interwoven stories and the Great Redeemer

my sophomore year of highschool we had a change of youthstaff in our church. "cool," i thought - i was ready for a change. there was a woman - thin, in her twenties, dark hair, and i didn't quite know what to think of her. i couldn't remember ever having a girl on staff. one of the earliest conversations i can remember having with her was when she told me i should go to Cuba that summer on a missions trip. I laughed and told her she was crazy, I didn't travel (when the truth was, my anxiety had me in such bondage that traveling threw me into panic attacks and days/weeks of depression). I went to Cuba. I started meeting with this crazy woman. She taught me how to drive a stick. She bought me coffee at Starbucks. She talked to me about Jesus. She started asking me about my life - she listened to all the crap drama of a high school girl as though she cared. When I got to college, I had her voice in my head. It went something like, "Alex, feelings don't dictate truth" when I felt far from the Lord. And when I got dumped, when my grandmother died, when my anxiety got so bad that I couldn't get off the couch, when I started thinking about hurting myself, when I went to therapy, when I doubted Jesus - she loved me, she spoke truth to me, and not once did she fail to encourage me in growing with the Lord. Her name is Meredith. This is her story - you should hear it.