April Fools

Did you get faked out yesterday with one of those April Fool jokes? Millions probably stumbled into red-faced embarrassment as some trickster lured them into humorous folly.

Sometimes linked to "spring fever" for its characteristic seasonal period of erratic behavior, the observance of April Fool’s Day seems to hark back to the change with the Gregorian calendar. That made January 1 the first of the year rather than traditionally April 1. Those who hadn’t heard or refused to believe it were called fools on April first.

Another resource believes it to be a recollection of some court jesters. In Constantine’s time (AD 288–337), they suggested they could better run the government and were given the chance. They passed an edict making the day one of absurdities. Perhaps this year’s April Fool’s Day is best observed in similar fashion with all the political aspirants campaigning on the jesters’ platform.Regardless, the tradition spread throughout Europe and much of the world. People are still told tall but untrue tales, are sent on dead-end errands and generally fall prey to gullible tricksters.

A worse fate befalls Biblically ignorant or indifferent people around the world in any age or on any day of the year. Ever since Shakespeare wrote, "A fool, a fool, I met a fool in the forest," millions have failed to come out of the woods and anchor themselves to God’s truth. Some may hear the voice of misguided sincerity, promise themselves Heaven by good works, honorable heritage, making amends for wrongdoing or working their way into God’s good graces, only to hear the leering Devil say, "April’s fool you are.

"Psalm 14:1 and 53:1 both say, "The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, They have done abominable works, There is none who does good." After rejecting God’s way of peace, King Saul cried, "Indeed, I have played the fool and erred exceedingly" (I Samuel 26:21).

The most indifferent victim of personal folly was the millionaire who thought riches defended against worry. His story is found in Luke 12:16-21. "The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry."’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."

Fools build their lives on temporal shifting sand (Matthew 7:26). They mock sin (Proverbs 14:9). They fail to fuel their lives for the Lord’s return (Matt. 25:2–8) and generally sink into intellectual foolishness over rejecting God (Romans 1:22).

Wisdom is to know God and make Him known. As missionary Jim Elliot wrote before his noble death trying to win Ecuador’s violent Auca savages to Christ, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose."

Dave Virkler