Curious and foolish

The Titanic, on her maiden voyage, had just set sail from the shores of England. It was the most magnificent ship ever built, and everybody was very excited. No expense had been spared — the vast dining rooms, casinos, hundreds of neatly groomed waiters and polite service staff, string quartets, the works.

Every night at the bar, they had this magician come on and perform the most wonderfully amazing tricks of magic the world had ever seen. It was the first night of the voyage, and everyone was eager to see the great man at work, except there was one slight problem. There was this curious parrot, which would sit on the bar top by the peanuts, study the trick and ruin the trick as the magician performed them. Each time, the curious parrot would sit quietly until the trick was almost completed, and say things like, “Squark! It’s up his sleeve!” or “Sqeeek! He’s hidden it in the hat!” etc., and ruin the trick for the magician.

The parrot was curious all right, but his curiosity made the magician foolish as every time the parrot revealed his trick, the magician would get madder and madder as the night wore on.

The same thing happened on the next night, and the one after that. The magician would shake with fury as the silly, curious and foolish parrot ruined his world famous show. The magician spent his days devising even better and more stupendously amazing tricks in an effort to fool the bloody parrot.

One night, as the magician was about to perform his greatest trick of the voyage. The lights were dimmed, a hushed silence swept across the bar floor, a drum roll built up to a mighty crescendo as the magician performed his final piece de resistance... and suddenly the ship hits an iceberg and sinks...

For three days, the magician manages to cling to a door floating around in the wreckage, starving and thirsty. On the third day, he noticed at the other end of the door, the parrot, sitting calmly and quietly, staring back at him. For three more days the magician just glowers at him, not saying a word - bitter, hushed, resentful, silence.

...Until one day, still curious and foolish, the parrot could not contain itself any longer and squarks, “Alright! I give up! What have you done with the ship?!”

Today is “April’s Fool Day.” Your friends may play pranks on you so don’t be a fool because of your curiosity and fall victim to their tricks. Think first then respond later.

April Fools’ Day is observed throughout the Western world. It’s a light hearted day, but sometimes immature and childish people do pranks that may hurt other people and what was intended to be fun becomes harmful. So be on the alert.

April Fool’s Day’s old practices include sending someone on a “fool’s errand,” looking for things that don’t exist; playing pranks; and trying to get people to believe ridiculous things. But then there are people today who would borrow money under the pretense that an emergency necessitates it and then do not return the money once they have marked their “victims,” claiming it is a legitimate thing to do since it is “April Fool’s Day” anyway…

And then there are the familiar false news. “Paul McCartney is dead.” “Elvis is still alive.” “This software company will give you millions if you were to send the chain letter to at least nine of your friends.” “God has spoken to people and left a message and if that message is not shared to a certain number of people some bad things will happen to the recipient of the message.” These old pranks still exist today.

The only thing that changes is the medium. It used to be emails, and now they are sent as private messages. I delete these things immediately and know they are pranks because the content about God contradicts the revealed nature and character of God. To many these things may appear harmless, but to those who become fearful it is not.

Well, for people who are foolish and play pranks like these, here is what the Scriptures have to say. “The fool say’s in his heart there is no God.” And today may be a special day for godless pranksters.

Curious? Do not be foolish and fall for their pranks. Be careful and be safe.

(Experience two inspiring days of leadership training with Francis Kong in his highly acclaimed Level Up Leadership on May 17-18 at Makati, Shangri-La Hotel. For registration or inquiries contact April at +63928-559-1798.)