me and the hitchhiker

by now we all know i have a habit of picking up hitchhikers. it's something i do when i am a lone. i will never pick up someone with my wife or anyone else in the car with me. just to be safe.
this morning i seemed to be running late for work (have you ever noticed that even though your waist is getting smaller- your neck stays the same? it took me forever to button the top of my shirt to get my tie on). i was speeding (a little) when i saw a man with his thumb out, a coffee mug in hand, and smoke in his mouth. at first i thought "i don't have time and i hate the smell of smoke." yet the song i was listening to reminded me i should (yes, this will be an overly christian blog). so i pulled over and he jumped in. it is always awkward at first. i never know what to really say. thankfully he started first.
"this car must be good on gas?"
"yep."
"toyota?"
"nope. nissan."
this conversation then turned to deeper things. like who was i related to. where am i from. by the time i had reached town i realized who he was.
three years ago i "ministered "(i hate that term for some reason) to a young man after breaking his back. i spent almost every evening in his hospital/ nursing home room for a month(he was only a teen, but he needed a lot of care). he does not believe in God , but we became/are good friends. this man in my car was his father. a man whom i had never met in the month i spent with his son. a man who never checked on his son. i didn't like this man. i had decided that he was not a good father.
ok with that said. it became kind of cool to talk to this man. i had this image of a mean man who didn't care for his own child, but talking to him i realized he is just a man who is afraid of life. he doesn't know how to react to things in this world and he really has no clue how to live outside of his little box. now we had something in common. i don't know if this means anything to anyone, but it has helped me today. i need to learn to stop creating this image of people in my head. i need to learn to love before i judge. i need to just shut up and do what i am called to do. love.
(sorry to be so serious. i know.. it scares me too).