Thoughts from a subway

From a town of 4,000 to a city of 6 million, Hesston to Nanjing.

Sometimes I just laugh as I try to explain the small town of Hesston to my classmates, my friends or the average Chinese person. An empty field to stargaze? Fresh air to breathe? You got your license at 16?!?

Two different worlds, and I get to experience both. What a gift (如愿以偿). Though I originally imagined a year spent in the rice fields of China, only speaking Chinese, far from people and full of self-reflection and purpose, I think God had another plan. What does it mean to intentionally reflect and search for purpose in an unforeseen setting?

A question I continue to ask.

At the same time, I'm continuing to learn that holding on to unrealistic expectations only takes away from the beauty of the moment, of reality. Besides, authentic China is anywhere where there are lots of people, delicious food and the occasional, or rather, recurring smog, right? :)

With that in mind, I've been thinking a lot recently about where I have come from, where I am now and how this experience is shaping where I will go.

In some ways my small town college experience didn't even come close to preparing me for big-city living. The number of times I have forgotten my room card can only be blamed on the fact that I never locked my door at Hesston. The fact that I need to plan out my grocery trip for when I go to lunch on that side of town is something I am still getting adjusted to. The swarms of people, the large campus, the subway....

All new.

But in a way, Hesston was the perfect preparation for traveling to a big city such as Nanjing. Whether in a small town or thriving metropolis, relationships are most important - my relationship with God, with nature, with others and even with myself.

And what does cultivating and tending to these relationships look like when in China? Or rather, in any new, diverse setting?

For one, it means learning to walk with others when perhaps their beliefs, their goals or daily journeying to a destination looks completely different than my own.

Well, duh, Mackenzie. (If that's what you're thinking, give me a few more paragraphs to make my point.)

Just think about it. We often gravitate towards those who think like us, who share the same faith, who spend money in the same way, who watch the same TV show, who eat similar foods....

But here in Nanjing, I've been thrown into a diverse melting pot and the lesson has become ever so powerful. I travel to class and sit next students from South Korea, Romania, Switzerland, Canada, Bahamas, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, Ukraine, Poland, Kazakstan, Azerbaijan and Russia. I head to my internship and engage with people from all over China, all walks of life. I experience people who have wealth and witness those who only know poverty. I hear a minimum of five different languages a day, sometimes spoken by one person alone!

In all of these settings, I often can't relate to their journey, sometimes even to their life goals or reasons for being in Nanjing. I can't understand their culture as they do. But I'm learning to be okay with that, to find fulfillment in walking beside them on their journey. And that's hard work.

This hard work, as I'm learning, has to be accompanied by a groundedness in self - in coming home to your most inner being at the end of the day (whether that's God, an eternal spirit or a connection to the Earth) and finding worth.

A few weeks ago, I was discussing the "Pumpkin Culture" of the United States with my classmates - everything from Pumpkin Spice to pumpkin ice cream to pumpkin carving. My teacher overheard and thus began a week of sharing our own countries' food culture, sampling pumpkin seeds and forming community.

I was reminded of the passage in Matthew 13 when Jesus shares the parable of the mustard seed. But in this case, pumpkin seeds seemed more suitable.

"The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed planted in a field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of garden plants; it grows into a tree, and birds come and make nests in its branches."

If this pumpkin seed was also an equal representation of a mustard seed, then I trust and have begun to witness the fruits of intentional planting. I tend to the relationships I have made and watch the tree grow making room for more and more strangers, neighbors and friends to enter in.

And that's the Kingdom of Heaven - it's possible in Hesston, Kansas, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and in Nanjing, China.

So walk alongside your neighbors, your friends, strangers and enemies. It is in walking with them, listening to them and encouraging them that we give to a world beyond ourselves.

Just some thoughts from the subway for your Thursday.

**In other words, China is hard, but China is good. I appreciate your prayers.