Craigslist, Smallworld

The craziest thing happened last night.

50 million people in the US alone use Craigslist.

There are 6.3 million people living in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex.

I posted an ad to sell a nightstand.

A lady called and asked to come buy it. She sounded nice.

I opened the front door........ and I said

"Wait, I know you!"

I knew her! She was several years ahead of me in the youth group of the church where I grew up.

Because she was probably five years above me, we weren't close. But. I will always remember one night. We had a weekly youth event, and she was going to be the speaker.

She got up and bravely, courageously told the whole youth group that she had had an eating disorder.

She talked about how it started, and the messages that were inside her, and the feelings she had felt. She talked about what she had done, the practices, the habits. She talked about her recovery, and how it's kind of a lifelong thing, not like the flu that you "get over" all at once.

I didn't even remember her name when I saw her face, or where she went to high school, or college, and I have no idea what she's doing in life today (other than collecting Swedish furniture with her boyfriend), but the courage of that testimony and the power of its honesty have stayed with me.

My husband wasn't home yet when she came to get the nightstand (which is scary- I won't do that again), but when I told him who had come, the first words out of his mouth were remembering her testimony also (we grew up in the same youth group).

This in no way diminishes the rest of her full life, it just speaks to the incredible power of personal testimony, and the lasting results when one is brave enough to get real and honest with her peers.