🌟 Finding Your Guiding Star

There’s a song I’ve always found myself coming back to when I’ve wandered off spiritually — Bryan Adams’ Back to You. There’s a line in it that’s always stuck with me:

“Like a star that guides a ship across the ocean.”

It’s a beautiful image. When sailors were far from land, surrounded by shifting waves and unpredictable winds, they didn’t rely on their own instincts to get home. They looked up. The stars gave them something fixed — something trustworthy — to steer by.

I think Scripture plays that same role for us. God, in his grace, has given us a “guiding star” in his Word: something fixed in a world that is constantly shifting.

A Noisy, Unstable World

We live in a world where the volume is constantly turned up. Every day, we’re bombarded with opinions, stories, and causes demanding our attention. Politics feels less about clear policies and more about “the vibe” — anger, identity, reaction. News cycles lurch from one crisis to the next.

Even in schools, where many of our children and young people spend their formative years, you can sense the change. Shows like Educating Yorkshire (now more than a decade old) captured a school environment where behaviour was often rough around the edges but mental health issues were only beginning to surface. Fast forward to today, and the picture seems almost reversed: behaviour has, in many ways, improved — but the mental health crisis among teenagers is far more visible and intense.

It’s a different kind of storm. Not always violent, but relentless.

Paul’s Words to Timothy

Paul wrote to Timothy in a world that was also noisy and unstable. He described the time after Jesus’ ascension as “the last days” — a period when people would “turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths” (2 Timothy 4:4).

His response wasn’t panic or retreat. It was simple, steady, and practical:

“But as for you, continue in what you have learned… All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:14–17)

Hold fast to Scripture. Keep your eyes fixed on the guiding star.

What That Looks Like in Practice

Paul gives us four ways Scripture shapes us:

• Teaching – We open the Bible expecting to learn. In a confusing world, we need our minds formed by God’s truth so we can see clearly through the fog of competing perspectives.

• Rebuking and Correcting – This is uncomfortable, but vital. Scripture doesn’t just affirm us; it challenges us, shows us where we’ve gone off course, and gently (or sometimes sharply!) calls us back.

• Training in Righteousness – This is where biblical truth moves from head to heart to hands. It shapes habits, priorities, and the way we live day to day.

This is why the regular, shared opening of Scripture together matters so much — in Sunday services, in home groups, and in our own personal lives. It’s not just “religious duty.” It’s navigation.

Looking Up

When storms come, our instinct is often to double down, row harder, and rely on our own instincts. But like those sailors, our true hope lies in looking up — not inward.

God’s Word doesn’t change with the tides. It doesn’t depend on opinion polls or cultural trends. It shines steadily.

So the question for each of us is simple: where are we fixing our eyes?

“Like a star that guides a ship across the ocean…”May Scripture be that guiding star for us — personally, as churches, and as communities — so that even in the noise and uncertainty of our times, we can navigate with hope, clarity, and courage.