be right in their world.  The tourists were coming.

But not everyone was happy about this shift.  What if people forgot?  What if drivers collided?  After all, these new-fangled automobiles were now driving at the unheard of speeds of thirty miles an hour – such reckless abandon was just invited trouble!  My favorite critic of the whole drive right movement was the Daily Gleaner – a local paper that simply said of the December changeover – “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you may be hit by an auto.”

And there was reason to be concerned because change is hard.  Especially if you are a horse.  Horses are routine animals and their training is a, excuse the pun, major driver of their behavior.  A well-trained horse basically drives itself and left-road horses are not likely to become right-road horses overnight.

With all this change… would everything turn out all right or would they be left with chaos and pain.  The answer is – it was mostly okay.  Change wasn’t nearly as bad as everyone feared… unless of course, you were an ox.  Remember the oxen of New Brunswick – we will talk about them later.  But for now, take comfort because… 

On December 1st, 1922, New Brunswick changed over to the right side of the road and everyone drove slower for a while.  Horses did take a while to retrain – humans, too, but in general change just wasn’t as terrible as everyone feared.  It turns out that everything really was alright in the end.  People are adaptable and with a little patience we can flip our whole world upside down and still turn out okay.

In Acts 17, the apostle Paul made a similar call to change.  He told the Athenians that God had some expectations of them and that it was time to get on the right side of history.  Jesus is here, idols are fake, and God has expectations.  His exact words in Acts 17 are:

"Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all [people] everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead."

The Bible calls us to radical repentance.  Yes, you have been driving on the left for a long time, but ignorance can only be entertained for so long – repent and drive right.  God expects change and you will be judged based upon your effort to change.  Repentance is hard, but it is also necessary because judgment is coming.  Jesus’ tomb is empty and it is time to repent and join the team of the King.  And as Paul said in Athens, “all people everywhere should repent”.  Words like ‘all’ and ‘everywhere’ leave little room for excuses and leftover bad habits.

When we have sins and flaws we struggle with – or even just routines that we have kept for a long time that aren’t conducive to spiritual growth it is hard to imagine changing.  If you are in the habit of watching television without discernment, it is daunting to think about turning it off.  Or if you have spent years never going to church services it can feel overwhelming thinking about walking into a building every Sunday from now on.  When one has spent their life only doing easy things… hard things seem unattainable.  How could I ever change?  I’ve always let my anger control me or my selfish ambition guide me or my fears subdue me.  I haven’t darkened the door of a church building for years.  The only time I’ve ever used God’s name is as a cuss word.  Can I ever get right when my whole life has been left?  The answer is yes.  It can be okay.

Just like in New Brunswick, repentance is most daunting before you start to do anything.  It is the buildup to the unknown that typically stops us.  When we talk about change we can imagine all of the downsides, the inconveniences, the disastrous possibilities… but when we actually start doing it, the reality is rarely as harsh.  Most of us can be trained.  Training takes time, but with a sincere desire to repentant, you will get there.

And training is the right way to think about repentance.  David wrote many of the Psalms and David was also a soldier.  Soldiers train for battle and when David talks about how God improves his life, David often compares it to that type of training.  Consider Psalm 18, in verse 31-35 David writes

“For who is God, but the LORD? And who is a rock, except our God?-- the God who equipped me with strength and made my way blameless. He made my feet like the feet of a deer and set me secure on the heights. He trains my hands for war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You have given me the shield of your salvation, and your right hand supported me, and your gentleness made me great. (Psalm 18:31-35)

            Do you notice how David describes the training he receives from God.  God trains him for war – to do incredible things like bending a bow made out of bronze instead of wood!  That’s quite an image of strength and aptitude… but he also describes God as providing the tools for successful training like giving him the shield of salvation and equipping him with strength… or even more compassionately he says God trains David while supporting him with a gentle hand.  Repentance may feel like boot camp sometimes, but God is a gentle instructor wanting you to succeed and grow.  Repentance is training for righteousness.  I am learning new skills so I can do the right thing and not be left behind.

And in that journey, the sincerity of your good faith effort counts for a lot.  Paul’s letter to Timothy addresses this when it says:

For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that [it is] in you as well. For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.

Timothy was a sincere man.  He loved the Lord and he wanted to do the right thing… but Timothy was timid some times and Paul gave him a good prodding to get back on the road.  Life’s too short to sit on the sidelines and watch the traffic go by.  Rekindle your faith through repentance – don’t be timid.  Because God has given us a spirit of power and love and discipline.

Turns out you can change – because when you set your mind on the power of God, discipline yourself to accept change and learn to love better things.  Eventually, we can retrain ourselves to drive right instead of left.

There is however one exception to that rule.  Change was perfectly safe and sane for almost everyone in the province of New Brunswick, but in Lunenberg county they still used oxen to pull their carts.  Oxen, they don’t believe in change.  Oxen are a tad bit curmudgeonly.  The oxen refused to accept this drive right philosophy.  The left had always been good enough for their oxen fathers, and they saw no reason to budge.  The result?  Let’s just say the oxen never saw it coming. So for Lunenberg county, December 1st, 1922 and the Drive Right campaign was a disaster because they tried to ignore it.

To this day, in Lunenberg, 1923 is referred to as “The Year of Free Beef”.  The world changed and the oxen well, they were delicious. They say old habits die hard, but apparently in New Brunswick old habits die pretty easily.

We don’t like to talk about it, but if we don’t embrace change – we end up run over.  Jesus is coming.  Ignoring His return isn’t a viable option.  Yes, there is a cost to change, but we we should always remember there is also a cost to not changing.  We cannot ignore the facts, and when the facts happen to be thirty-mile-an-hour automobiles… those facts pack quite the wallop.

Get right or get run over… and the oxen got run over.

So, what’s the moral of the story?  The moral is this.  The only real failure in life is when we fail to face change head on.  Repentance is part of loving God and loving others.  If we want to love better, we better be willing to change for the better.  You are bound to make mistakes in the process, but beginning the process is oftentimes the hardest part.  Don’t let your fears of failure make you into a failure.

Repentance is difficult, but it isn’t nearly as difficult as not repenting at all.  So, give yourself a good once over today and start your own personal Drive Right campaign.

Learn to love better – learn to love repentance.

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And until next time, “Remember, you are loved, so go… love better.”