I’ll never forget the time I had my picture taken with Shaquille O’Neal, one of the giants of professional basketball. I never thought of myself as short until I stood next to his 7'1" frame. With my head tucked under his arm, I suddenly realized that I wasn’t as tall as I thought I was, at least not when standing next to the Shaq!

The psalmist wrote, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (111:10). Fearing God requires that we get things in the proper proportion, like the fact that He is so much greater in every way than we are. "The works of the Lord are great" (v.2). They are the outworking of His love, strength, wisdom, foresight, will, and faithfulness. Fearing God means coming to grips with this truth.

But it’s easy to miss the point when we don’t stay close to God. The closer we get to Him, the more we realize how much we are lacking, and how desperately we need His far greater wisdom to direct our lives. Left to our little selves, we get everything out of sync. If we’re honest, we have to admit that our limited perspective is often wrong and sometimes can be destructive.

Wise people realize how little they know and how much they need the great wisdom of God.  — Joe Stowell