An annoying question.

Hi I'm Seth. I'm one of two half-Cubans on this trip. the other is my cousin Paul. It's his maiden voyage to our family's motherland (for half our family at least). I've been there on four prior occasions. Each successive trip for me has brought a new appreciation for a culture that seems so removed from my day-to-day experience as an American, yet at the same time, strangely so 'close to home' (after all, I've been around Cubans my whole life).

I think what I've come to admire is the social vitality that exists in Cuba independent of the materialism and consumerism that we seem to think makes life so fab for us here in the good ol' USA. It's more than refreshing (and somewhat erie) to drive around a city in which there are absolutely no advertisements cajoling you buy things you don't need.

And would it shock you to know that people there still laugh? People still love? People still have families? It's all true. In fact, there's a vibrancy to Cuban culture that as an American I find romantic, and it stems from the passionate heart of the Cuban people (this, as as a half-Cuban, I recognize in my family).

Could life in Cuba could be easier and more comfortable? Yes. Could it be better? Sure...however, I guess it depends on who's defining 'better.' Leaving semantics and culturally-biased definitions aside, I understand this. No culture is without need of redemption (including our own).

What I've been continuing to process with every trip to Cuba I've taken is this lingering, and very annoying question: What is it that makes life 'good'? It's way easier to go on living your life and never so much as ponder the question. That's why we have network television.

The bottom line is that I know my life needs to be centered on God. It all begins with that. The problem comes in translating faith into real world life decisions when every thing around you yells at you that you need more of this and more of that...the voice of Jesus inevitably ends up getting the mute button.

This blog is called 'finding jesus in Cuba.' I like that. I think it means finding where Jesus is alive in Cuba, and from what I've seen and heard the church is indeed alive down there. But I also wonder if it means that I might find jesus in Cuba for myself.

Not that I've lost jesus. But maybe he has something to tell me about what it means to live a 'good' life by hanging out with some of the youth at the camp we're visiting. Maybe Jesus has something to tell me about how life can be a little more simple and still be a little more than good.