On April 1, 1983, the Associated Press reported that the mystery of the origin of April Fool’s Day had been solved. The article was based on an interview an AP reporter had with Boston University professor Joseph Boskin. Boskin shared that April Fool’s’ Day began in the fourth century when Emperor Constatine jokingly appointed a court jester named Kugel to be ruler for a day. The first thing Kuger did was to decree that only the absurd would be allowed in the kingdom that day. Thus, April Fool’s Day was born. This article appeared in hundreds of newspapers. A couple of weeks later Professor Boskin confessed that none of it was true. He had intended the story about Kugel as a joke, but the reporter had taken it seriously and had run with it.
Foolishness entered the world the moment Adam and Eve fell for history’s first lie – that moment when Satan told Eve that God didn’t really mean it when He said that they would die if they ate from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and Eve, then Adam, swallowed Satan’s lie hook line and sinker. History’s first act of foolishness was Adam’s and Eve’s sin of unbelief regarding the authority of the Word of God and the thought that they could become like Him. Foolishness has been in the world ever since. No one in his right mind should desire the label “fool.”
In that April Fool’s Day is soon upon us, I want to mention briefly two areas of our lives where we most definitely should not play the fool, but instead “play the wise”:
- With our past. Let me suggest two of the ways this can occur.
- By dwelling in our past. By dwelling in our past, I’m not referring to enjoying memories of the good things in our past with the accompanying longing for the good ol’ days. I’m not speaking of an occasional rehearsal of memories of negative experiences in our past. I’m referring to the foolishness of setting up an emotional tent and camping out in the negative events of our past where we sit around the campfire with emotional companions that either weigh us down or keep us chained to the pain of our past. The fool who dwells in the past fails to realize that pains from the past like guilt and shame over unforgiven sins, disappointments, failures, broken promises, crushed or unrealized dreams, or a broken heart from broken relationships, if not dealt with in a healthy manner, can create an environment that attracts other emotional companions to his/her campfire such as anger, bitterness, resentment, and especially a spirit of unforgiveness aimed at those who disappointed, hurt, or failed us. The fool allows the negatives to fester and feels justified, and is even somehow strangely rewarded, in doing so. The fool rejects wisdom -especially godly wisdom. The fool rejects wise counsel from emotionally heathy individuals who could provide wise counsel on how to close the emotional campground he is dwelling in. The fool, as foolish as it sounds, sometimes would rather hurt than deal with the hurt.
- By never visiting our past. There are some whose pain is so sharp that they choose to put a lid on their past using such things as denial and “ig-nor’-ance.” Visiting our past from time to time is critical because all the negatives not dealt with from our past will become baggage that will weigh us down as we live in the present. By failing to visit the negatives of our past, we cheat ourselves of opportunities to take advantage of the growth opportunities that the negatives present us. By never visiting our past, we also cheat ourselves of the opportunity to remember the good things, plus the growth we’ve experienced, which open the door for having a spirit of gratitude and thanksgiving for what God has done and is doing in our hearts, mind, and lives. The fool shuts the door by avoiding the past, while the wise man opens the door to see what is there – yet with great caution.
- With our eternity. There are several ways that a person can play the fool regarding eternity:
- We can deny that God exists. The Bible says in Psalm 14:1, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” Why is that the case? It’s because to make that declaration one must ignore all the evidence of God found in Creation from the most minute to the most magnificent, ignore all the evidence of His interaction with people throughout history as recorded in Scripture, and ignore all the evidence that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God who was crucified and rose again in three days.
- We can deny that eternity exists – by believing that there is no life after death, thus concluding there is no Heaven and no Hell. In Ecclesiastes 3:8, King Solomon, the wisest man to ever live, tells us that God has placed eternity in every person’s heart. Instinctively we know that even though death is so natural, it is not the way life is supposed to play out. That’s why people fight so hard to stay alive – why doctor offices, urgent care facilities, and hospitals stay so full. It is the fool who denies eternity and makes no preparations for it.
- We can deny that we’re in eternal danger and need to be rescued by Jesus. This denial takes on several forms: (1) Either denying the reality of sin, or if it’s real, denying one’s accountability for it, (2) denying that Heaven and Hell exist, (3) accepting the reality of Heaven but denying the reality of Hell, or (4) accepting the reality of both Heaven and Hell yet assuming that we will get into heaven based on our good works – thus declaring that the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus was unnecessary.
Those who play foolishly with eternity will hear Satan say, “Welcome, O Fool.”
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