During our time as teachers one year my wife and I decided we wanted to visit the capital of China.  In order to save some money we chose to take the train, a 50 hour ride altogether.  It was our first year in China so we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.  I bought two hard seat tickets (basically an old stye bus seat) as they were the only ones available and we set off on our journey.

I forgot to mention this was during Chinese Spring Festival, the worlds largest annual human migration. Every single Chinese man and women are scrambling to get to their home town to celebrate the new year with their families. Most Chinese can’t get off work until a couple days before the new year so that only adds to the mass amount of people traveling at once.

So there we were stuffed into our train car, people’s suitcases strewn across the floor and passengers sitting in the aisle, on arm rests or anywhere they could find room. For 50 hours.

It may have been one of the worst trips we’d ever been on.  But it was also the most beautiful.  From our vantage we got to see an entire stretch of China that would have taken years to see.  We experienced what the Chinese do every year and gained valuable perspective on how this country lives. That experience gave us another tool, another understanding, to build a bridge to the hearts of the Chinese to share the gospel.

One of my friends favorite sayings is, “Everything’s redeemable.”

I think this is what our lives look like when we follow Jesus and surrender to him.  We have no idea the kind of journey it’s going to be, it may be uncomfortable and even painful at times.  In the end though the journey is worth it. We will never become the person God intends for us to be unless we let go of our fears and begin the journey he’s plotted for us.