Can you Drink the Cup? - Henri Nouwen

Tom has been trying to get a job and we have been living in his parents’ house for almost five months.

Sometimes, I feel suffering and Sometimes, I feel joy.

Sometimes, I feared for my situation and Sometimes, I thanked God for my situation.

I like Henri Nouwen. His books inspire me every time.
I have read his book “Can you drink the Cup?”

I hope quote from his book to express my thoughts and feelings which are from my life during the last 5 months.

The words “Can you drink the Cup?” pierced my heart like the sharp spear of a hunter. I knew at that moment- as with a flash of insight – that taking this question seriously would radically change our lives.

Many cups speak of victory; soccer cups, football cups and tennis cups are eagerly desired trophies…….. These cups speak of success, bravery, heroism, fame, popularity, and great power.

Many cups also speak of death, Joseph’s silver cup, found in Benjamin’s sack, spelled doom. The cups of Isaiah and Jeremiah are the cups of God’s wrath and destruction.

The cup that Jesus speaks about is neither a symbol of victory nor a symbol of death. It is a symbol of life, filled with sorrows and joys that we can hold, lift, and drink as a blessing and a way to salvation. “Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?”

Jesus asks us. It is the question that will have a different meaning every day of our lives. Can we embrace fully the sorrows and joys that come to us day after day? At one moment it might seem so easy to drink the cup, and we give a quick yes to Jesus’ question. Shortly afterwards everything might look and feel quite different, and our whole being might cry out “No, never!” We have to let the yes and the no both speak in us so that we can come to know ever more deeply the enormous challenge of Jesus’ question. ……….

Drinking the cup that Jesus drank is living a life in and with the spirit of Jesus, which is the spirit or unconditional love. The intimacy between Jesus and Abba, his Father, is an intimacy of complete trust, in which there are no power games, no mutually agreed upon promises, no advance guarantees. It is only love- pure, unrestrained, and unlimited love completely open and completely free. That intimacy Jesus wants to give us so that we can drink ours. The intimacy has a Name, a Divine Name. It is Called Holy Spirit. Living a spiritual life is living a life in which the Holy Spirit will guide us and give us the strength and courage to keep saying yes to the great question.

I have tried to say ‘no’ to God and to go back from my situation.
Sometimes, my reason accepted the question. But, my emotion and feeling still denied the answer. And I made excuses not having strength more to endure this time and not having more patience. However, God made me realize and feel his intimacy through families and friends in Christ.

Thank you those who love, pray and support us.
Through you, I feel his intimacy so that I can say ‘yes’.

Korea and back again

Morning,

Sorry I haven't written a blog recently (last 4-5 weeks) but haven't felt like I have done much despite going to Korea for almost two weeks. So here is an attempt now.
We had a good time in Korea, Ju-Hee forced me to visit the dentist as its 'cheaper there' the dentist spent 5 minutes looking and decided that I needed 4 fillings for £500 so I left. Went to the dentist today who said my teeth looked fine and it was probably stress although still waiting on the X-rays to get back.

We also spent some time away from Hanna and stayed in a hotel by ourselves for a real break which was great, 3 days with out internet! I would like to say I missed Hanna most but I was nervous being away from the job hunting so long. But it seems I did not miss much anyway unfortunately.

During my time away we also went to the lion where Hanna express many an ooh and arww and that Cheetahs go Meow. She is walking around really well and it was a hard time keeping her in the right direction but now she is starting to complain about the buggy as to many things to see. Last I saw of her the language was taking a bit of a step back as we where trying to insert her in to Korean culture so suddenly we were all talking Korean (or at least everyone but me) so she got a bit confused, I have now been told not to talk to her in Korean at all as I’ll confuse her which is a good excuse, although I am not sure where that leaves the Thomas the Tank engine DVD I got for her as it can be played in both languages.

It has definitely been odd the last few days home alone with out Ju-Hee and Hanna got quite a few things done but doesn’t seem to exciting with out a audience and job hunting with out distractions isn’t fun as I have to make my own. So trying to resist Transport tycoon but failing badly today, but still managed to apply to over 20 jobs, which is my daily target. I still have 160 unread emails full of adverts will probably just mark them as read in a few days time as got some application forms to do, which take precedence over out of date jobs.


God bless

Tom

Summer 2009

Morning,

Not much to add as not much movement since the 6th when I last blogged but it’s over two weeks so better blog today and my job hunting is limited as Hanna is asleep in the room with my laptop and I have done 3 chapters of studying today. I did not get either of the Jobs I attended for interview although; I did get to the 2nd interview stage of my first one.
The other movement is that I’ve passed a IT qualification CompTIA A+ doing the 2009 version which was only released during this august, and I am now studying for a Network+ which once passed makes me a 1/4 of the way to a MCSE which quite a few jobs ask for. So will help with whatever I plan to do.
Ju-Hee and I are planning on going to Korea for a few weeks, end of September to allow Hanna to meet up with her grandparents after a year apart.
We did have a break though two weeks ago looking after my sister’s house when she went to France and are looking forward to next week when my parents go away so we can get the house to ourselves but will miss them of course.

God bless
Tom