By: Steve Wilmot
In 1957, a British news program set a high bar for future April Fool’s Day pranks. They managed to convince hundreds of people that spaghetti could grow on trees.
Prior to April 1, the BBC broadcasters flew to Switzerland to film a segment about the great spaghetti harvest, which was made possible by the “virtual disappearance of the spaghetti weevil.”
They placed cooked pasta on tree branches and filmed local girls pulling the pasta off the branches and placing them in baskets.
After airing the segment, callers bombarded the station asking how to grow a spaghetti tree, leading the anchors to confess the prank.
Nevertheless, calls continued to roll in demanding information about growing spaghetti. BBC operators grew frustrated and responded to every call with, “Place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.”
In 1996, Taco Bell pulled off an astonishingly successful prank. They claimed they had purchased the Liberty Bell. In a second press release they elaborated, “Taco Bell’s heritage and imagery have revolved around the symbolism of the bell. Now we’ve got the crown jewel of bells.”
Complaints flooded in to both the Taco Bell headquarters and National Park Service in Philadelphia. By noon, Taco Bell issued another press release admitting to the joke.
It’s hard to believe anyone bought either of these April Fools pranks, but they did. Being victimized by such hoaxes is usually quite harmless. You feel silly and gullible, but it’s not terminal.
Unfortunately, the same is not true for those who are fools every day of the year. The Old Testament book of Proverbs is devoted to identifying the simple, the foolish, and the wise person.
Then it outlines the benefits of wisdom, and the consequences those who are simple or foolish can expect. The simple person is immature and easily misled. He just needs more teaching. The wise are those who see and respond to life from God’s point of view.
The fool is probably best defined in Proverbs 12.15 — The way of a fool seems right to him.
A fool knows what he’s planning to do is harmful to him and those around him. He knows he’s going to suffer in the long run for it, but he doesn’t care. He’s going to do what he wants to do anyway.
He’s focused on the immediate thrill or satisfaction or dopamine-hit it will give him. Never mind the negative long-term results.
Proverbs summarizes the long-term results awaiting a fool with one word — destroy. The complacency [the attitude of I don’t care, I want to do what I want to do] of fools will destroy them” (Proverbs 1.32).
That’s not “might destroy them.” That’s “will destroy them.” It’s inevitable unless the fool begins to seek wisdom.
“As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly (Proverbs 26.11). In other words, a fool remembers what happened the last time he did what he’s about to do again, but he doesn’t care. He’s going to do it again anyway.
How do you know if you’re a fool? You qualify if you keep doing the same things over and over and suffer harmful consequences time after time, but you do the same thing next time. And the time after that, and the time after that…
Sadly, the only thing that can shake a fool out of his folly is tragedy. Something happens that’s so bad he finally wakes up and realizes he needs to change and start doing things differently.
By then, he’s suffering consequences he cannot erase, scars he can’t heal, and relationships that cannot be restored. Midway through the first chapter of Proverbs, Wisdom speaks. Wisdom calls out, “Who wants wisdom? Come and get it.”
The invitation is for the simple and the fool. It’s not true that once a fool, always a fool. Listen to the Word of God and gain wisdom, and you will begin to see and respond to life from God’s perspective.
A perspective that will make your life unimaginably better and will make you far better at life. Wisdom confidently declares you can change course and chart a different ending from where you’re headed now.
You can ditch Foolish Road and the pain and heartache you experience there and start a new journey filled with hope and good things on Wisdom Highway.
Wisdom holds out hope for you — even if you’ve ignored her invitation all your life. If you’re fooled by an April Fools prank, just laugh it off. But if you’re a fool because you lack wisdom, that’s just foolish… and unnecessary.
Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out, in the gateways of the city she makes her speech: “How long will… fools hate knowledge?” (Proverbs 1.21-22).
Wisdom is readily accessible to you. You don’t need a secret password. There aren’t any hoops you must jump through first. She’s everywhere you are.
Turn your eyes to the wisdom found in the Word of God and search for it as for hidden treasure. It’s that valuable.
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Steve Wilmot is a former Edgerton, Ohio area pastor who now seeks “to still bear fruit in old age” through writing. He is the author of seven books designed to assist believers to make steady progress on their spiritual journey.
