April 1, 2005

     Hidden deep inside my precious wife there is a merciless prankster just waiting to emerge and unexpectedly assail me. Of course, April 1st (a.k.a. “April Fool’s Day”) is especially rough. Computer keyboards wrapped in Saran Wrap, Crisco covered car door handles, and green food coloring added to my cereal milk are all standard procedure at our house. Our children love these dubious enterprises so I can also expect whoopee cushions to be strategically placed throughout our home.

     I enjoy our game of “Get Dad” as I gingerly tiptoe throughout the place, hoping to avoid each little trap but I know that sooner or later I’ll fall prey to one of their playful little landmines. I, in turn, pretend to be surprised (sometimes I’m not pretending) and put on my best longsuffering expression. Then, when they least expect it, I begin my campaign of retaliation: rubber chickens in the freezer, fake flies in ice cubes, etc. (always harmless, mind you, and calculated to NOT hurt people’s feelings).

     Historically, April Fool’s Day originated in Europe largely as a result of some people’s reluctance to change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar at the end of the sixteenth century and the ignorance of many people in remote areas to the fact there even was a change being made. Instead of celebrating on January 1st, they celebrated the first of April. These “April Fools” became the targets of derision and prank-pulling. Some clueless souls even had paper fish attached to their backs suggesting that they were “April Fish” (young and naïve fish are easily caught). I wonder if every generation has its own variation of the “kick me” note slapped on the backs of the unsuspecting.

     Meanwhile, the world goes on playing its own game of “April Fools” with a much more serious and darker set of repercussions than simply feeling silly or embarrassed. Whereas the drum-beaters for “modernism” still tout a mandate on believing only what may be seen and concretely documented, post-modernism panders to people today its wares of experiential relativism.

     Before anyone says, “Huh? What does that mean?”, let me explain that there are two great errors into which we tend to fall. The first is that “seeing is believing”… “If I can’t observe it, it must not be.” Ironically, in its presumption, it turned from the obvious portents of a Divine Creator and turned to non-theistic theories.

     But “since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened” (Romans 1:20-21).

     The ultimate end of Naturalism (the idea that there is no God Who is Creator and Sustainer of all that is) is pride in our own intellect as we choose to be dissatisfied with the proofs that surround us in Creation and a hardening of our hearts against the truth of God. “They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts” (Ephesians 4:18).

     Over the past few years, Naturalism has been unmasked as a failure in bringing the sense of satisfaction and fulfillment it once boasted it could supply. Instead, when it became clear that it could do nothing for the soul of the individual (and consequently society overall), it proved bankrupt and our culture went looking elsewhere for meaning.

     But instead of returning to God, we’ve gone the wrong way again. Not looking to our Creator Who makes Himself known to us through His Holy Law and the person of Jesus Christ, we look into another finite world, the inward world of our own human hearts. Why do we look inward? Because we’ve been told that true happiness lies within. Because we’ve been told that the solutions to all our problems can be found inside ourselves. A sugary-coated promise. Very appealing, isn’t it?

     But the fact of the matter is that if we look inward for all the answers to life’s questions, we’ll end up as empty as those who trust in only those things that they can prove empirically. Why do I say that? Mainly because there is something terribly wrong with the human heart.

     “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).

     “Inner wisdom” that does not find its source in God’s Word is deadly. When trying to make it through life on our own, apart from God’s leadership, wisdom and provision, we’ll always wander into self-destruction.

     "Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD. He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives” (Jeremiah 17:5-6).

     But if we turn to God for leadership, meaning, fulfillment, wisdom, love and salvation, we’ll find that it is indeed true where it is written, “blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in Him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit” (Psalm 17:7-8).

     God’s Truth stands solid in the shifting currents of the ages, it transcends the fickle wisdom of passing generations, and it towers above the temporary theories that man can concoct as he tries to explain God away. Are you looking for some direction in life and joy for the journey? Just remember that He who trusts in the Lord is nobody’s fool.

(Thom Mollohan has ministered in southern Ohio the past nine and a half years and is the pastor of Pathway Community Church.   He and his wife are the parents of four children.  He may be reached by email at pastorthom@pathwaygallipolis.com).