Friends:: Sunday and yesterday my friend Tim was down visiting and going over some ministry I'm going to do at his camp this summer. Tim is a friend that is a kindred spirit with me and we seem to share an outlook on life. I actually met him in Colorado Springs in the summer of '02 when he was a youth pastor in York, PA and I was in Frederick, MD. Before too long Tim moved on to camp ministry in the York area and I was still in Frederick. Tim and I have spent more time in the car together travelling to all of our meetings and retreats than most married couples. So naturally time in the car is time in conversations. In case you can't tell by now I really value my friendship with Tim, I have to say it's definately unique but incredibly valuable.

So anyway he was visiting yesterday so I did what I would normally do I called up one of my friends here and we all three hung out. I'm not sure this is the litmus test of friendships but I think it's a good indicator. When you merge two friends or two sets of friends from different states and different ministry it's really determines if you are who you say you are. For instance if one group of my friends is very conservative and prudish and another group wild and crazy then there is a lack of consistency in my life and probably an indicator that my character is not consistence. I believe this is called Cognitive Dissonance.

So yesterday when Brandon, Tim and I were spending time together I was relieved to see that we all were having a good time and that I was being who I am...all the time.

Fries: I like french fries but I like regular fries better than shoestring fries and steak fries so when I'm ordering fries I ask what kind they serve. Because if they serve the kind I don't like I'll get potato salad or a baked potato- something that is better for me. So yesterday when I asked what kind of fries they had the waiter looked at me and says "french fries" in a tone that indicated I was a moron. Anger.

Then Tim asked what "blackened" was. The waiter looked at him and said "it's...blackened". This was when I concluded that he didn't actually have the ability to form a thought on his own he merely immitated back the sound he had just heard come from our mouths.