Are You Ready to Love like Jesus Loves?

Yesterday afternoon we went to the village of Kubrat for a church service. When we were there a few weeks ago, there were about seven people (besides us – Pastor Nikolay, his wife Yanita, me, Joshua, and Katie). This week, the church was full! There were about twenty-five people, besides the five of us from Razgrad. There were only a few empty seats – one of them was in the very front. 

Pastor Nikolay has been teaching the churches about discipleship, which has been the emphasis since September. Yesterday, Nikolay was telling the Kubrat church that they were not ready to disciple people! They needed to think like Jesus. They needed to love others and accept others like Jesus does. He told them they needed to be ready for anyone to come to their church. He pointed to the empty chair in the front, and quite animatedly told the church that anyone could come, perhaps a prostitute, maybe the town drunk! (The little old lady in front of me: “What?! A prostitute in our church!!?” Nikolay, “Yes! A prostitute!” He wanted to emphasis that there are no restrictions on who could become a disciple of Jesus Christ.)

Barely a few minutes after Nikolay said there, there was a knock on the door. Now, at church, no one ever knocks on the door, so this was unusual. In came a man, a staggering drunk. (This man is an alcoholic, and does not attend church. His parents used to be members of this church, but they died a few years ago.) Nikolay urged him to come sit in the front, in that empty seat right in the middle, and he did. The drunk man, Mario, was loud and slightly disruptive, but Nikolay was very gracious in how he treated him. (The lady in front of me was right behind the drunk man Mario, and would whap him on the back when he was loud – she was not very gracious.) Nikolay continued preaching after Mario got there.

At one point, Mario said something, and then everyone stopped to pray. It is neat to hear everyone praying at once. I have noticed that in some places when a leader prays, everyone else prays at the same time, so there are many voices raising to God in prayer. (I found out later that Mario had said he does not want to be a drunk anymore, and wants to stop. Everyone was praying for him.)

After he finished preaching, Nikolay sat down next to Mario. As we were singing, Nikolay put his arm around Mario’s shoulders as if he were his friend. One the service finished, we all greeted each other with “Slava na Boga” (Praise the Lord / Glory belongs to God), which is the customary greeting at church. It seemed to me that most of the people did not greet Mario at all, but left before they had to. I was able to greet everyone, and spend a minute or two talking (that is, trying to talk) with Mario. It is hard to understand a drunken man speaking in Bulgarian, but I was able to understand him asking my name. He wanted us Americans to come back to Kubrat again.

This event at church yesterday made me think – am I loving like Jesus loves? I want to be a friend to anyone and everyone. God loves everyone, and God gives me love enough to share with everyone I meet. Just because someone reeks of alcohol does not mean that person does not deserve love. (This whole episode also amazed me – God sure knows how to drive a point home! Nikolay, when he began preaching, had no idea a drunk man was going to walk into the church.) I want to be open to hear what God has to teach me. Sometimes God uses in-your-face examples, like teaching the Kubrat church that they need to be ready for anyone to come into their church. Other times, God speaks in more subtle ways. I want to always be listening to God. I want to love like Jesus loves.