Fellow pilgrims. I grew up in a small fishing
village located on Jamaica’s south coast, consequently the sea was an integral
aspect of my early socialization. In many of the churches in the community, the
hymn Jesus, Savior Pilot Me was sung frequently as a cry for protection and
invocation to God, to keep the fishermen safe on the literal seas. The first
two lines of the first verse state “Jesus Savior, pilot me, over life’s
tempestuous sea.”
Somehow from this experience, the image I conjured was a figurative one; that of sitting on the shoulders of Jesus, being rescued from the sharks and dangerous, vicious waves of the seas. In recent weeks the hymn has occupied my thoughts and the very same image reappears of sitting on the shoulders of Jesus. Upon reflection this posture creates a spiritual height for us to see various vantage points as we turn our heads in several directions while increasing our dependence on Jesus, confident that we are being carried safely.
Additionally with this assurance sitting on the shoulders of Jesus provides a space for spiritual emergency stops, where we can pause, retreat and reflect. In this space we can nurture the inner spirit making the time special and hallowed. The emergency space offers a dedicated time for a change in rhythm and pace. Tilden Edwards (2003) suggests that special days and time point to the basic human need for a different quality of time. He further opines that life perhaps can be lived for long periods without special times, but only at the cost of impoverishing human awareness and vocation.
In these days then of the treacherous waves of crime and violence, self-absorption, grief, the pandemic and economic challenges, we can rest on his shoulder buoyed by the strength of the Master Pilot to navigate. Fellow pilgrims let us travel with confidence.