It is April 1, 2011. That means it has been 15 years to the day since I became officially the pastor of Baptist Temple, now the Fellowship of Joy and 4141 Ministries in Fresno, CA.

It was Easter Sunday, but it has never escaped my attention that it was also April Fool's Day.

Proverbs 1:7b says, " fools despise wisdom and instruction."

I am not there, and I have not said in my heart that there is no God.

So, what kind of fool am I (Not even considering the possibility that those who invited me were … no, not that!)?

Of course, I have also read these:

 1 Corinthians 3:18 “Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.” 1 Corinthians 3:19  “ For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.”

1 Corinthians 4:10 “We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised.”

And then, there is, II Corinthians 11:16, "I say again, let no man think me a fool …"

The deal is that there is foolishness and then, there is foolishness. We want to shun moral-ethical foolishness and willful ignorance and avoidance of knowledge and counsel. We do well to embrace wisdom and pursue understanding.

What we can't afford to care about is the evaluation of the masses, especially if the masses are wearing glasses of distortion, limited thinking, and extreme conventional "wisdom" that discourages all innovation, introspection, and reflection.

I am OK with any implication that April Fool's Day marks my anniversary in Fresno and defines some dimension of my ministry if what is really being said is that I make it difficult to enforce categories on myself and the work of the kingdom here. No problem. If that is what it is, fine …

But I'd do well to keep everything under constant evaluation.