Cuba is a country in distress. In 2014, Fox News pegged entry level nursing salaries—a high-paying job in the United States—at $25 a month. Doctors, well-paid by Cuban standards, pull down over twice that at $67 a month.
The average government worker? She survives on $20 each month.
It bears repeating: Cuba is a country in distress. Once beautiful buildings are crumbling behind elaborate facades. Cars imported in the 1950s are still on the road, and for the most part, they’re the only ones travelling the empty thoroughfares.
The Cuban people are ready for a change. They eagerly anticipate the trade they hope will come with the recently lifted import embargo against their nation. They no longer wish to be left alone to exist in poverty while surrounded by a world of plenty.
Do we feel left alone in our spiritual struggle to survive? Have our churches become no more than crumbling facades; and behind the stained glass windows, things feel as if they are falling apart faster than we can patch them back together?
Is the Church the Cuba of today?
In John 16:7, Jesus warns his disciples he must leave them.
“Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.”
John 16:13 promises we will not be abandoned to spiritual poverty.
“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.”
When the world abandoned the people of Cuba, they had no one to fall back on for help. They watched their lives descend further and further into poverty and decay.
When Jesus left his disciples, he assured them the embargo was temporary. The Holy Spirit would soon refill their coffers every day. The Christian would not be left alone.
We are that Christian. We have received the promises of God. We have the Holy Spirit to give us strength and power.
We are no longer abandoned, living lives of spiritual povery, as a world of plenty teems all around us.
The Spirit of truth is mightier than the world, and he is with us in every situation that comes our way.
Copyright © 2016 MyChurchNotes.net
Originally Published 6-17-16 in Hope