Dear Friends:

Jesus’ last instruction to his disciples was this: “I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high” (Lk 24:49).

The disciples had just been traumatized by the crucifixion and shocked by the appearance of the resurrected Christ. They feared for their lives against persecution by the same religious establishment who had just killed Jesus (Jn. 20:19).

The temptation to get out of town and into the sheltering anonymity of the countryside must have been great. Jesus had told them to go out and preach repentance and forgiveness of sins in the name of the risen Christ to all nations beginning with Jerusalem (Lk. 24:47-48).  The disciples were undoubtedly anxious to “get the show on the road.”

But Jesus added, “Stay in the city until you have…power from on high.”

The tapes play in our head with the persistence of an FM “oldies” station — “The Lord helps those who help themselves.” “When the going gets tough the tough get going.”

“We can’t just sit there and do nothing,” we tell ourselves. “We must do something.”

So we move on out–exhorting, organizing, building, growing, maintaining, struggling, burning out….  Whole industries serve this cycle.  There are motivators, strategic planners, fund-raisers on the upside and counselors for the downside.

Solomon observed it all and wrote:

Unless the Lord builds the house,

those who build it labor in vain.

Unless the Lord guards the city,

the guard keeps watch in vain.

It is in vain that you rise up early

and go late to rest,

eating the bread of anxious toil;

for he gives sleep to his beloved.

Sons are indeed a heritage from the Lord,

the fruit of the womb a reward.

Like arrows in the hand of a warrior

are the sons of one’s youth.

Happy is the man who has

his quiver full of them.

He shall not be put to shame

when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

(Psalm 127)

The “gate” is the place of trade and news. It is the place of tension on the edge between the inside and the outside. It is the place where you move between the old and the new.  Solomon’s half-brother Absalom stirred a revolt by standing in the gate and urging action in implication that their father David wasn’t doing enough. Absalom almost brought down David by his lies and manipulations.

Contending with enemies in the gate is the human condition. We all pass through the gate, the place of trade-offs, information, enticement, and attack. We have our passages of work and relationship where we fear embarrassment and shame, loss and abandonment. The question, Solomon says, is where is your head and your heart?

Do you depend on God to build your house and guard it or are you taking care of yourself?

Do you sleep safe and secure that a real God loves you?

Do you have family relationships of intimacy gifted to you by God?

Do you accept and respect your blessings for the grace they represent?

Or are you watching out for numero uno, anxious and tired?

The persons who get through the gate safely are those who let God take care of the details. That’s what Solomon is saying.

This is the same challenge to trust God that Jesus places before his disciples in the Upper Room. It is an instruction to wait for God to do for you what only God can do.

Luke records that the word to wait came from Jesus in a dinner table conversation. “After his [Jesus’] suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. . . On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: ‘Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit’ ” (Acts 1:3-5).

Of course his listeners were still dealing over their dashed hopes and broken dreams. “…[T]hey anxiously asked him, ‘Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel’ ” (Acts 1:6).

Ah, one of the reasons I love Scripture is it is so true to life. I’ve prayed prayers that asked God, “Are you going to fix what is broken and do it right now? Time is wasting! It’s time to make a move, God. Do I have to stay right here where they can rub my nose in it while I wait for you to do something? Lord, restore what I’ve lost and do it now, please.”

Jesus will not be pushed. “He told them: ‘It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you….'” (Acts 1:7). Just two verses later, Luke records Jesus’ ascent to heaven (Acts 1:9). The disciples are left looking up into a cloud.

Here is where many of us lose it. It stretches our faith to the breaking point for us to have to wait in the place of danger and pain, not knowing when things will change, on the promise of new life and power to come from Christ alone. Then, we lose sight of him and our future in the mists.

Our typical response when our faith is challenged by cloudy doubts about the future is to make a big deal out of trying to put things back exactly the way they were before. That is exactly what the disciples do. Instead of waiting, they succumb to the temptation to do something.

We think, “It won’t do for Christ to come back and just find us waiting around for him. Why don’t we take the opportunity to spruce up the place a bit and make the necessary arrangements for him.”

That isn’t what he told us to do. He said, “Wait.” To wait on Christ means that we find our life in him. To move out on our own good intentions, is to insist on living our way in our timing.

It’s a compulsion–there were twelve disciples before, there have to be twelve disciples again. Peter tells them that they have to pick someone to replace Judas.

“So they proposed two,  Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias.”

“Then ( and only then) they prayed. . .’Lord show us. . . ‘Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias…” (Acts 1:12-26).

All seems right with the world. The old, tried methods of nomination and the lot are still useful. Do they remember that Jesus had prayed all night before he selected them? (Lk 6:12-16).

The disciples only pray after they make their selection. They don’t wait for the Holy Spirit before taking action. Not surprisingly, their own solution, Matthias, is never mentioned again.

Meanwhile, God is preparing the fire-breathing, believer-hating Saul to be Paul, the twelfth Apostle, an idea that they would never conceive in their wildest imaginings (Acts 9).

Where are you in your experience right now? Are you contending with your enemies in the gate, trying to make it through on your own? Are you obsessively and compulsively planning to get things back to the way they were and then asking God to bless the Matthias and Justus that you’ve chosen as your only options? I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t know the feeling myself.

The choice between Matthias and Justus is a dilemma arising from the false premise that it all depends on us and we have to do something. Our real choice is to wait on the promise of God or to attempt to move out under our own compulsion. There is only one of those choices that leads to life.

“Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain. . . . Wait for the gift my Father promised…Stay…until you receive power from on high.”

“O taste and see that the Lord is good. Happy are those who take refuge in him” (Ps. 34:8)

Under the mercy of Christ,

Kent

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Please note that the content and viewpoints of Mr. Hansen are his own and are not necessarily those of the C.S. Lewis Foundation. We have not edited his writing in any substantial way and have permission from him to post his content.

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Kent Hansen is a Christian attorney, author and speaker. He practices corporate law and is the managing attorney of the firm of Clayson, Mann, Yaeger & Hansen in Corona, California. Kent also serves as the general counsel of Loma Linda University and Medical Center in Loma Linda, California.

Finding God’s grace revealed in the ordinary experiences of life, spiritual renewal in Christ and prayer are Kent’s passions. He has written two books, Grace at 30,000 Feet and Other Unexpected Places published by Review & Herald in 2002 and Cleansing Fire, Healing Streams: Experiencing God’s Love Through Prayer, published by Pacific Press in spring 2007. Many of his stories and essays about God’s encompassing love have been published in magazines and journals. Kent is often found on the hiking trails of the southern California mountains, following major league baseball, playing the piano or writing his weekly email devotional, “A Word of Grace for Your Monday” that is read by men and women from Alaska to Zimbabwe.

Kent and his beloved Patricia are enjoying their 31st year of marriage. They are the proud parents of Andrew, a college student.