In the world of performance clowning failure is seen as funny, try to take the top off of a can of raisins and the bottom drops out, spilling raisins all over the floor. This leaves the clown in the unenvious, but hilarious, position of trying to gather up the raisins without stepping on them. The clown's problems and creative solutions are delightful, because we are observing them from a safe distance.
And, we can learn to see problems in our daily lives from a safe distance as well. That safe distance is knowing that we are eternal spiritual beings who are, at the moment, caught up in the 'raisin gathering' of material life. Not to say that everything we meet in life will be hilarious, but that we will come through it in some fashion.
May we sit this coming Sunday for the fortitude to face our lives knowing there are some very serious 'raisin spills' to be handled, and that there is always an end game.
Bless you all,
Richard