“We’ve always done it that way!” The U.S. standard rail gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet 8.5 inches. Exactly. That is an odd number. Why is that gauge used? Because that’s the way they built them in England, and Englishmen built the U.S. railroads. But why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that was the gauge they used.  Why did “they” use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that same wheel spacing. So why did the wagons have that odd wheel spacing? If they tried using any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that was the spacing of the wheel ruts.

So who built those old, rutted roads? Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (and England) for their legions. Many of those original roads have been used ever since the Roman Empire. And the ruts in those roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. So the U.S. standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. Oh, by the way, the reason the Roman chariots were made that wide was so that they would be just wide enough to accommodate the back ends of two war horses. So I guess you could say that a couple of horse’s rear ends established the U.S. standard rail gauge.

But let’s take it a step further. Remember the Space Shuttle sitting on a launch pad with  two big rocket boosters attached to the sides of the main fuel tank? Those solid rocket boosters were made in a factory in Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs wanted to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The rail lines from the factory run through tunnels, so the SRBs had to fit through that tunnel, the size of which is based upon the railroad track, which as you know is about as wide as two horses’ behinds. So a major design feature of the space shuttle, perhaps the most advanced transportation system in the world, was determined over 2000 years ago by the width of two horse’s rear…because we’ve always done it that way!

Of course, whenever anyone says “we’ve always done it that way” they are mistaken. Everything was new at some point. But when we become accustomed to something, we assume that is the way it has always been done and therefore is the way it should always be done. That can be a very dangerous assumption. For example, we settle into a routine and become comfortable being served rather than being the ones who are serving others for Jesus. When that happens, change is necessary. Change is not something most of you are comfortable with, that is unless it was your idea to make the change. We don’t like it when change is forced upon us. We like it when things go along as usual or the way we have planned them.

2 Corinthians 5:14–21 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Paul affirms that God did everything required for people to be reconciled to Himself. God sent His Son. God paid the price for sins. Jesus died for all. We know and believe that, and so we are to live for Him. The charge we have been given is not to bring people to church. It is to take Jesus to the people, everywhere we encounter them.

Being the horse’s rear ends that we are, we would like to stay in the same rut of our sins forever. But God saw to it that we could break free. Not on our own, mind you. He would break us free. He would be the agent of change. He provided the cure for sin over 2000 years ago when Jesus went to that cross, bearing the sin of all people so that everyone who believes in Him would not have to die eternally, they would not have to go to hell, but could have forgiveness and life everlasting.

God has called you to be agents of change for him in this world. We all have people in our lives who are not living out their calling as children of God. We all know people who have fallen away from living as a disciple of Jesus. And we all know people who do not believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior. We need to take the love and mercy and grace we rejoice in to the part of the world we live in each day. God wants you to be the one who takes His love, His message, His redemption, His reconciliation to the people in your sphere of influence, the people you already know. You are Christ’s ambassador.

(The information about the rail gauge and booster rockets was taken from a column by Stephen Henry, Publisher of the Levelland News-Press)