Please Take The Helm, Lord

This article was submitted by one of our readers, Levi Blau. If you, or someone you know, would like to share an article on Called to Share, please email us at info@calledtoshare.com.

Most of us have heard, or at least heard of the song Jesus Take the Wheel and know its message of letting the Lord guide our lives. The chorus states:

Jesus, take the wheel
Take it from my hands
‘Cause I can’t do this on my own
I’m letting go
So give me one more chance
Save me from this road I’m on
Jesus, take the wheel

This is a message that is good for all of us to hear and to heed, but it is one that is often over done.  There are times in our lives when we need to completely trust in the Lord to do everything because its beyond our own mortal abilities.  For example: once while driving to early morning Seminary, I was approaching a construction zone in a residential area.  Another driver backed out of their driveway without looking behind them properly and blocked my way. Without room to stop, I found myself in a situation where my only options seemed to be to hit the other car or to veer aside into the active construction zone. 

My mind froze with fear, but in that same instant, my hands began flying back and forth on the wheel with a will not my own.  The car veered first left, then sharply right, and squeezed through a gap that I had not been able to see before, and had I known it was there, would have sworn the clunky old sedan could not have made it through.  As the car straightened out on the road road beyond the construction zone, I felt my mind and body relax and I realized that a miracle had saved myself and my mother in the passenger seat.  

In this instance, it was necessary for Jesus or an angel to literally take the wheel because, I myself, was not able to deal with that situation. Yet, in our everyday lives, we cannot simply surrender control and be passengers in our own existence.  I believe that a better metaphor for our daily lives can be found in a sailing ship, where separate crews are needed for the helm and for the sails.

The helmsman steers the ship and guides it to safety, while the sail handler keeps the sail turned towards the wind and gives the ship the power to move.  In this pairing, the ship gains the ability to travel anywhere in the world, but only so long as the two crews work together properly.  The sail handlers need to listen to directions called from the helm so that they know how to set the sail, and the helmsman must watch the set of the sails and the flow of the wind so that they can guide the ship safely to its destination. 

In the same way, we must listen to the Lord and allow Him to guide us through the storms and shoals of this mortal life.  Therefore, rather than say ‘Jesus Take the Wheel’ and expect Him to do everything to bring us to salvation while we just relax and enjoy the ride, I believe we should say ‘Take the helm, Lord; I’ll man the sails.’  This leaves us the responsibility for continuing forward in our lives, yet leaves the guidance up to our trust in the Lord so that, together, our ships can safely return to the harbor of our Father in Heaven’s arms.