He who does not hope to win has already lost

So said Jose Joaquin Olmedo, whoever he might be. I'm looking up quotations on hope as we're talking about it in the prison tomorrow. There are some good ones.

When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.

Consult not your fears but your hopes and dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what is still possible for you to do. (that's Pope John XXIII)

And just for good measure here's Bob Hope: I grew up with six brothers. That's how I learned to dance - waiting for the bathroom.

Hope is such a vital component of life. Without it, it must be impossible to survive. We're going to be talking about the hope that God gives us to men who probably have little else to hope for. It's an honour to go in and a time when we are so aware of our weakness. A time that we need the Holy Spirit to be in there ahead of us, speaking through us, so that the men hear not what we say but what God says to them.

The hopes of Wales this afternoon will be in quite a different place. We haven't won at Twickenham for a long time and, with so many players missing, it's hard to have bucketloads of hope, but 'he who does not hope to win has already lost'.

When we go round corners Betty's glove compartment drops open. Daisy used to toot occasionally on turning a corner. It inspired this poem.

I have a little Beetle,
Daisy is her name.
She likes to toot her horn at whim;
It's driving me insane.

Although tooting at corners could sometimes be appropriate, it wasn't usually, so a glove compartment quirk is probably less troublesome.

Off for a games night tonight. With the competitive spirit of some of our players, we could be in for a fighting time. Some of the least likely people turn out to have combative natures. And most of them are in positions of responsibility in the church.

Back to hope now. In many different ways.