It still kind of startles me to realize how detached from the world I am. Not in a way that says, "I am better than this world," but in more of a way that C.S. Lewis described as this:
"If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world."All right, enough of the cryptic nonsense. I'll tell you what's going on.
About two weeks ago, I returned from a trip to China. There, I was blessed to have the opportunity to talk to students, both in secondary school as well as college. They taught me so much about their culture and way of life, and I can't help but just feel as though I've lived in a teensy tiny bubble all of my nineteen years of this short life. Radically impacted doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of how this experience left me. I so wish that I could wholly express my thoughts on the three weeks that I was there, but I suppose that it would be best to leave some things open for conversation in person.
I can, however, share some of the things that I learned in my time there:
1. Kindness is vastly underrated.
2. When you are in another country, and you don't know the language, the only people you can pick out of a crowd are the twenty people who got off of the plane with you, and you only know how to order fried rice because you can't remember how to say any other food in Chinese, you can look for comfort in two different places: memories of home, or confidence in the present.
The former is easier to fall into because there is a security in knowing you'll go back to a place where you already know everything you need to make it through, but if that is how you find comfort then you sacrifice making your time wherever you are count. You will begin counting down the days as though you have died and the moment that plane takes off toward your home is the moment you will come to life again, and because of your self-prophesied foreign country death, the time you spend in wherever you have gone will not be lived to its full potential.
The later--a confidence in the present--is difficult to choose for some. It's difficult because it's comparable to jumping into the middle of the ocean head first. No two days will be the same, and there is no guarantee that everything will go according to any kind of plan you make up, but your time will not be spent in vain. Home will no longer be the place you came from but wherever you are; you'll carry it with you like a coin in your pocket. You'll notice little things that will shape your view of the world and change your life forever.
Stepping off my soapbox now...
3. A smile is universal.
4. It really is all right if things do not run smoothly.
Don't fret if the taxi driver is on the wrong side of the road and blasting his horn at every moving object. If an escalator is not moving, it merely means that they wish to function as stairs, and there is no harm in honoring that wish. Playing Frogger with the cars and buses to cross the road is actually kind of fun once you get the hang of it.
5. God has a plan, even for those 24 hour delays.
And trust me when I tell you that He will use even the worst of situations for His ultimate glory.
