Wednesday, April 1st, 2009 "Don't Be A Fool"

Wednesday, April 1st, 2009
Title: Don’t Be a Fool
Text: Psalm 92:5-7 (NIV)
5 How great are your works, O LORD, how profound your thoughts! 6 The senseless man does not know, fools do not understand, 7 that though the wicked spring up like grass and all evildoers flourish, they will be forever destroyed.

April Fool’s Day is a crazy day isn’t it? Think about it. It is the one day of the year that you really have to be on your guard when it comes to whether or not to believe something that someone has to tell you. And of course we have all been in that situation on April 1st when in the midst of a conversation someone screams out in some obnoxious voice “April Fools! I got you!” Every time I think of it I feel like I’m on some hidden camera games show or that Ashton Kutcher is going to jump out of the shadows, wearing that dorky trucker hat and tell me that I just got punked! I can even remember my mother telling me that she was rushed to hospital on April 1st, 1970 thinking that I was about to arrive. Haha. I didn’t show up until April 5th!!! April Fools, Mom.
Anyway, being fooled or being considered by others to be a fool is not something we typically like. Now, as most may know, I don’t mind making a fool of myself and I can take a joke, but I don’t like being played for a fool. But I am amazed by the number of people in our world today that are still fooled by this world about the existence and presence of God. I was listening to a Christian radio station on the internet the other day and they were talking about an Atheist organization in the western part of the country that had started a billboard campaign that simply read, “Don’t Believe in God. You’re Not Alone.” I guess this attempt at marketing was done to bring some peace and assurance to those who simply can’t accept that there is an amazing creator, sustainer and provider that has brought everything and everyone into existence. And maybe if they hear that someone else my not believe either, they will not even attempt to seek the truth that God does exist.
In 2004 I had the wonderful blessing of doing something that I had always dreamt of. I flew to California to help a friend and his wife move back to South Carolina after his wife’s contract as a traveling nurse in San Diego ended. We loaded up the U-Haul trailer and the 3 of us jumped into the little, green Mustang and we hit the road. When it wasn’t my turn to drive I would pour my 6’3”, 255 lbs body into the back seat. It was one of the most uncomfortable trips I had ever taken. But during that 4 day trip, driving from 8AM to 10PM every day, I would catch myself staring out the back window of that car and awed by the beautiful landscape of our country. Whether it was the painted dessert of the southwest, flat farmlands of Oklahoma, or the lush green trees of the Blue Ridge Mountains, I couldn’t help but worship God for the amazing, brilliant and creative brush God used to form creation. As I watched my children enter this world, take their first breath and cry out their welcome to the world, I stood in awesome wonder of the presence of God. As I watch my wife compassionately nurture and mold our children from little people into remarkable human beings, I can’t help but feel God’s hand holding us securely and guiding our lives. As I spend time with the youth I pastor and share with them that they have been created for a very special purpose and that God has gifted them to live a life that will impact this world for good, I can almost hear God’s words in my ears giving me the right things to say to them. How in all of those events and countless others can a person not acknowledge the presence, support, creation and mostly the unconditional love of God?
As the scripture tells us, God’s works are so great and profound. But for some reason, senseless people act as fools and do not or choose not to understand. And that saddens me. However, I do know one thing. I am no fool, and I will do all in my power to help bring understanding of God’s Grace to those who have allowed the world to fool them into thinking that all of this has happened by mistake or coincident. Because only a fool could truly believe that.