I grew up fearing hitchhikers. They’re bad people, they’re dangerous, they’re strange, they’re strangers, they’ll hurt you.

They hurt Jesus. We hurt Jesus. Jesus loves us. Jesus loves them…actually, there shouldn’t be an us and them. It’s us and the divine.

Read the second half of Matthew 25, and you’ll see that Jesus pretty much says that in order to follow Him, we need to pick up hitchhikers. Yeah it’s a paraphrase, but He does say that His followers must invite strangers in (among many other things), and what kind of stranger needs someone more than hitchhiker? There’s no one else around to help. Help them, they’re Jesus. I doubt any of us would actually pass up Jesus if we saw Him on the side of the road sticking His thumb out. Oh wait, we do…all the time.

Pick up a hitchhiker.

Fine Print: I must confess that I’ve never picked up a hitchhiker before. I have today resolved to do so in the future, which prompted me to write this.

Having this guy as a roommate is almost always beyond interesting.

I’m sure you’ve heard the statement, “Live simply so that others may simply live.”

For some reason, when I think of this statement, I still notice a bit of emphasis on self.

I’ve lately been charged with the thought, “Make sure others have what they need before you have what you want.”

Over the past year, I’ve ridden my bike more and more. I love it. I’ll ride anywhere and everywhere. But, I hurt my back awhile ago, and it’s gotten pretty bad lately. It’s been bad enough that it’s painful to ride my bike, so I’ve been walking to class lately. As a result of this slower pace, I get to notice things I wouldn’t normally see when riding. Yesterday, walking back from class, I saw a couple things that made me chuckle inside. One was a guy walking around in a tucked in Firefox 1.0 t-shirt. Less than one minute later, I saw someone riding a bike with one hand on the handlebars, and the other…holding a cocked and loaded Nerf gun. My school never ceases to surprise me.

Lately, I’ve noticed that when I’m taking photos, I usually have a set purpose in mind. They’ve been becoming a means to an end. I’ve been doing this so much that when fun opportunities to shoot come around, I leave the camera behind because I’m slightly burnt out. I don’t like that.

So today I decided to ask one of my roommates, Bryce, to walk around a bit of Rolla with me and just take some photos. No reason, no agenda. It was relaxing and freeing.