Istanbul

I went to Istanbul with a couple of old girlfriends. I cannot remember what made us decide to go to Istanbul. I remember thinking it was a miracle that we found suitable dates for the three of us, and I remember that whenever we talked about it, Istanbul was so far in the future. I know I felt enthralled on some nights when I threw myself into rereading the history of the battle for Constantinople. I remember vividly my father telling me the history of how the young Sultan Mehmet II outsmarted the Emperor Constantine XI by circumventing the great chain of the Golden Horn. I couldn’t help but remember too how my mum kept drilling the meaning of ‘tributary’ into my head. The Bosporus Strait divided the European and Asian sides of Istanbul. The Golden Horn, I remember her telling me, was a tributary that divided the European side and flowed into the Bosporus. I think we looked at the Encyclopedia at the time, but I cannot remember this very clearly. I just remember loving the conversations with them. As I read up more on Türkiye, I remembered too the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1923. How devastating it was to the line of rulers who once commanded lands and peoples. Such a fall from their glory. The similarity with the loss of glory that the Byzantine Empire suffered at the hands of the Ottomans never escaped my notice. I felt the excitement build up as I reread some of this history. I couldn’t wait for Istanbul!

I think I spammed my friends in our WhatsApp group as I kept sending them details of hotels, and various activities for us to do while we were there. We didn’t have a lot of time, and it was important that we maximized what we had. It truly was wonderful. So much must be said for reviews! We booked into a lovely little boutique hotel, which was about 120 meters away from the Blue Mosque. We were in the heart of the Sultanahmet area. All we needed to do was step out of our hotel, take a few steps, and be at the Hippodrome. Brilliant!

How we walked! We’ve not stopped talking about the amount of walking we did. It’s amazing how curiosity, chatter, laughter, and a little FOMO combined can keep you going and going. We did good! The crisp winter air of Türkiye helped. I can’t imagine walking outside like that at noon in Malaysia, in the heat and humidity. It’d be a bit too much to handle. Whatever it was, we had a wonderful time walking. We crossed the Galata bridge, and it felt like the people fishing remained fishing whether we were coming or going. We didn’t enjoy the haggling at the bazaars. In fact, you could feel the pressure to make a choice. Pick something – anything. The sellers were willing to serve you endless cups of tea with Turkish delight and baklava to improve your buying experience. They made their displeasure known if you don’t make a purchase, and I think a few times, we made ours known too. It was quite a clash of cultures, I’d say!

Istanbul was wonderful. There were moments we worried we’d lose one of our friends to the cats of Istanbul. Till today, I’m not sure she’s back here in Malaysia! We flew on different flights. I wouldn’t be surprised if she has taken up residence there. The birds and dogs were huge! The pigeons were about half of Gamora. It made me wonder how Gamora would react if she saw such a big pigeon. In our home, she terrorizes the pigeons. She’d have a bit of a shock, I think if she saw the size of the pigeons of Istanbul. Then there were the dogs. One of my friends joked that they must be on steroids. I believe it. They were huge! They were also incredibly docile. The only times we saw them charging and causing a ruckus was when the rubbish lorries or police cars with sirens drove by. Those trigger them out of their dozy stupor. There was a lot to take in. One of my friends almost kissed the tram lines on Istikal Street because her eyes were on a dog about to do something very private in a very public area!

Istanbul reminded me of the notion of living up to past glory. There is so much that restauranters, merchants, guides, and even scammers do to bring your sights and senses back to the glories of old. They do have some good stories. They have rich history. Yet there’s no more wealth, economically there’s a struggle, and the cost of living has rocketed. As I walked into the Hagia Sophia, I felt a true sense of this past glory. A majesty that was there but which is now visible only in your imagination, aided by the sights you take in within that old structure. I did feel a sense of that in the Basilica Cistern and in the old Greek and Jewish quarters in Fener and Balat. It felt strange to be walking about so casually in places that used to be so grand and where life bustled at a different pace to what it does now. As you look at mosaics and old relics of the past, or old structures which are in desperate need of refurbishing or maintenance, you get the idea of how exhausting it must be to try and keep up with past glory. It is well and truly gone. It will be impossible to get it back. The glorious history resides in the past. There it will remain. Glorious in memory for as long as memory serves.

