Whose Fool Are You?

They say that today is April Fools Day. It is also known as All Fool's Day. It is not a legal holiday in the sense that we can skip work, head to the back yard and fire up the ole grill. It however is "celebrated" in many countries around the world on April 1st, today. We know that day will be filled with hoaxes, practical jokes, and juvenile attempts to embarrass our family, friends, and fools.

It is hard to say how April Fool's Day came about. There is a theory that it began shortly after the Gregorian Calendar was adopted in place of the Julian Calendar. There was a time when the first day of summer was celebrated as "May Day", or the first day of May. May day was the time the spring planting was begun. Someone who began planting on April 1st came to be known as an April fool.

A second theory says that when King Charles IX changed January 1st to the first day of the year in France from April 1st, that some held stubbornly to the original date of the new year. These folks who continued to hold to April 1st were considered April fools.

God's Word has quite a bit to say about fools: "For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness." " Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding." (Proverbs 17:28) "Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope of a fool than of him." (Proverbs 26:12) "A fool uttereth all his mind: but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards." (Proverbs 29:11)

We have even had some great quotes about fools:

“You can fool some of the people all the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time.”- Abraham Lincoln.

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool then to speak out and remove all doubt. Abraham Lincoln

“You can fool too many of the people too much of the time.”- James Thurber (1894 - 1961), New Yorker, Apr. 29, 1939 “The Owl who was God”

“The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.”- the Bible

“He who will not reason is a bigot; he who cannot is a fool; and he who dares not is a slave.”- Sir William Drummond

The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is in his heart. Benjamin Franklin

"He is no fool who will give up what he cannot keep for what he cannot loose to gain what he cannot loose." Missionary Jim Elliot

So, have a great April Fool's Day, this April the 1st, 2009. Consider eternally as you consider this day and all the jokes, surprises, hoaxes, and fools errands; whose fool are you? I am a fool for Christ!