Cuba is classic and timeless. It is the combination of buildings and cars stuck in time, the classical jazz music in the back ground, the smell of cigars and the open hearts of the people that made my experience there unforgettable and one of kind.
Absolutely everything is beautiful there. The ocean, the buildings, the people and the food. The ocean is blue with palm trees, the works; thus you still feel like you are on an island. The buildings are tall and closely built together with small streets and big windows with wooden frames. Classical European style. The people speak Spanish, they are outgoing and loud. Always ready to help you and always willing to make a new friend. They are loud and talkative, yet they have so much class in the way they carry themselves, in the way they look after their possessions, in the way they decorate their houses and in the way they dress. Therefore they are loud and all over the place, yet peaceful and inviting.
All the houses look the same, yet each one tells a different story. It reminds me of when we were small, visiting our grand parents. The same brown porcelain crockery, patterned wall paper and tiles. The same bold colors like lime green or pink and every type of plant or flower in a pot.
Every kind of foodie will be enchanted by Cuba. On every street corner there is something else to taste. Literarily anything your little foodie heart can desire or dream about. Peanut fudge, ice cream in every shape or flavor, home baked cookies, pizzas, pastels, fruit juice from every fruit imaginable, coffee with milk or without, mangos and the list goes on...
I was totally captivated by this nation, this country and its beauty. The first few days I felt like a tourist, exploring and experiencing everything to the fullest.
We had a lot of free time; thus before sunrise and long after sunset I wanted to soak in everything about it.
It was only a few days after we arrived in Santiago that I had a rude wake up call. As a team we were not spending much time together and only afterwards I realized I was actually avoiding people. Its interesting how you can be on a "missionary" trip doing "missionary" work and everyone at home thinks you are doing amazing things, but you become so selfish you don't want to stop and love the person sleeping on the mattress next to you. That is not the example Jesus lived by!
"Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples- when they see the love you have for each other."
- John 13:34-35 (The Message)
During my time in Cuba I was reading a very complicated fancy teaching of a very well known Christian writer. That is the irony of the situation. I was reading this breath taking piece of literature, but I could not get the fundamental commandment right!
That right there is one of the reasons Jesus is as awesome as He is. It is so simple, yet so deeply profound and absolutely timeless. He sums the most difficult part about living the Christian life up in one single sentence!
I pray that we would be shocked by the importance of what Jesus is actually asking us here.
This year I have been shocked by the difficulty of this commandment in light of our human inabilities. We are fifteen people from different families, backgrounds with completely different personalities and facing different personal struggles. This diversity thrown into tight spaces, hot weather and sometimes lack of sleep can lead to very interesting results.
We spend twenty four hours and seven days a week in each others company. On this journey you are never alone! Never!
Some days you do wake up on the wrong side of your blow up mattress and what then? Some days you do desire to do your own thing. Some days it is just more difficult. Well, does that commandment then still count?
Yes, unfortunately there is no condition added to it.
Families, churches, friends, communities and any group of people claiming to love Jesus will portray who He is through how we handle each other, talk to and about each other, serve each other and honor each other.
It is supposed to look like a love beyond this world, a love as timeless as Cuba's beauty, because that is how the world will know we are different.
The test is to pursue this kind of life (a life of unconditional love) no matter what the circumstances.
I guess that is what real love looks like.
Timeless.
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