Summer is finally ebbing away from the hot desert of Southern Spain. Don't get me wrong, its still around 90 or so degrees here in the middle of the day, but I woke up this morning to see that it was about 15 degrees cooler outside than inside, so I gleefully stopped the air conditioner, and opened all the doors and windows. I'm wearing long pants and a hoodie because it just feels marvelous after 2 months of intense heat.

This blog hasn't always been an every day or an every week thing, but that's how life happens. An interesting thing happened this month with it, so this is what I'm talking about today.

Apparently a young Indian medical student was feeling very lonely in the Western Suburbs of Chicago. He was on his way to Spain to study Spanish, and feeling very disconnected from his world. Being a Christian, he was encouraged by his church back in India to Google Granada, and Evangelical Church.

My blog came up in the few pages that Google could find. He left me a message on this blog, and then we proceded to write a couple of short emails. Last Sunday, he walked into our church, all because of my little blog about Granada. Andrew and I had lunch with Jon and he told us his story.

Jesus says we are to be salt and light....in a world of computers, internet, etc, etc, what does this really mean? I'm a practical person, I want to see my faith worked out, rather than just discussed. It tickles me to think that maybe even blogging about my faith in action might help.

Although, I've read a lot of blogs, especially those done by Christians, and they feel the need to "spirtualize" and expound on everything...and I've tried to avoid this. I don't wanna write cliche stuff about how God loves you and wants you have to have a happy life.

My beliefs aren't simple when it comes to that. Pain is good, it causes you to grow, and I've believed for a long time that violence in our lives can bring us grace more than we understand and realize.

I have a friend in Haiti right now, he and his wife and kids are trying to be light in a dark place. The more I read his blog, the darker the place looks. Over the last month we've had to some brief conversations about what it means to live in another country, for the purpose of bringing light.

Sadly enough, many of the people that are going to Bible school, being trained for ministry, are wandering back to familar places, ones that have a lot of light. Its scary to live in the dark. I hated the dark as a kid, and I still can't sleep in a pitch black room. I understand why people return to the light.

This is a rambling blog today, and my main goal is this: are we light to a dark world, or do we cluster in lighter places and compare our lights to others?