Charting Your Course

In 1760, a thirteen year old boy left his home in Arbigland, Scotland to take a job aboard the two-masted brig, Friendship, leaving the British port of Whitehaven.  
Life on the Friendship was far from luxurious, as the vessel at eighty feet was not particularly large for Atlantic crossing.  Quarters were cramped and air circulation below deck was poor.  The food was stale and water in tight supply.  Work was strenuous with masts, spars, canvas and rope.  It was a grueling means of livelihood.

However, the boy's fortune would be aided by the master of the Friendship, Captain Robert Benson, who took him to the rail of the quarterdeck one day to show him the proper use of a navigating instrument called an octant.  It allowed a mariner to determine the angle of a heavenly body above the horizon, even on a rolling ship.  By knowing the angle of the sun, moon or stars, a mariner could determine his latitude at sea by calculation.  The boy diligently set out mastering celestial navigation, along with the numerous intricate details of rigging and sailing a tall ship. 

A few years later, in 1767, in Kingston, Jamaica, he had completed a trip and had been paid in full.  Desiring to return to Scotland, he encountered the master of the brig John, which would be sailing for Kirkcudbright, a port near home.  Captain Samuel McAdam offered him free passage.  But tragically, during the passage, both Captain McAdam and the first mate died of fever.  Unfortunately, none of the remaining crew knew how to navigate.   

Suddenly, the John was a ship without direction as there was nothing reliable in their surroundings to guide them, nothing with which to get their bearings, nothing that offered the way home. . . .

But their passenger knew.  He knew that in order to get home he needed to look heavenward!  Taking his octant, he fixed his sights on that above which is true and reliable and unchanging.  He charted a course for home through the confusing seas to deliver the John safely to port in Scotland.  The owners of the ship were so pleased that they immediately rewarded the twenty-one year old sailor his first command as captain of a vessel.

He would not fail in his opportunities.  He would soon take command of American vessels in the War of Independence as both captain of a ship and commodore of a squadron.  He would never suffer a naval defeat even against better-armed foes.   Today, he is buried in the United States Naval Academy Chapel in Annapolis, Maryland.  An inscription there reads that:

Admiral John Paul Jones "gave our Navy its earliest tradition of heroism and victory."

To reach that "HEAVENLY HOME"  WE too, must look HEAVENWARD.  For God – who is TRUE, RELIABLE, and UNCHANGING (James 1:17) – so loved us that He gave us His Son to pay the price for SIN - that which keeps us from reaching our intended destination.  Jesus is our Captain who has chartered the course, and through His blood, has made the way to heaven accessible (John 14:6).

To reach that "HEAVENLY HOME" WE must also TRUST and OBEY the Captain: believing in and trusting Him (Acts 16:30-31), turning from sin in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confessing Him before men (Romans 10:9-10), and being baptized (immersed) for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38; 22:16).  THEN, we must continue 
to follow Him faithfully (1 John 1:7).

Will YOU trust and obey the Captain of our salvation?

-- Terry Livingston / David A. Sargent, Minister

Church of Christ at Creekwood 
1901 Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama  36695

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