By the Way: Who’s the pilot?
By Rev. Shane Hein on August 17, 2024.
39 – And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. – John 6:39 [ESV] Did I ever mention to all of you that I am a really, really good pilot? No? Well, that’s because I’m not! I don’t know the first thing about flying. However, when I was in the N.W.T. as part of my seminary training, we had to take a Cessna up to this remote village because there are no usable roads in the region during the summer. Halfway through the flight, the pilot asked me if I would like to fly the plane for a bit. Naturally, I jumped at the chance. I grabbed the yolk, and I was flying! Of course, I was not really flying the plane at all because at no point did the pilot actually relinquish control over the craft. If a quick correction needed to be made, and there wasn’t time to instruct me, he would simply take over. This story of me “flying” a plane, though, got me thinking about those bumper stickers we used to see that read: “God is my co-pilot.” When I first saw that years ago, I thought it was a good message. However, the more I (and some much smarter theologians) thought about this the more I realized that if God is merely the co-pilot of my life, then that must mean that I am still flying through my life based on my own will, not His! A more accurate message might be: “God is my pilot, and I am just sitting next to Him pretending to fly!” In fact, I think the newest version of this bumper sticker is a truncated version of that, which simply reads: “God is my pilot.” Fortunately for us, God will always have His hands hovering around the pilot’s yolk, ready to resume control at the slightest hint that we are ready to surrender our will to His. Blessings. Rev. Shane Hein is pastor at St. Peter Lutheran Church 10-9
