Clarence High School - The Best School!!!


The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom!!!


Nothing has really changed about this part of the school.... The podium to the left, the piano on the right and the line right on top.... The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom... As part of the school routine, the first thing we do is assemble in this hall, with this line staring down on us. 

School exists to instill wisdom. And there is not a better line to begin our day with.... But is the fear of the the Lord key? Could this statement be wrong? What is the fear of the Lord? What can fear possibly do?

Besides Fear and God don't get along together. In fact people today, revile God and often challenge God. And guess what? Nothing happens! While others use God's name (the religious kind) to get their community to listen to them. God doesn't intervene! Political parties use God's name for votes (Religious Polarization). God is clearly not interested in politics! Take that to the next level and people kill in the name of God (Religious Riots). The people killing in the name of God, don't have any fear of God or the Law of the Land! They do it with impunity! Hence the question....

Where is God?

Where is God??? .... to at least instill the fear, before wisdom can begin? I don't see Him!!! No wonder why people choose to do what they want, good or bad... Believe what they want, good or bad. If God just showed up and said "STOP" .... that would suffice. But He didn't do that, even when Adam and Eve trespassed, eating the forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden.

But did I miss something? Is this silence to fully allow us to exercise our choice.... was that from God? Wait!!! That can't be..... did we just find God???

I guess God gets lost in our interaction with people, religious and secularists, in each other's forceful interference of choice. The religious kind enforcing God and secularist kind enforcing "No God" on anybody they would meet.

Where is Wisdom?

How does fear of the Lord bring about wisdom? What does fear of God represent? The respect of an individual to make his/her choice??? This brings me to another kind of fear.  What if wrong choices are made by people? The mix of good and bad ideas will rake up a storm.

In my office environment however, we do this every day..... We call it "Brainstorming". People bring their ideas to the meeting and the best idea is implemented. The unfortunate consequence is that, a lot of ideas get thrown out. But the fortunate consequence is that the best idea takes on all the bad ideas and buries them. The implementation of best ideas is definitely a wise thing to do!!! 

However, our society presents a different solution "Respect all ideas". That way....  there won't be any bad ideas or there won't be any confrontation between people of opposing ideas. Respecting all ideas promotes no evaluation of any idea. It won't be long before bad ideas are presented to us in garb of kindness and we accept it all without evaluation. There is no wisdom in not thinking!!! The fear of confronting bad ideas creates a safe space/cancel culture and breeds weak people. This outcome is not helpful either.

Hence the individual needs to be respected and allowed his/her choice. As of ideas, they don't need any respect.... they need to be critically evaluated. And this respect of the individual is only possible because of the fear of the Lord .... because Man is made in the Image of God. Hence we can critically evaluate all ideas peacefully. The good thing about critical examination of ideas that it will call out bad ideas and establish good ideas. That is why the fear of the Lord brings about wisdom!!!

Clarence High School - The Best School!

We've had some good teachers and some not so good teachers. In some sense, teachers terrify me. Some of our experiences didn't even come close to "Our Utmost for the Highest". Our education system definitely had scope of improvement. And perhaps, if some of us were on the board, we would bring about that much needed change!  

But here is why I am thankful for Clarence. The values associated with the "fear of the Lord" and the resulting "wisdom" is the treasure!!! I am glad that I can engage with people who think differently and in today's world, this has become rare. The peaceful engagement of people establishes the best ideas!!!

I guess I never understood this while in school. But I am glad this stayed with me to discover this later in life. Thank you Clarence High School for instilling the truth!!!

Sajan Sebastian (Class 10-B | Year of 1995)

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