Spending my final month in Turkey has opened my eyes even further to what it really means to follow Christ. Living life with Turkish Christians has made me truly consider what Jesus means when he asks us to count the cost of discipleship.
My friends and my Turkish family count the cost of their faith in God and his perfect Son every day. My friends struggle to find work, receive threatening phone calls, and endure a stigma all across the country unlike anything I’ve experienced before. My host brother is a sixteen year old in a new city without friends simply because his teachers have told the students he is a Christian.
In a country of 78 million people, there are approximately 4,500 Turkish Christians. It’s not primarily the government that keeps it’s citizens from feeling free to consider the truth of Christ, Islam is so deeply intertwined with the culture that to believe differently is seen as turning your back on your people and your country. Turkey is so rich with biblical history…Tarsus, the birthplace of the Apostle Paul; the church of Ephesus; and Antioch, the place where believers were first called Christians to name a few; but the presence of believers and workers for the harvest is very different now than in the days of the early church.
Being a Christian in Turkey is so different from being a Christian back home. The Christians I had the pleasure to know in Turkey can’t casually decide to act like a Christian when they feel like it because they live under too much scrutiny. They don’t attend church on Christmas and Easter and call it good because to run the race of faith they need the strength of community with fellow believers, even if they are small in number.
To profess and live out faith in Jesus Christ in Turkey is a conscience decision to choose the road less travelled. To sacrifice a life of honor among many of your countrymen for the honor of knowing the Creator of the Universe. It is a choice to die to themselves every day in order that Christ may live in them.
The cost of faith and the cost of discipleship is real. It is real here in a way I have never experienced before. It is real here in the way it should be real for all believers.
And do you know what?
Each of my new friends and family will never tell you of this cost as more than just a necessary consequence for knowing the Truth. They do not want or need your sympathy or pity (but they’d love your prayers!) because they’ve counted the cost and they know Jesus is worth it.
Any hardship they face pales in comparison to the surpassing joy of knowing Christ. And they live with such amazing joy.
My friends love more fully because they’ve counted the cost of following Jesus. They rejoice when others rejoice, they weep when others weep. I saw them literally hold up a brother and pray for him because he was feeling so weak, in need of God’s provision and more of His presence.
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This month I saw love, faith, and community lived out more biblically than I ever have before. Ending the Race in Turkey has challenged me to take a hard look at what my life will look like as I return home. I’ve had to honestly ask myself if I’ve counted the cost of following Christ. What are the things God is asking me to give up for the sake of the gospel? How does God want me to live more generously, more sacrificially, more in line with His heart? How should my relationships and my speech change so that I am better able to be the hands and feet of Jesus to the people around me? What worldly ambitions and dreams and markers of success do I need to give up in order to center my life on Christ? How do I need to prioritize my time differently so that it better reflects the heart of God?
These are hard questions. They are hard to ask. It’s hard to know that even after a year serving God around the world they are questions I must still ask as I transition back to America. But I’ve learned that continuously asking these questions doesn’t mean I’ve failed and they don’t mean I’m less of a Christian. In fact they mean just the opposite. These are the questions I need to ask to be sure I’m living the life to which God has called me. And being obedient to the answers, no matter what the consequences may be in this world, is what it means for me to die to myself. What it means for me to count the cost of being a disciple Jesus.
This is the challenge I’m leaving the race with–to daily count the cost of following Jesus. It’s a big one. It’s important and I’m certain it will continue to change my life. I invite you into this challenge with me. If you call yourself a Christian, ask God the questions I am (or some others of your own). If you aren’t, would you consider what it is that is holding you back? And would you dare to ask God what He wants for your life and listen carefully to what He tells you?
Following Jesus will cost you your whole life but it will lead you into a free, full life that you can never experience without Him. I’m so certain of this, I’ve staked my life on it.
