You can be smart. Talented. Passionate. Even spiritual.
And still be a fool.
Wisdom doesn’t start with experience or intelligence.
It starts with fear.
Not the trembling kind you’d find at a horror-movie or when your mom came home and you promised to do the dishes and you didn’t.
Not fear of punishment.
But something deeper… something our culture has lost:
Reverence.
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom…”
Fear, in the biblical sense, is right-sized awe.
It’s standing before the infinite, holy God and realizing how small, fragile, and dependent you actually are.
It humbles you. It reorders your mind.
Without that, your life might look successful, but ultimately it’s built on sand.
Because without fear of the Lord, you’ll fear other things:
Being left out. Looking weak. Missing out. Failing publicly.
Real wisdom begins when we stop pretending we’re in control.
That’s why “fear” isn’t about running away from God.
Fear is actually closer to not running without Him.
So here’s a question to sit with this week:
Where in your life have you been acting like you’re the one in charge?
If you’re like me, the answer stings a little.
Welcome to the house of Wisdom.
—Nils