Weebles Wobble But They Don't Fall Down

Here is my sermon from Sunday. The text was Romans

Some of you have heard this before, but when I was growing up and would spend time with my grandparents, to try and get me to eat my vegetables, my grandfather would always say “it’ll put hair on your chest.” I never considered that an acceptable argument for doing something I didn’t want to do, and will note I still don’t. But that’s what I always think of when I hear Paul’s words that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character and character produces hope and hope does not disappoint.” But if that’s what it takes to get hope, wouldn’t you rather pass? Not that I don’t want to live without hope, but I don’t want to suffer either, and let’s also note that anytime someone says about something that it will build character, you can be pretty sure that it too will be an unpleasant experience, like having to eat your vegetables as a child. And so, with that, we move on to today’s toy, the Weeble. And again credit is due to Ron Hunter, Jr. and Michael Waddell for their inspiration for this series.

This is the newest of all the toys we will look at, and thus one that many of you did not grow up with because it wasn’t yet invented, but one that your children, or perhaps grandchildren did grow up playing with. It also happens to be the only toy we will look at that has not been inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame. But it is based upon a much older toy. The television show Romper Room, which began in 1953, introduced a clown punching bag that was weighed down by sand at the bottom so that when you punched it, it wouldn’t stay down but would right itself so you could punch it again, and keep going. Nothing violent about that. And some of you may know the toy because there was a duplicate that had Bozo the clown on it. When toy manufacturer Hasbro purchased Romper Room in 1969, they wanted to market the punching bag idea, with a twist, and so they shrunk it down, made it solid, and shaped it like an egg, and thus was born, in 1971, the Weeble. And what made them so unique was not only their shape, but the fact that when they got knocked over, that because of the weighting, that gravity would cause them to right themselves, thus creating the famous advertising slogan that “Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down.” Allegedly this helped introduce children to basic physics, perhaps a stretch, but it is there. Now I will note, first that I couldn’t find any reason why they were called Weebles, perhaps just because they wobble, and second now they are much shorter and squatter than the originals, allegedly because the originals posed a choking hazard, although that seems like a huge stretch to me, not because kid’s wouldn’t put them in their mouths, but because they were still really big and I can’t imagine a child actually being able to get it stuck in their throat, but there we are. And so that leads us back not really to the idea of suffering so much as to the idea of resilience because Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down.

And really, I think that’s what Paul is getting it, more than just trying to say suck it up buttercup, although I will admit that I do have a problem with saying that we boast in our suffering. But, setting this aside for another day, the truth is that we will have suffering in our lives. We will all have up-and-downs. We will all suffer at some point. Some physical, some emotional, some psychological, and sometimes all three. Now one the things about suffering is that, as Simone Weil said, whose work on suffering is on of the best, is that suffering can isolate us because it makes us feel like we’re the only ones going through something. A good example is that I’m sure that many of us have attended a funeral on a bright, beautiful, sunny day and you wonder how the world can be like that when your life is dark and grey and rainy, or just pitch black. We have this disconnect that happens. And so, we have to know that we are never alone, and we are not the only ones who have ever gone through this thing. Our emotions and feelings are our own, but they are not unique. And one of the things that suffering helps us to do, or can help us to do, is to develop a sense of empathy, and we’ll come back to that point.

Now one of the things that often gets said when people are in the midst of suffering, especially from well-meaning Christians, is that God won’t give you anything you can’t handle. I call this one of the lies we say but don’t actually believe, and I say that because I’ve never heard anyone say that to themselves. It’s usually people who are not going through whatever it is and it’s doing several things. The first is that they think it will make the other person feel better, but it doesn’t, and can come with the idea that if only they were weaker then they wouldn’t be encountering this. But the true purpose is to let them off the hook of feeling bad or trying to explain things, and so we end of like Job’s friends, and it also serves to let God off the hook, because God obviously knows we can deal with it. Except, and this is a huge one for me, I don’t believe that God is responsible for the bad things that happen in our lives, as Paul says in Romans, God can redeem all situations, not that God causes all situations, and that’s where the Weebles come into play.