The idea of glory is interesting to me. It seems to come up across many aspects of life. I support a football team, who are currently leading the English Premier League. Liverpool is fully back living up to its glory days of old. There was a period of about thirty years where the glory of the league remained elusive. Then the team looked like it was full of promise, but except for a few memorable matches, rarely delivered. As supporters, in that time, we lived in past glory. I think of my friend who supports Manchester United, and I know where he is living when he sends me videos of old victories. Football aside, I was reminded of past glory today. I had the privilege of hosting a small lunch to celebrate someone who turned ninety. My mind was full of memories of my dad’s ninetieth birthday party, which feels like such a wonderful occasion that I can now only look upon in my heart. Past glory. Even as I listened to the elderly friends chattering today, I realized how much they longed for days of old, where they were surrounded by their loved ones, or were doing work that was relevant, etcetera. Past glory. It is everywhere! We look back on our lives where perhaps now we can no longer do the same things we used to. It’s because we’re older, it’s because of different financial circumstances, it’s because we’ve lost someone we love, it’s ill-health. Whatever the reason, we look back and we think about the glory days. Past glory.

As I reflect on my trip to Istanbul, I think of how God promises me a future glory. It’s such an interesting paradox because life as it is, is difficult. As I write this, I have a week left at my job before the redundancy takes effect. My body, despite excellent blood work results just days ago, is never going to be the same again. At least not until Jesus comes again. As for my mind, the things I forget are sometimes so embarrassing. Sometimes I feel like I’ve moved closer to full-time residency in numpty-land! My present circumstances, and as I look around, I include the circumstances that most people are in and the world in general, are all not gleaming in glory. In fact, as days go by, and as cities get even more crowded, or as traffic gets worse, or as climate issues and various other issues that plague our world ramp up, all I can see is a shell of what we used to be. Past glory. We keep trying to work ourselves out of this rut. The Bible steps in at this point and says that ‘sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us,’ (Romans 8:18). The feeling of ‘futility’ likened to the ‘groaning in the pains of childbirth’ (Romans 8: 20 – 22) seems real. In Istanbul, I wondered how would refurbishing the Hagia Sophia happen when there are so many everyday problems that plague the country, which need immediate attention? As they say, life happens. It never stops!

The promise given to me in the Bible is of a future glory, despite present sufferings. ‘The wilderness and dry land shall be glad; the dessert shall rejoice and blossom abundantly…And the ransomed of the LORD shall return…everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; …’ (Isaiah 35: 1-10). Future glory! The promise in the verses in Romans 8: 18-30 reminds us that ‘for all those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.’ Future glory! Future glory is simply unfathomable. It is hard to believe. No wonder why too! For we are all part of a world that is in its past glory, we can’t imagine anything else! It’s impossible! Additionally, it occurs to me that there is some beauty still even in this era of past glory that we are caught up in. Even as I think back on the old structures I saw in Istanbul and traders trying to relive a booming past, as much as there is the sad or ugly side to things, there was a magnetic charm, an allure. It delighted me so much that I forgot about how it would be if some of the old structures were refurbished and given a new gleaming exterior and interior. I stopped imagining what it could be like! This too is the difficulty we have in imagining future glory. Yet it doesn’t mean it isn’t to come.

So much of Istanbul will remain with me. It was the company I had. I was with good friends. It was the timing of it all. It’d been an exhausting Christmas and New Year waiting for things to be finalized at work in relation to my redundancy. It was because there were many elements about the place that took me back in time to my mum and dad, my past glory. I always want to be with them. I miss them. Istanbul was magical for me. Through watching it try so hard to relive and build up to its past glory, it made me think about my future glory in Christ. I hold to the promise in the Bible. I think it was put into my heart by the Spirit that we have been given ‘a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory,’ which not everyone will understand (1 Corinthians 2: 1 – 12). Our future glory and the hope I have in Christ jumps out even more to me thanks to the past glory I met on the streets of Istanbul.