A bumper sticker frequently seen on the cars of people who think they are being good witnesses for the Lord proclaim, “God is my copilot.” These well-meaning folk must be totally ignorant of the actual chain of command on commercial or military aircraft. The copilot is second in command!
At least, I hope they are merely ignorant of what a blasphemous sentiment they are broadcasting, and not just being more honest than the average professing Christian today. For the whole tendency of our sinful nature, reinforced by every influence of our contemporary culture, is to resume command. We want to keep Christ as Savior; we want his help in our daily problems; but we want to fly the ship. This demotion of Christ from captain to second officer happens subtly. It is not always visible to other (at least if we don’t advertise it on our bumpers). But its effects are disastrously real.
One of my greatest fears for American Christianity in our day as it flies along with God as its copilot is not that it won’t continue to grow in numbers, resources, and influence, but, but that it will-and God will look at us and say, “So what?” we had better turn the controls over to the Lord Jesus and become the copilots ourselves; otherwise, we may spend a lot of time congratulating ourselves on the comfort of the seats in the cabin and the speed at which we are able to move, only to discover at the Day of Judgment that we’ve just been flying around in circles.
Citation: Williams, Donald T. From the “Quodlibet” department in “Touchstone” magazine. September/October 2010. Page 4.
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