A Nazi Bought my Drink

First of all I want to start out this blog by saying that outside of God himself, any one single belief or attribute of a person is not who they are at the core. Who a person is cannot be determined by the things a person does. What defines a person in fact is the One that made them, that is the only determinate.

“Therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation, the old has gone away, the new is here!” -2 Corinthians 5:17

Just as an artist determines what their painting is and means, the Creator of life is the only one that can determine the value of who a person is. Knowing this truth, we are given the freedom to look past what we determine as faulty views, or lapses in judgement and see a person for who they are, a person that was seen and known by the Creator far before they were ever a thought in a human mind.

So a huge part of our ministry here in Pogradec is to go out, make friends, share the love of God with people always, and the word of God with people when we can. One of the first days that I was in Albania, myself along with one of my friends, Kennedy, walked into a cute local coffee shop with the hopes of making friends with the baristas. We walked in, were pleased to find they had more coffee options than just esspresso (an almost exclusivity in Pogradec, Albania), and began taking with the people working there. There was a guy and a girl working there and we immediately determined they were kind, friendly, people and promised to come back and hang out with them more.

We came back a few more times and eventually made plans to hang out with them one night outside of their work setting. Unfortunately the girl was feeling sick that night, so myself and two of my friends went to get a drink and talk to just the guy. For purposes of anonymity we’ll call him Alvin.

Our first impression of Alvin was that he was kind, and he was willing to have deeper conversations and was welcoming to new people.

We sat down and started talking. We talked about things such as where he grew up, what his dreams were, and how he views people. He had tattoos of crosses on his arm, a great opening point for a conversation about our beliefs. As it turns out, he and his family are Orthodox Christians. Upon further conversation, we determined that he most definitely believes in the existence of God, although using my discernment I’m fairly certain that God is not yet the Lord of His life.

After he showed us his tattoos, he then proceeded to show us the ring on his finger, one that he proudly wears every day. The ring had a swastika on it. He then proceeded to share some of his views and opinions of people that based on my own personal beliefs that I base from biblical truths, are blatantly wrong. I very much disagree with him. Honestly some of what he said was are for me to believe that a real person could believe. For lack of a better term, my new friend was a 28 year old Nazi.

Then I remembered the different lies in my own life that I used to believe, that I needed to replace with biblical truths. God convicts people, people don’t convict people. I can share my beliefs all I want, but each individual human needs to have their own heart of repentance.

I don’t have to agree with what another person believes, in fact, I can hate the things another person believes. God hates things that we do when we are living in sin. The one thing we are called to do, is to love one another and speak truth in love.

“And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgement.” -John 16:8

“As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas widely grief produces death.” -2 Corinthians 7:9-10

Godly sorrow leads to repentance and that repentance leads to salvation. God is just, humans are not judges.

We live in a cancel culture. If you spend any time on Facebook you will see that people will stop associating with another person just because they have different views. Jesus spent so much time with people that had different views than him.

When Jesus was asked in the bible why he was spending time with sinners he said this: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” -Mark 2:17

What a relief. Considering before being saved by grace, we are all sinners.

You can see people for their sin, for the things you don’t agree with, or for what you think they do wrong. Or you can choose to see a son or daughter that is so loved by God and has been lead astray.

Upon more conversation with Alvin it was clear that he was more than his misguided attitudes towards people different than him. He is someone with confused and conflicting beliefs about God. He was someone that was insecure, untrusting, and looking for more. He is a person that is craving a satisfying love. Just like me, He’s someone that needs to drink from the Fountain of Life.

Who can change his misguided beliefs about people? Only Jesus. I responded to his statements and ultimate mistrust of people by quoting Hebrews 13:8: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” I also told him that God loves him.

Probably not because of anything we did, and maybe not even anytime soon, but I pray that he one day knows the heart of Jesus. I pray that Alvin will know the goodness of God and that God gives him renewed eyes for all of His children.

Anyway, for now we’ll keep hanging out with him, when we get the chance we’ll speak truth in love and man I pray we get to see him in heaven one day. Thank God there have been people in my life that have done the same for me.