Beginning

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge”  Proverbs 1:7

Beginning – What is the first step toward living the best life possible?  I’ll give you twenty seconds to think of your answer (you really do have twenty seconds to answer one of the most important questions in life, don’t you?).

The Bible says that the first step is “the fear of the Lord”.  We all know by now that the word for “fear” in this context means “awe, reverence and worship”, not “dread” or “trembling”.  But why is this the first step – the beginning (Hebrew re-shith, the same root used as the very first word in the Bible)?

Centuries later, Paul gives us the clearest answer.  Paul was an Old Testament man (just like Jesus).  He worshipped the God of the Old Testament (just like Jesus).  His thought patterns were constructed from Old Testament images (just like Jesus).  And in Romans 1:21, he tells us why the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowing anything important.  The answer is this:  There is a God and I am not he.  The first step in getting life right is the acknowledgement that God exists and I am not God.  I exist as His creation.  He owns me by right of creation.  He calls the shots, not me.  And if I am going to live correctly, I need to start by getting my priorities straight. 

Most of our problems in life can be reduced to this simple fact:  we want to be God.  From the geo-political struggles of nations to the smallest sensitivity over some trivial personal insult, our egos constantly assert themselves in an effort to upset the fundamental hierarchy of the universe.  I am not God.  But as soon as I allow any part of my behavior, thought or words to take on the mantle of pretending to be God, I am at odds with the fabric of existence and things start going wrong.  Oh, we aren’t likely to shout from the rooftops, “Look at me.  I’m God.”  That would put us in therapy pretty quickly.  We are a lot subtler.  We just think of ourselves as God.  “Do it my way!”  “I’m right, you’re wrong.”  “Why should I forgive him?”  “But I have to take care of myself.”  “They deserved it.”  And hundreds of other tiny steps toward usurping divinity. 

The beginning of knowledge is living according to this fact:  Someone’s in charge and it’s not me.