Reality.

A couple of summers ago I interned for a youth group and became really close with a couple of the kids that were in the youth group. We haven't really hung out consistently over the past couple of years because we've all been at different colleges in different towns but we try to hang out when we can. Tonight we got together and our conversation was a bit unique to most conversations people have...

Although we hadn't seen each other in a while, we started our conversation with the intention of being real with each other. When I asked my friends Becca and Nathan how they were doing, I said something like, "How have you been? I mean how have you really been?" So often someone asks, "How are you?" you say, "I'm good," and move on whether you are really doing good or not. Tonight our entire evening was based on real conversations, hard stuff, great stuff, and everything in between. It was just refreshing to me.

I guess I just love when people are real. In a day, I'd rather have one real conversation with someone who told me what was truly going on in his or her life and heart than ten conversations where someone answers "good" when asked how they're doing then we move on to further meaningless discussion. I love real friends, real community, and tonight was a demonstration of that... I loved it. (Plus we were at Loose Park at sunset... you can't really beat that.)