A short little devotional about what it takes to drink the cup. Holding, lifting and finally drinking.
The cup of sorrows as well as the cup of joy. ( )

The last book published before Henri Nouwen's death in 1996, Can You Drink the Cup? has been translated into ten languages and sold more than 140,000 copies. Exploring the deep spiritual impact of the question Jesus asked his friends James and John, Nouwen reflects upon the metaphor of the cup, using the images of holding, lifting, and drinking to articulate the basics of the spiritual life. Written with the profound insight and clarity characteristic of his numerous best-selling books, Nouwen's deeply perceptive exploration of Jesus' challenging question has the power to pierce your heart, expand your spiritual horizons, and radically change your life.

Using the cup as a metaphor, Nouwen reflects on the images of Holding, Lifting and Drinking to articulate the basics of spiritual life.

Henri Nouwen looks at the question Jesus asked his friends shortly before his death: 'Can you drink the cup?'

In a short book, he examines the images of holding a cup, lifting it, and then finally drinking, and uses them as a metaphor for the Christian life.

Well-written, as expected by this author, and somewhat thought-provoking, but I didn't find it particularly inspiring or memorable. Still, I shall probably return to it in future. ( )

Decent book and somewhat thought-provoking. But, at times very slow. Glossed over a dozen pages. However, this book really hammers home the point of knowing the cup from which we drink from, namely living the life of Christ. Nouwen also draws a lot of insight from his experiences at the Daybreak community for which he served amongst the disabled.

Chapter 7: "Drinking" was by far my favorite chapter. I liked how Nouwen put into perspective how most drinking engagements are an illustration of trust, vulnerability, and intimacy shared between two or more people. He correlates that to life, we either drink the cup that we have been handed without fear, but with trust and confidence, or we handle it with much fear and trepidation. We share what we've been blessed with to others and walk through life both the good and bad with others. Drinking the cup of both joy and sorrow.

My favorite quote from the book:

"Salvation is not only a goal for the afterlife. Salvation is a reality of every day that we can taste here and now." (pg. 100) ( )