April Fool

If a fool is someone who does stupid things, then being fooled is being tricked into doing or believing something stupid. Like falling for a prank on April 1st even when you KNOW it’s a day devoted to making fools out of people.
I started thinking about fools and foolish things right around April Fools day this year…mainly because I got fooled hardcore by some friends…(Touche Forrest and Kylee).
As far as I can tell being a fool is a bad thing. The book of Proverbs seems to be the authority on the topic of fools. There are around 64 verses that talk about the fool…one of my personal favorites is Proverbs 26:11: “Like a dog who returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.” Ha…vomit. It talks over and over again about doing things that are stupid. It speaks of wisdom and how to get it…and it usually tells you to do something because its good and to not do what the fool does.
Let me share with you a humorous and semi-embarrassing story from my past when I was fooled:
I was in the 8th grade, when it happened. It was my birthday, and I was excited. I put on my game face that day; New haircut complete with bleached highlights, tight-fitting white T to accentuate my rib-laden frame, sun-glasses that were too big for my face and made me look like a bug, and Hawaiian print board shorts. I was stylin’ fo sho…in that awkward mid-high way. My confidence in my coolness was only confirmed by the fact that 20...ish people showed up to my birthday party. We jumped on the trampoline and listened to the Now 5 CD, and then ate cake and played knockout. After I won…or at least that’s how I choose to remember it, we went inside to open presents. I honestly can’t remember what all I got…mostly gift cards and $10 bills. But one gift was different than the rest. My friend Ryan Weatherford bought me scratcher lottery tickets and he insisted that I scratch them in front of everyone to see if maybe I won something. I went through the first couple and didn’t win a thing. On the last ticket I read the instructions: “Get three numbers the same and you win that amount.”…or something like that. So I start the ticket and the first number is $10...the next is $5...oh wow. Then $10,000...things look better. The next number…also $10,000...my eyes were wider now, no one could tell though because of my bug glasses. Everyone held their breath now…hushed and waiting for my next move. The penny in my quivering hand began to feel like a boulder…Destiny’s Child‘s, “Jumpin’ Jumpin’” could be heard in the background as my Now 5 album played, and it described the condition of my heart quite well. I then sealed my fate by scratching the next space to discover….$10,000! I. HAD. WON!
The room erupted into celebration and gave a whole new meaning to “Jumpin’ Jumpin’”. I was hoisted high onto the shoulders of my friends and paraded around the house and we all laughed and cheered and were overjoyed at my luck…which was also their luck…because they were my friends. After a few minutes things settled down a little and Ryan told me to look on the back to see where I could redeem my ticket…He thought that perhaps we could all go and cash it in right then and there and celebrate further. My adrenaline filled body could hardly hold the ticket still enough to read the back. My eyes strained to focus on the words “Redeem”. Here is what the ticket said: This ticket is redeemable at Your Mama’s House. If you call 1-800-DUMB and ask for Santa, he will connect you with the Tooth Fairy and she will provide you with a good dose of Gullable. Thanks.
Ryan received a good tackle…but it didn’t do a whole lot since he was already on the floor laughing. I felt absolutely foolish and the blonde highlights in my gelled up hair were accentuated by my ever redder face as embarrassment set in. I was the fool. It was all in good fun and lots of people have fallen for a joke like that….right? Please say its not just me.

It makes me laugh when people go around calling each other fool. “Sup fool!” Its kind of a slang term for ’buddy’ now…which makes me wonder if half the people that say that realize they’re calling each other stupid. Just a thought…but there does seem to be a time when being foolish is acceptable--a time when being called a fool might be considered a good thing: Like when a person falls in love and says, “I‘m a fool for you.” I’ve done some stupid things for people when I thought I was in love. One time I was driving to Dallas and a girl who is a friend decided she would keep me company…but she lives 3 hours away from me and Dallas is 12 hours from either one of us…so I drove to where she lived, picked her up and then drove to Dallas. The result cost me just a tad more in gas and a lot of sleep time….but I’d do it again. (Perfect example of Proverbs 26:11) Needless to say I wouldn’t have done that if I hadn’t had different thoughts about the girl.
But that kind of confirms a thought I have on being foolish…I do think that there is a time and a place to do foolish things. Love can be one of those times. If things had worked out between me and the girl then I think that maybe my acts of foolishness wouldn’t seem so foolish but they would suddenly be romantic. Its like…normally jumping in front of a car is a definite foolish thing to do… but if you’re jumping in front of the car to save someone’s life then its no longer foolish but heroic.
David of Israel was a guy that had a complete grasp of being foolish. In fact I think he could be considered an artist: He’s had his good times and his bad. Sleeping with a woman who isn’t your wife is foolish. Murdering said woman’s husband is also sort of stupid…and for the record…taking a bath on a rooftop is stupid too. Just sayin’…But there’s more to David’s foolish antics…a 12 year old boy with a sling and rocks taking on a 7 foot tall man with a sword is stupid…totally foolish. But when that little boy goes in because the God of the universe is at his back he stops being foolish and starts being smart…Normally dancing in public is sort of strange…depending on where you are. Being in your underwear in public is usually sort of foolish. Dancing in your underwear in public is foolish…and even worse when you’re the king. But David did it because he was so overjoyed by God…and I don’t think it was foolish to those who understood why he was doing it… “I will be even more undignified than this…” (2 Samuel 6:22).
Actin’ a fool is bad if there’s no good reason for it. But if there is a reason then intentionally being foolish gains a sort of…prestige. Here’s where this is hitting home for me though…and it has been thrown into the limelight with Easter and all…and it can only be said by Paul…the king of hard-to-understand…
“For the word of the cross is folly (foolishness) to those who are perishing…” (1 Corinthians 1:18).

I mean lets think about it: The message, or word, of the cross is that if you believe in Jesus, a man who claimed to be God, and believe that he was killed on said cross and that he rose from the grave 3 days later, then you too will rise. If you believe in Jesus, just take off your Jesus-glasses for a second and think about it, and if you don‘t then just listen to this: A guy that was tortured and killed in the most despicable of ways says he is God and then his best buddies say they saw him alive 3 days later? Oh and they think they’ll rise as well? Okay.
It sounds a little foolish doesn’t it? It sounds crazy. But the thing about it is….I know that I know that its true. Like the verse says, “…folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” I believe--know that I am saved and I will rise like Christ on the last day. But to someone who doesn’t believe or know God that sounds absolutely bonkers. With today’s technology and the years of research and experimentation we can do some pretty crazy things…we can duplicate ourselves if we want. We’ve unlocked many of the complexities of DNA and what was once science-fiction is now not so far-fetched. But rise from the dead 3 days after you’ve been killed? Haven’t duplicated anything like that before.
By all standards of the world the story of the cross is folly…okay, now put your Jesus glasses back on. There is a God. He is real. And He did come to earth as the Son Jesus Christ. We who know the God that surpasses all understanding can bear witness to His power…We who are weak shall overcome the strong. We who know nothing understand everything with Jesus. You see…We gave up our rights. We stopped leaning on our understanding…stopped looking at the universe through science books and microscopes. We stopped trying to figure out how this universe came to be and looked instead to the Creator of it all. We let go of the wisdom this fallen world has to offer and we’ve become fools for Christ.
So, let go of your so-called wisdom. Forget everything you know. Who cares what Bill Nye the Science guy says…Jesus Christ is God. Dance in the streets. Set out to accomplish the impossible. Believe the unbelievable. Forfeit your life to gain it. I know it goes against all logic…winning the lottery through a scratcher doesn’t happen…but try your luck…forget the statistics. Try your hand at this…Because I don’t know anything else other than this: He is risen.