Not to be flippant when it comes to suffering, but Nietzsche said that which doesn’t kill you will make you stronger. Kelly Clarkson said the same thing, so take your pick. And that’s another reason why that God quote is troubling because we probably know people who have been destroyed by things that happened to them, including sometimes dying as a result, often of a broken heart. But being able to come back, of not falling down, or more directly of falling down but getting back up, is known as resiliency, and there are many parts to this. One and this is probably hard to keep in mind in the midst of suffering as we are building character, is the fact that having overcome before makes it easier to do again. Studies have found that people who have encountered a loss, usually the death of a parent or sibling, before the age of 20 are much more resilient to tragedies in the future, and there are lots of reasons for this, but one speculation is the knowledge that you got through that, and so you can get through something else. The same has also been found to be true with those who have suffered with PTSD. If you have had PTSD you are much less likely to get it again, then the average person. Having suffered tragedy in the past, will help you, the Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down.

I also suspect that it might have something to do with that whole hope thing as well, because, as Paul says, hope never disappoints. And that hope comes for us in Christ, who walks this journey with us through the movement of the Spirit. And I can’t tell you the number of people who have been working through trauma, or on the other side of it, who have told me that they don’t know how they would have been able to do it without their faith. That they were wobbling and falling, but it was Christ who sustained them and lifted them back up. It was Christ, and the hope found in Christ, that allowed them to right themselves again. And it was Christ who kept them grounded and able to come out the other side in one piece.

Because how we react and how we deal with these things, where we find our strength and hope, where we find our resilience does make a difference. I know that some of you have heard this analogy from John Maxwell, but it bears repeating. In the midst of suffering, trauma, of being knocked down, we can either be a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean. Because when the water heats up around us how will we respond. We can become like the carrot who goes in strong and hard, but gets weak and soft in the boiling water, just as some cave to the pressures. Or, like the egg, who goes in fragile, but becomes hard as result, not just hard on the outside, but also on the inside to make sure that nothing can hurt us again, and therefore shut ourselves off from the world and others. The coffee, on the other hand, changes the water, it changes the situation and makes it better and the coffee becomes what it was meant to be. As I said, studies have shown that these terrible situations can also make us more empathetic and better able to respond to others in need. To allow us to work with God to be able to redeem all situations, because Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down.

And since this series about leadership, I guess I should mention that as leaders we will fail and fall too. But it’s not about how many times you get knocked down, but about how many times you get back up. And as we look at and for leaders, it’s about how they deal with adversity. Do they accept responsibility or try to blame everyone else but themselves; do they learn anything from it to get better, and try not to do it again, or do they keep making the same mistakes, making the same speeches and driving everyone off the same cliff over and over again. You are going to fail and make mistakes, you will get knocked over and knocked down, so be prepared for it, learn from it, get back up again and keep going. As we prepare for the Super Bowl next week, keep the great Chicago Bear Walter Peyton, sweetness in mind. In his hall of fame career, Payton rushed over 9 miles, but, as he said, that meant running 9 miles while someone knocked you down every 4.6 yards.

And let me close with a quick last point because other than talking about Christ and knowing that God walks with us even through our darkest valleys, I haven’t given any other ways to help us in our wobbling. But what not only research has found, but life also shows, is that one of the things that is essential to resilience is humor, and keeping a sense of humor, or even developing a sense of humor. There is a reason why so many comedians have backgrounds of trauma, the humor helps them get through. It helps them find and build resilience. So, keep a sense of humor and intentionally seek out funny things to help you in those moments. We are not born resilient, it’s something we learn. We learn it ourselves but it can also be taught as we share stories with one another, of our failures and our traumas, to help people know they are not alone. And in same ways we celebrate that as we gather at the table, because think of all the things that this table represents on that last night, but they are all redeemed through Christ, through the resurrection and in the hope of the promises that have been given. That the disciples thought they were down, but they wobbled right back. The powers and principalities of the world, though that Jesus was down, but he wobbled right back, and I know that you’re going to remember that image. And they all did that because of the power of God who has the final word. Who promises not that life will be a rose garden, not that we won’t have ups and downs in out lives, but instead that God will be with us through these things to help us to know that while we may wobble, with Christ we will never truly be knocked down. I pray that it will be so my brothers and sisters. Amen.