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Good morning.

This week Edinburgh prepares for the opening of the Festival.  Some of the best of the atmosphere is in the street theatre – acrobats, clowns and just about everything else.

I’ll always remember a man one year on the tightrope outside St Giles’ Cathedral.  He was riveting to watch mainly because he wasn’t very good.  And he knew it.  At the end, he prepared to pass the hat round.  ‘I think this is worth at least £5 a family,’ he said.  I wouldn’t want anyone to think that this is easy’.  Indeed.  There wasn’t much danger of that.

We have got very used to performances of consummate slickness and lost touch with the efforts of the amateur who is doing it for the challenge.

And most of the time, the things which we try to do in our families, in churches, in the workplace are actually very difficult.  Relationships – just how people are – difficult history, uncertainty about what we are trying to achieve ….  They all make it a tightrope.  But we have become used to the art which conceals art and think that it can all be done with a click of the fingers.

So as I think about him wobbling precariously on his tightrope, I’m going to remember everybody who tries to do difficult things – and who isn’t afraid to fall off or fail just because people are watching.

Lord God
When we strive to do difficult things,
Help us to keep our balance
And not to be afraid of failure
Because things worth doing are never easy.  Amen.