young nation

Turks are a young nation again.
Almost thirty percent of the population is under fourteen years old.
It’s obvious that this country has an identity crises.
Who have they been; who are they today; who are they
supposed to be?
An attempt to be an exemplary Muslim country with all the benefits
of a free western democracy is destined to fail.
You cannot have it all. In order to choose you have to give up
something.
The father of all Turks, Kemal Ataturk wasn’t interested in
establishing an Islamic Turkey.
Neither are the couple of millions of people who have lately been
marching in the streets of Istanbul for a secular Turkey.
It’s difficult to be a good Muslim with Ataturk’s portrait on the wall.
Many Turks don’t see any contradiction with it.
Is it hypocrisy, or is it being all things to all men?
The wife of the murdered German missionary said in an interview on TV,
that she has forgiven the murderers. She believes that her husband’s murder
is a new beginning for Turkey.
Forgiveness is such an unknown concept that it confuses.
Some Turks are sure that she just wasn’t happily married to her husband.
How could she otherwise say that?
Yes, we are all learning.
A friend of mine told that eight years ago he came to sit in a park.
He saw a little book called “Mujda”(Gospel) on the bench.
He took is furtively home and couldn’t stop reading it.
He was shocked to learn about the goodness of Jesus.
Maybe Christians are not so bad people after all?
Then he heard about a foreigner who had prayer meetings in his home.
He was invited to come and pray with them.
He was so touched when he heard these supposedly enemies to pray
for his own country. He fell in love with the God of the Mujda.
This nation is like little Samuel, praying in the temple, but not
understanding that God is speaking with him.
May we encourage them the same way as Eli did telling Samuel
to say to the Lord, “Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.”
I Samuel 3