Today is a quite appropriate day to talk about foolishness. After all, it is April 1st, or what is commonly celebrated in many areas around the world as April Fool’s Day. Regardless of how the particulars of this day originated, it is a day in which you might wish to be a bit more skeptical of things that people say or do. Practical jokes are commonly excused or more tolerated today, which does make it more interesting. Humor does have its place and is a very important part of life (see also my 07-03-08 Blog: “Humor Me” and/or the 12-05-08 Blog: “Humor, Humanity, and Tragedy”). There is another point here, however, that I have alluded to often and it is The Tragedy of Foolishness.
In the process of raising my children (whom I deeply miss now due to my current, ongoing tragedy), I have often been reminded of and dealt with them through my understanding of an important distinction in behavior. There are some actions and behaviors that they chose which were simply examples of a lack of knowledge, understanding, or what you might refer to as immaturity. My wife and I referred to this as “childishness” and there would be little consequence to this beyond learning from what happened. A marked difference was when they did something they were not supposed to do or failed to do something they were supposed to do. We rightly referred to this as “foolishness” and there were consequences that came with foolish behavior.
We live in an information age! Knowledge is abounding more and more. Virginia Tech even prides itself as “a University putting knowledge to work.” Technology and means of communication are ever improving. You can not only phone someone around the world, you can even see them instantly through web cameras. You can send instant messages to people around the world (as I was just doing) and now you can even tweet with people around the world on Twitter. With all of this communication, information and knowledge comes responsibility (see my recent 03-21-09 Blog: “The Tragedy with RESPONSIBILITY”). We cannot be so quick to excuse any behavior as ignorant or uninformed. There is also a coming accounting of it all! Dear friend, it is utter foolishness to refuse to acknowledge the things we know to be true, even if we hope somehow they are not. You cannot escape from reality or truth and it is foolish to ignore, fight, or even try to drown it away, as that only delays the inevitable accounting.
In fact, foolish behavior will feed on itself and this will even lead to tragedies (I refer to this often, such as in my 03-05-09 “Spring Break Tragedy” Blog). If America continues to improperly acknowledge its rich heritage, it will crumble and fall and take much of the world with it. All you need do to see this is to understand something of the current economic impact on each of us. Wisdom is to properly apply knowledge and the Bible clearly teaches that “The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (c.f. Proverbs 1:7) and the beginning of wisdom (c.f. Proverbs 9:10). In fact, the Bible teaches us much about being wise in the world wherein we live. To not follow the plain teachings of the Bible is foolishness!
The Bible also plainly describes the person who is a true fool, on April Fool’s Day or whenever:
“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.”
Friend, you had best be certain you have found forgiveness with God and are trusting in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ for your sins! Otherwise, the tragedy of that foolishness is an eternity of torment in a God-less lake of fire, far worse than any tragedy or self-described “hell” you may face in this life.
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