April Fools

On April Fool's Day, my wife leaped out of the closet and scared me half to death.

Have you had that happen? I thought to myself, what happens if you get scared half to death twice?

Thanks for joining us today. You're listening to laugh again with Phil Calloway.

I have incredible news for you today. My wife tells me she is expecting.

It's a miracle, a miracle. In other news today is April Fool's Day.

And you, my friend, have been fooled.

April the first was a terrifying day for me as a child.

As the youngest of five, I never quite knew what my siblings had cooked up for me.

I would wake up and look under my bed to see if my brother was waiting to grab me.

I would peer cautiously around corners and behind doors.

You'd pull on a boot, hoping your sister hadn't put an egg in it.

And at school, you'd learn to check inside sandwiches for earthworms.

And you couldn't believe a thing your friends told you.

Michael Jordan was now Prime Minister of Great Britain, no way.

April Fool's isn't an official holiday, but people have been fooling one another on the first of April for centuries.

In March of 1860, many important Londoners received formal invitations that read Tower of London,

admit bearer and friend, to view the annual ceremony of washing the white lions on Sunday, April 1st.

Admittance only at White Gate.

Many carriages arrived, but there is no White Gate at the Tower of London.

And there has never been a washing of white lions' ceremony.

The important Londoners soon realized they'd been fleeced.

In 1985, George Plimpton published an article in the April issue of Sports Illustrated

about a young New York Metz baseball prospect.

Sid, Sid Harta Finch, was a young Englishman who had studied mind control in a Tibetan monastery

and developed the ability to throw a baseball 168 miles an hour with perfect accuracy.

Sid had attended Harvard, played the French horn, and pitched with one barefoot for balance.

If readers took the first letter of each word, they found that the writer's opening lines contained a hidden message.

He's a pitcher, part yogi, and part recluse.

Impressively liberated from our opulent lifestyle, Sid's decided about yoga and his future in baseball.

Now, the first letter is spelled Happy April Fool's Day, a fib.

But the hoaxter was soon busted.

Now, if you're looking for some April first ideas, I'm not the right person to ask,

but if you were asking, I might suggest a few things that have worked for me.

If you have kids, bake them a chicken pot pie filled with vanilla pudding and starburst candies.

Or bake a cake.

Go at it with thick, creamy icing, then fill it with meatloaf.

If your kids are teenagers, they may enjoy that.

You'll start a family tradition.

Okay, I'm glad I got that out of my system.

This is quite a time of year, isn't it?

Right around the time we engage in April 1st, Hoax's Christian celebrate an event of 2,000 years ago that some called a hoax.

A few of the authorities of the day claimed that Jesus' resurrection was a clever trick.

But listen carefully.

Historians agree that the letters of Paul were written just 15 to 20 years after Jesus' death.

So take it from a trickster, there is no possible way Paul could get away with writing his own eyewitness account

of how the risen Jesus appeared to over 500 people at once, most of whom were still alive.

There have been thousands of Messianic pretenders through the years.

In fact, I talked to one recently.

Only one man in history had followers who died insisting he had been resurrected.

Why would Jesus' disciples have done this?

There's only one explanation they had seen the risen Jesus.

No one dies for something he knows to be a lie.

If you doubt me, try faking a resurrection in your town.

Let me know how that goes.

May April Fool's Day remind us of the certainty of the resurrection of Jesus, our true reason for joy.

Now, I had better go bake a cake for my wife, though she says she has a craving for pickles and ice cream.

Someone once asked how Phil keeps going after recording 1400 Lafagan programs.

His answer?

He's more excited today than when he first started because he has seen God at work.

Ken is one example.

He wrote to tell us that Lafagan played a huge part in his return to walking with Jesus.

Five hours of binging Lafagan on a road trip made him smile, laugh and cry.

To support this ministry, visit Lafagan.org.

Lafagan truth bringing laughter to life.