I love map apps. As someone who grew up in an age of multi-fold road maps and had to stop at the gas station to get directions from the guy at the counter, I find it refreshing to have this technology. No more listening and writing down directions on the back of an envelope, remembering and turning at landmarks, and having to slow down not to miss important directional details. Gone are the days of being stuck in traffic because of unforeseen construction, wrecks, or general congestion. Now, your app makes you aware of the why, where, and how to avoid obstacles. No more taking the wrong or long way. And with the bonus of seeing where all the gas stations and food places are, you can never fear running on empty again! Knowledge is power, and it is powerful to be in control.
In Acts, after Jesus rises from the grave and reunites with his followers, it appears that he will hopefully begin his successful political campaign as the Jewish Messiah against the evil Roman authorities and bring social justice and righteousness to the oppressed. With Jesus back from the dead, his followers will finally get what they believe God promised. The people and community his followers represent will finally get retribution and righteousness, which has been their goal. But Jesus holy “ghosts” them and us.
So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
Acts 1:6–9 ESV
Wait a minute. The easiest and shortest way would have been Jesus putting on the messianic political-military leader cape, flying into Jerusalem and Rome, and making things right. But God’s plan was the way of divine darkness—of us not knowing everything, not knowing whether we would run on empty, not knowing or controlling when and how things would work out.
In Acts, God’s way is about allowing your heart and mind to be guided by an old-school map called the Scriptures, led moment by moment, turn by turn by God’s Holy Spirit. God’s way is about experiencing breaking down, running out of gas, and having to depend on the mercy and love of others. The Lord chose that his kingdom would not come politically through national power, charismatic leaders, the right party, platforms, or moral legislation. No, God has chosen the long way home for his people. He has decided that the power and direction of the kingdom will not be of this world but according to God’s power at work in and through many who are powerless in the world.
As an African American man, I am from a community and history that not only looks at the sky longingly for Jesus to return but is tempted to look for another way for the kingdom to come. It seems like the dominant culture is “getting theirs” while we struggle for dignity and worth in a country that we helped build for free. Jesus has left us looking for heaven, broken down, and jammed on a journey for Biblical equity and purpose. If only there were more actualized Black Power, Black Excellence, and a larger, more unified voting bloc that could change things powerfully, justly, and forcefully—now. All believers, regardless of ethnicity, history, or privilege, can reach a point in their life journey where they feel like kids in the back seat, unable to see or control where they are going, wondering, “Are we there yet?”
And maybe that’s it. Maybe the Lord wants us to feel more like children who can grow to know, trust, and be comforted by the fact that our loving Father (as Jesus tells us) is driving the journey. Not that this is always the best feeling—I remember traveling as a kid sometimes being torturous. But on and through the journey of human shortcomings, delay, and hardship, we learn the power and person of God, the Holy Spirit. If we travel our own way, we won’t be where and who God desires us to be and become.
The long way is learning to trust and depend on God in the unfolding of his multifaceted and manifold promises. It is the way of knowing and experiencing God’s comfort in the unclear, impossible, and broken down. It is where we experience God’s mysterious and miraculous acts.
The long way is God’s way of calling us to experience the epic story, beautiful landscape, and easily overlooked landmarks of his grace and power. The long way is about running out of gas, resting, and stopping in his grace. It is about touching and reaching out to the stranger and possibly becoming “family.” Though rarely expedient by our measure, the Long Way is God’s way of shaping time and space for his glory and our good.
ACTS: The Power That changes the World
The book of Acts traces the birth of the early church from its small, inauspicious beginnings to Paul’s arrival in Rome. As Jesus predicted, the kingdom of God started small, but the power of God is still transforming and changing broken people and places. In his study of Acts, Howard Brown shows how the power that God unleashed at Pentecost is still at work in God’s people today, changing people and the world from the inside out.
