There is a wonderful series on TV called The Repair Shop. It's one of those programmes that is greater than the sum of its parts.
The idea is simple enough: you bring in some object that's important to you and needs fixing and a team of cheerful experts set about restoring it.
What makes this so special are the people and the stories attached to those objects: a jukebox full of memories, a vast homemade clock crafted in wood by somebody's dad, a Hebrew prayer book saved from a concentration camp with the signatures of survivors on the cover.
Some seem beyond repair: a badly smashed transistor radio, taken on a bonkers trip to row the Atlantic, its case shattered, its signal long gone.
Its significance? The pair of intrepid rowers needed a time signal from the BBC World Service, so they could plot their position in a featureless, storm-tossed seascape.
That time signal had to be accurate to the second to give them their bearing. Their lives depended on it. One degree out and they could be lost at sea. For them, it was a radio and the World Service that got them back to dry land.
What about you? What do you use to set your bearing, to give you an accurate sense of the right direction? What do you use for your moral compass? We all need one.
In one of the best-known songs in the Bible, King David prays: 'Guide me in paths of righteousness for your namesake.'
We've lost some of the meaning of righteousness over the years.
It partly means right-wiseness – the wisdom to know what is the right thing to do, the right choice to make, the right path to take that will get us safely home.
Nobody was ever intended to make this journey called life on their own.
So, what do you need wisdom for today? What are the choices set before you that you have to make?
The Bible describes Jesus as the wisdom of God, and says: 'If anyone needs wisdom, let them ask.'
How about asking Jesus today to give you the guidance you need to set your course and see you safely home?
How do we do that? Just ask. And wait for the answer.
Republished from Christian Today UK.
