The UK’s Government under Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of making no fewer than 13 policy u-turns since coming to power in July 2024. But u-turns are nothing new. Possibly the most famous British Government u-turn was in 1846, when pressure groups forced Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel to reverse the Corn Laws. (These laws had aimed to help British farmers by restricting imports of cheap cereal grain, but had resulted in soaring food prices that led to riots and many years of discontent, especially during the poor English harvests of 1845.)
Probably the most dramatic u-turn in the world, though, took place in the Middle East about two thousand years ago. It was a u-turn that helped alter the course of history.
A Monumental U-turn
A man called Saul, an ardent Jewish traditionalist, was doing all he could to stamp out what he saw as a new and dangerous religious cult – the Christians. He rounded up the group’s followers, imprisoned them, and even arranged for them to be executed for their beliefs. His u-turn came unexpectedly while he was travelling to Damascus in Syria with authority to arrest group members there. The account of what happened is recorded in the Bible’s New Testament (Acts 9).
As he neared the city, he was blinded by an ultra-bright light. Stumbling to the ground, trying to cover his eyes, he heard Jesus asking, “Why are you persecuting me?” (v. 4).
Jesus instructed Saul to enter Damascus and to wait there for instructions. Unable to see, he got his companions to help him into the city. After three days of reflection and mental anguish, he was visited by a Christian called Ananias (v. 17), who miraculously cured his blindness. Ananias also brought the surprising message that God had chosen Saul to be a prominent preacher of Christianity. Saul realised he had to do a full 180 degrees u-turn: rather than persecuting the Christian church, which was just starting to grow after Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, he instead had to accept a leading role in spreading Christianity around the world.
To acknowledge his change of heart and new belief in the Christian faith, Saul was baptised (v. 18).
Our Personal U-turn
We don’t receive the same dramatic conversion to Christianity – we don’t suddenly hear voices or see blinding lights, but the more we read God’s words in the Bible, the more they influence us. We can reach the point when we realise we need to respond to their message. Like Saul, we then take the step of being baptised. It’s the way the Bible tells us we must demonstrate our personal u-turn, i.e. that we’ve left behind our old way of life controlled by human nature and we now try to live a new life in which we strive to think and behave like Jesus.
The Apostle Peter urged his hearers, ‘Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out…’ (Acts 3:19). Paul describes the importance of baptism in his letter to the Romans chapter 6
The Prodigal Son’s U-turn
Jesus once told a story about what happens when we make such a u-turn: a young man, keen to enjoy life rather than continuing in his day-to-day drudgery as a farm worker, asked his father to let him have his inheritance early. His father obliged him, and the young man travelled abroad to have fun. Eventually, though, his money ran out. A famine hit the land, and, impoverished, he was forced to take a job as a swineherd. Even then, he didn’t have enough money to buy food. Eventually, starving hungry, he came to his senses:
‘But when he came to himself, he said, “How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.’” And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him’ (Luke.15:17-20).
This can be us, too. It doesn’t matter what we’ve done or where we’ve been – if we have a change of heart and make our personal u-turn, God (like the father in that story) will forgive and embrace us.
Ian Coates
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