Hitchhiking

I don't even remember how I discovered that Craiglist has rideshare threads but I did.  And this is my story about grabbing a ride off of a truck driver. Sooo for winter break 2012, I drove home. It was definitely nice that as a sub, I got two weeks off. I have a really solid friend that lives in western Tennessee, so I drove to his house. I left at 4am, because that's how I roll and to beat rush hour traffic, and I got there by 12:30 pm. He is from Wisconsin so he dropped me off in Illinois on his way home. That worked well, especially since I hadn't seen him in a while. And I'll do just about anything to save a buck or two. He ended up having to get back to Tennessee sooner than he thought to take care of some obligations. I didn't travel 750 miles to be there for only four days, especially when I didn't work again for at least ten more days. But no worries; I love adventure. So I spent the next week trying to figure out how I was going to get back to his house, or at least Memphis. I posted on the Springfield Craigslist rideshare thread that I was a Christian in my 20s, looking for a ride to Memphis. A few days later I got a text from a guy named Tyler. He told me he was a Christian and he regularly passes through Springfield on his way back home to Memphis in his truck. Yes, this whole thing is a bit sketchy but I just didn't naively take the first thing that came along. I spent some time getting to know him as we spoke on the phone. He seemed legit and all I owed him was some company, as the long hours on the road were lonely. So on a Friday, I went with my mom to her classroom to help in the second grade, went to my bro's basketball game, then went to meet my grandma, who took me to the truck stop to meet Tyler at midnight.

I had never been in a semi truck before. It was definitely an adventure. I learned some nuances about truck driving, like the left lane is called the hammer lane and most trucks have a chip that doesn't allow them to go faster than 60 or 65, so now I understand why they pass each other so slowly. I usually get to bed by 10-10:30 pm but I didn't get any shut eye until 10:30 am the next day. Being awake for 27.5 hours straight was definitely a PR for me. It was interesting to me that after the 4am drowsiness, staying awake after that wasn't difficult at all. We drove all through the night. My friend was a little late in coming to pick me up, which wasn't a big deal. Tyler was cool with me chilling at his place for a while. He was an interesting guy with somewhat of a crazy past. I love deep, thought-provoking and engaging discussions and he more than entertained me with that. I don't think any one single question surprised him as much as all of them together did. Most people don't really ask about/talk about the things I bring up. Once we got back to my friend's house, I slept for like six hours and my circadian rhythm was back to normal. It was an experience that I'll probably never forget, one I'll probably do again and a risk I'm glad I took.
Everyone told me I was crazy. Everyone wanted me to spend some money and get to Memphis a different, more 'sophisticated' way. Instead I made a new friend, got to try something new, a risk paid off, I got to talk about Jesus and got to live the adventurous life that I love. I wouldn't recommend it to everyone and I'm not saying we should just blindly toss ourselves to the wolves but I also don't think Jesus called us to live our life under a rock. How are we supposed to meet new people and talk to them about the gospel, if we just sit in our comfortable suburban homes, attend our cozy suburban churches, always afraid to step out in faith and out of our comfort zones?

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men. Colossians 3:23