For Christian musician Jordan St. Cyr, the inspiration for his hit song Weary Traveler is both personal and universal.
It was written during the pandemic as a way to offer hope to those who were facing a devastating loss. Closer to home, though, St. Cyr penned Weary Traveler as a song of inspiration for his family. His youngest daughter, Emery, has a rare neurological disorder, Sturge Weber Syndrome, that can cause seizures.
Weary Traveler received a K-Love Fan Award nomination for Breakout Single. The awards will be broadcast on TBN Friday at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Eastern.
The song climbed to No. 1 on Billboard's Christian Airplay chart in March.
"I would say, my family, my wife was the inspiration," St. Cyr told Christian Headlines this week prior to the K-Love Fan Awards in Nashville, Tenn. "Nothing burdens a mother's heart more than to see one of her children that's sick. And we've got four kids. And so there were just different kinds of weight that she carried. The weight of guilt – not being able to give herself as much to the three older kids. Me being gone [on tour]. We knew weariness in such a deeper way over the last year and a half. That's really what fueled the song."
The song, he said, was one of God's timing, as it "expressed hope to our world" when millions of people were struggling. He wrote it with A.J. Pruis and Matthew West.
"A lot of people are at that point where they're longing to shed that weight," he said. "It's a song really of hope."
Jesus' words in Matthew 11:28, he added, were the basis for the song's lyrics ("Weary traveler, restless soul, you were never meant to walk this road alone.”)
"Come to Jesus, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest," St. Cyr said, quoting the verse. "When God sent His son, He provided us a shelf to take that pain and just place it. It can't live inside ourselves. And so that's what we are navigating – how do we continually come to Christ and lay down that burden every day?"
Emery is currently "doing great," he said, although St. Cyr acknowledged there have been many "ups and downs" during the last few months. He requested prayer for his wife and children that God would "help them trust Him every day."
"I was on a tour in San Antonio two months ago, and I got the call, and my wife said, 'I gotta head back to the hospital [with Emery].' It's hard. It's hard. It's not easy. But we are held [by God] within it all. And we know that if music stops tomorrow, it would be okay."
Photo courtesy: ©Jordan St. Cyr, used with permission.
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
