Were you the class clown, always doing something to draw attention to yourself and get everyone laughing? Most likely, you received LOTS of special attention, just not the kind you were hoping for. Still, it didn’t slow you down.
Hopefully you didn’t continue being a clown as an adult. Unless you were a clown. Such was the case for Emmett Kelly (1898-1979). As an 11 year old, he saw two circuses and became infatuated with circus life. Rather than being repulsed by the notion of joining the circus, his mother enrolled him in the Landon School of Cartooning correspondence courses. Here, he began developing his craft.
“In 1917, Kelly moved to Kansas City, hoping to get a job as a newspaper cartoonist. It was there that he created a cartoon of a tramp that he originally named “Old Dubey”. While in Kansas City, Kelly began working for carnivals and circuses and trained as a trapeze artist.”1
By 1921, Kelly had taken his first job as a circus clown. His typical routine found him in traditional clown garb complete with white face and oversized shoes. Kelly traded this for a while to dress as a clown hobo, developing the persona that would be known as Weary Willie.
At the end of 1929, the Great Depression hit and hobos became standard fare. Kelly resurrected his Weary Willie character, not as an insult to the downtrodden but as a way to identify with them. “The act, which would become Kelly’s signature routine, began with him sweeping the ring. A spotlight followed him, and as it danced about, he slapped, swept, and chased the pool of light with his broom. Once he completed the spotlight routine, Willie blew up a balloon until it popped, and then pantomiming his sorrow, he buried the remains in the sawdust.”2
Today is National Weary Willie Day. The day was chosen to commemorate Kelly’s birth on this day in 1898. I know some of you have coulrophobia, the fear of clowns, so this may not be a day you want to celebrate. However, you can participate without embracing any clowns.
There might be some that cross the path of your life who are echoing the words found in
Job 10:1. “My soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.” Life has really got them down and they are struggling to look happy, much less feel happy. Discouragement has sucked their soul dry and they feel like Weary Willie.
We have verses like Galatians 6:9 that tell us, “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” God doesn’t want us to be wearied by anything. However, He also knows that we are frail (Psalm 39:4) and sometimes, we need some help to get over that weariness.
That’s where YOU come in. You don’t have to be a clown. No white-face, rubber noses, or clown shoes required. Hebrews 12:12-13 says, “Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; (13) And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.”
The ministry of encouragement is within us all as Christians. We ought to be the answer to someone’s 911 call for help. Our encouragement isn’t glib or jovial, expressing cliches and platitudes. Rather, it’s a ministry of identifying with the hurts of others. We practice 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 that says, “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; (4) Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.”
Most of the time, the encouragement we bring doesn’t come from what we say; it comes from what we do. As sympathetic and gentle as Weary Willie, we sit down on the curb with the one who is crying and just cry with them. Then, together we stand, ready to face the trouble head on with a friend by our side. Be that person today.
Romans 12:15 says, “Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.”
1https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Kelly
2Ibid.
Images are taken from https://pixabay.com/, https://www.pexels.com/, or https://unsplash.com/images or created in Windows Copilot. According to the websites, they are Royalty Free and free to be used for our purposes.
Wilie1, 2
