on common humanity.

       As my time in Spain draws to a close, a number of things have occupied my thoughts. The first is that I really have no idea what I'm doing with my life. That's a given, and to be honest I think it's perfectly fine. Some will agree with that and some won't but that's neither here nor there. The second is that despite having spent three months on a different continent, I still feel remarkably at home.
That's not to say I haven't at all felt uncomfortable, because I most definitely have. Instead, what I mean is that there really is no significant difference (in my very limited experience at least) in who people really are at their core. People still desire love, companionship, joy, and purpose. Everyone here is consistently chasing these things just as Americans do, and the effects of a sinful world are just as evident in Europe as in the United States. People, regardless of where they may live, will struggle with their humanity and their search for purpose.
During my time in Spain I was given the opportunity to share the gospel with one of the two boys that I live with. Needless to say it was a difficult conversation. His name is Carlos and he is 12 years old. While he does speak English, he is not fluent and conversations with him are often difficult and require copious amounts of patient communication, something I often find myself lacking. Delving into the divine did nothing but amplify this problem. It started off with a simple question:

"Do you believe in God?"

That's it. His response (after about 5 minutes of trying to explain what I had said) was not what I expected. Catholicism is the dominant faith in Spain and I had expected his response to reflect that. It did not. Instead, Carlos began to tell me about how he really doesn't know. He explained that while he had grown up in the catholic church (I'm paraphrasing here, for simplicity's sake), he also was being taught in school about "the large explode" (big bang) and how God did not create the world. When I asked him what he knew about the bible and Jesus Christ he told me he and his family have never had a bible, and that Jesus Christ was "very important, but I don't know why".
He went on to tell me that he knows he does bad things some times and he is scared of "El Infierno". I explained to him how we are all guilty of doing bad things, but that there is hope. After talking him through the gospel (of which he likely understood half) I asked him what he thought. His response was this:

"I don't know"

"What do you not know?"

"I don't know if Jesus is true"

       There is a tad more to that story and if anyone is interested I'd be happy to share it. But that's the jist of it. As difficult and strange as the conversation was, it is nothing new. As a cabin leader for young kids in the US I have encountered numerous situations like this one, wherein a person simply seems lost and overwhelmed. It seems to be less of a cultural trend and more of a human trait. Which says much more about humanity than I am comfortable with.