'I pray that God, the source of hope will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.'

Not overstretched. Not overrunning. Not overworked, over, and over again

But overflowing with confident hope

Can I confess that hope can sometimes seem like a dangerous thing?

Because it might open me up

Open me up to disappointment or let-down

It makes me feel vulnerable

But then I read in Proverbs that hope deferred makes the heart sick

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, and if that's the case, I need to be referred to my God quickly

Before my heart gets hard, calcified with cynicism, necrotic with pessimism

Before hopelessness spreads and I become a sarcastic soul

Joyless, dark humour, with a sharp and bitter tongue

I need to be seen by the Great Physician before I become a weary old nurse

Paralysed by doubt

Always expecting the worst

Resigned, accepting the worst

Forgive me Lord!

And I pray that you, being the very source of all hope, would fill us today

Like the sun on a sudden hot day in winter

Would you flood our hearts again?

Would you stream in through the slats of office venetian blinds

Stream in through waiting and clinic room windows

Into bays and cubicles and onto wards into labs and theatres

Into our community and into people's homes! Light us up!

Thaw frosty scepticism

Soften hard ground

Let what has lain dormant, buried deep down and unseen

Let it stir again