Recently, and over the years, I have been part of different discussion groups about this phrase that finds its way everywhere in the Bible. 2 things that we have concluded about this phrase:
It doesn’t mean fearing God is assigning God with the reputation that He/She is unpredictable and mean and demands that we grovel before Him/Her
It does mean a healthy posture and understanding of who we are before God. And that means a plethora of different things.
So I was imagining the other day, if 2,000 years from now, civilizations were trying to understand us as a culture. And I imagine that medically, the trajectory that we have been on continues to advance at the same increasing rate that it has been over the last 2,000 years. So by this time, our understanding of the human body is light years ahead of where we are now and all of humanity experience incredible health and physical pain is a rare occurrence. And so if they were trying to understand our, by then, ancient culture and they came across our colloquialism, “No Pain No Gain”, they would have to use their imagination to try to understand what that saying could possible mean. It would be perplexing as to how “pain” would be intentionally sought in hopes of “gain”. In a world where pain has been eradicated hundreds of years ago, the mindset of seeking pain would be the equivalent of our culture today seeking “blood-letting” to cure a disease.
So, and this is complete conjecture, but I imagine the phrase, “The Fear Of The Lord” to have some colloquial weight to it and without growing up jewish 2000-5000 years ago, we might not ever have a complete grasp of it. But a place I have landed that I feel works for me as a way to orient myself from, in respect to this prolific declaration by many biblical pens is this. What if I transfer this phrase to aspects of life that we have some anxiety/fear about because we want them to go well but we are not in full control over. So for instance our health is something that we all want to go well but we are not in full control over. So what if I used this phrase to sum up our behavior towards this fact: “Fear Of The Body” or “Fear Of The Health”. So most of us have an idea of what we should be doing to enjoy good health or healthy bodies. At a base level, we know we should be eating healthy and exercising. There is so much more that we can learn about and do to enjoy good health. But living healthy, is a lifestyle we choose. The same as unhealthy living becomes a lifestyle that we choose. Yet even though we have a “Fear Of The Body”, and we live a healthy lifestyle, it is still no guarantee that we will not end up with a part of our body that is failing. But we choose to live in Fear Of The Body because it is still what is, to us, the right way to live and how we want others to know us and is what we want to teach our children.
Another way to look at this is “Fear Of The Dollar”. We can live with an understanding of money that is healthy or one that is foolish. At the base level, we know that we should work hard and live below our means. We can certainly learn more about money but the lifestyle that we choose is either going to be to work hard and live below our means or the foolish way is to be lazy and try to get everything on credit. Having a healthy “Fear Of The Dollar” means that we understand it is better to delay gratification and do without than to have it now but be enslaved to debt. “Fear Of The Dollar” is really just a discipline for helping us develop a wise understanding and lifestyle towards our use of money and financial leverage. We can make decisions to not live foolishly towards our fiscal responsibilities yet that doesn’t mean that we won’t experience poverty, but if we do, it was not brought upon ourselves by our bad decisions. The same goes if we experience some sort of windfall. It was just luck. But either way, living a lifestyle of Fear Of The Dollar, prepares us better for either situation we may find ourselves in.
So “Fear Of The Lord” is a lifestyle I can choose. It carries a connotation of choosing a lifestyle of not “sinning”. At the beginning of my journey of following Christ, sin seemed more simplistic. It almost seemed like it was boiled down to a list of things that were wrong and are to be abstained from. Now that I am further along, sin is more something that is intrinsic to being human. It’s there in everything we do. Even the good we do can be done with wrong motives because sin is a part of who we are, and therefore it can be sinful. For example, I give to the poor – a good thing – but I do it to be seen by others – a bad thing. (Mt. 6:1) I should continue to give to the poor and grow in my self awareness so that I am truly giving because I want to live as Christ. Ultimately it is God who has given to me that I should have anything to give to others. It takes becoming aware of our own sinful motives.
What I find at the root of my sinfulness, is my ignorance or inability or unwillingness – to trust God. I’m afraid that if I do things God’s way – as I understand it – I will come up short and I don’t like that. So I want to do things my way instead of trusting God. But I am also far enough along the journey that I have observed that when I trust my way, it often only leads me to a bigger situation with more at risk by trusting God. And whenever I have taken that road to its dead end, I have found myself begging God to rescue me.
So choosing the lifestyle of “Fear Of The Lord” is trusting God in all the small ways so that I don’t end up at the end of a dead end road that I have led myself down, begging God to rescue me. For instance, I may find myself looking at my neighbor’s lifestyle of traveling often, and wish I could do that. If I recognize that I am coveting my neighbor’s lifestyle and its wrong so I take a practice of writing down everyday 5 things that happened that day where I saw God working and I actively participated in God moving in my life. This practice will hep me not covet. This practice will remind me of all that God is doing in my life right here. This practice is what will keep me from ending up back at that dead end begging God to rescue me. It may seem small but it develops in me the ability to see where I once was blind. I become more and more aware of seeing God in the consistent routine of everyday life and appreciate the little experiences where God shows up. I don’t have to travel to bluer and sunnier skies to feel fulfilled. I have little miracles happening everyday right here in my own little corner of the world. It may be as simple as a funny conversation with a cashier at the grocery store, or helping my neighbor fix his car, or seeing an amazing morning sky. One could argue that those are not miracles, those are everyday occurrences. Maybe but they are not a given. Just because they are common doesn’t mean they are not miracles. Imagine a world without them. No conversations with strangers, no laughter, no one helping anyone, broken things never able to be fixed, the same nothing grey sky every morning. That each day is filled with new opportunities to experience the nature of God in our world: beauty, love, kindness, connection, is miraculous!
Now imagine if I just let my covetous desire lead me. I see what my neighbor has and I start living my life to have that and one up her. I start planning trips and going places only so that I am not outdone. I think I am going to enjoy going to these places but I’m doing it to satisfy a covetous desire not to satisfy a righteous desire. Each time I gratify my sinful nature, it only comes back stronger and more hungry than the last time. And I know what dead end road that leads me down. So living a lifestyle of “The fear of the Lord” and this is why I think it is followed by the statement that it, “is the beginning of wisdom”, is a lifestyle of self discovery. Paying attention to our impulses and desires and mapping out where they come from and where they lead us to. Recognizing the sinful impulses we feel and doing something way before things get out of control, to keep us from going down that road.
Choosing that lifestyle is choosing to trust God even in all the small things. It may look to others that I am choosing a lifestyle of pain and struggle. But hey, no pain no gain right?😁