A Crowded Apartment

Last June, after several exhausting days of travel, myself and the rest of the mission team found ourselves in the coastal city of Izmir. On our first day there, we were meeting the leaders of the persecuted church we were to be supporting over the next few days, and after a short walk, we gathered in the pastors’ crowded apartment.

As members of their church began to file in until the room was so full of enthusiastic conversation that it was hard to hear the person speaking in front of you, I was waiting for a leader to quiet everyone down so we could get to the “important” business of why we were actually gathered that day. Except, as it turns out, that was never the plan.

After a handful of hours and people starting to say their goodbyes, I was struck by the reality of what just happened. This gathering was never about briefly making acquaintanceships with the foreigners before getting onto “more important things” like the week’s schedule, but rather was entirely focused on our groups’ connection and giving space to love each other as brothers & sisters in Christ. This whole gathering was so we could show love & intentionality to each other; something my westernized mind was trained to see as a side-dish to the main course of a meeting.

In John 13:34-35, Jesus says to His disciples, “34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (ESV)

This love that Jesus calls His disciples to was precisely what I experienced in that small, crowded apartment in Izmir. A love uninterested in treating people as checklists to complete, but rather filled with compassion & interest in each person’s story. A love that welcomes people not as friends, but as family. A love that echoes Jesus’ own.

Ever since that day, I’ve been moved to find ways I can love intentionally, like the Turkish church showed love to me. How can I be someone who’s interested in the lives of my fellow Christians & those I meet in the day-to-day routine of life? To not treat people as a box to check, but a person to bless?

I invite you to join me in this rewiring of the way we connect with each other. To show love & intention in a society so full of division and judgement, and in doing so, learn to love our neighbor just as the Turkish church loved us; just as Jesus calls us to love.