I’ve always liked bike riding. From childhood to college & grad school I’ve biked occasionally for recreation, transportation, exercise, and fun. This year I’ve been able to take on a new adventure: biking to work 2 days of my 4 day work week. I’m riding a bike rented from an innovative program Bike Emory—a unique partnership between Emory University & our local shop Bicycle South that encourages/equips students, faculty, and staff to learn bicycle care, make community connections, and ride safely.
I believe in bike commuting as a way to lessen my impact on the environment, improve traffic, and see the world in a more people-centric, community kind of way. Riding to work allows me to lessen the amount of greenhouse gases I’m contributing to the atmosphere, take one single-commuter car off the road, and to see different side streets, neighborhoods, people, and communities that I otherwise wouldn’t see.
We have amazing Sustainability Initiatives at Emory, which really help our community to engage in greener ways of living and enjoy the world around us. In my work as the United Methodist Campus Minister at Emory I have had so many good conversations with students about how we are called to take care of the environment as a matter of justice, stewardship, and a way to care for people. In my faith tradition we have 3 simple ‘rules’: “Do Good, Do No Harm, and Stay in the Love of God and Neighbor.” These seemingly simple rules are more complex once we take them beyond simple platitudes and ask how to live out these ideals–especially when we consider how we live, act, and use/consume resources.
Socrates got it right when he said that “an unexamined life is not worth living.” This is one of the greatest challenges for Americans: to think beyond our own needs and to consider the needs, situations, and hopes of others in our communities and in other communities in our nation and around the world. A step towards understanding the hopes and needs of others is to get to know people who are in different ages, stages, and economic places in your community. In the context of relationship we can learn much about the hopes, dreams, and ideals of others and, in turn, discover much about ourselves.
Riding a bike makes one physically and philosophically closer to world around us: there is no 
glass/metal cage to separate us, no radio to distract us, no anonymity of a car to shield us. Riding my bike to work gives me time to take in and ponder the people and scenes I’m seeing and hearing–not to mention the hills that I’m feeling in my legs. I’m thankful to be able to bike to work to better understand and appreciate the world around me. Being a bike commuter is a way to live out my ecological and theological beliefs to take care of the planet and to care for people.
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Rev. Joseph McBrayer works as Director of Emory Wesley Fellowship, the United Methodist Campus Ministry at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga, where he helps build community on campus to provide a place for students to think through their beliefs and put them into practice. He and his spouse live in the North Decatur area and have been a part of the Atlanta/Emory Community for the past 8 years. You may contact him at jmcbray@gmail.com or connect on twitter @jmcbray.
Rev. Dr. Joseph McBrayer 