Nouwen has some friends who are working at a food program and seem discouraged by the work and even exploited by the recipients. He writes, “Sometimes we have to dare to be fools for Christ. That means that sometimes we have to be willing to give food to people who don’t really need or deserve it. And sometimes we have to be willing to work with some people who might even exploit us. Maybe this is as close as we can come to an experience of self-emptying. It is the experience of being useless in the presence of the Lord.
Understand me well, I am not trying to praise impracticality, nor am I trying to suggest that you should not stop doing the things you are doing when they prove to be counter productive, but I am saying if you come in touch with the experience of being used or the experience of being useless, you might in fact be close to a true Christian experience, or closer than you sought.”
Nouwen was particularly drawn to the circus and to clowns and often used them as metaphors in his writing. We do not like to think of ourselves as fools or foolish and yet the imagery is very biblical and suggests a way of being that is humble, maybe even humiliating. The way of the cross.