Forgiveness takes us deeper.

I was sitting next to a Turkish businessman on the flight to Helsinki.
He got interested in my person after I told him about working
as a pastor in the church in Istanbul.
He asked, ”How do you find the Turks? How is their religious life?”
I responded boldly saying, ”I find them to be very superficial in their
religious beliefs. They have often a strong emotional attachment
to their religious confession, but it’s not intellectual.
They don’t like talking about it too deep.
I say this because you asked.”
He tried to cover up of him being offended and started telling me how
disappointed he was with the Arabs and their ways of praying, “They
know nothing about it. They don’t even know how to wash themselves
before prayer, not to even mention how many times and where they
should pray.”
He went on and on complaining about these uneducated Muslim brothers.
I responded to him saying, ”I don’t really care at all about that stuff.
I’m not a religious person, but I love God.
It means nothing to me, how many times people
pray and where. It’s interesting that the Bible doesn’t actually tell us
how many times we should pray , but the Bible tells us how many times
we should forgive. This is Christianity. It’s all about the power of forgiveness.
It’s not about me praying more or better than my brother. It’s about
me forgiving more.”
We landed in Finland.
My snowy homeland looked like a fairy-tale from the air.
My new Turkish friend was fascinated by the exotic view.
Before we departed, he gave his business card to me and said,
“Please, visit me in Ankara.”