There are so many awesome (and humorous) stories in my life that started out with the phrase “so I did this trade on Craigslist”…
The picture you see is one of them.
It is a Compaq F700 laptop. Nothing terribly special about that. It was a laptop sold at the bargain price of $399 through big-box stores a couple years ago at Christmas time. An individual had this laptop listed for sale or trade locally and I shot him an offer. He did some repairs and sold systems from his living room. I had some parts and a couple older desktop units sitting in my basement that he was interested in.
The biggest positive of the situation is that no cash exchanged hands, and none of what I traded were items that I actually paid money for. It had a couple of nice upgrades to it as well.
Now, that said, this laptop has its fair share of “quirks”. The DVD drive does not work. Neither does the Wireless card. One USB port is non-functioning. It has clearly been dropped at one point in its life. At some point someone had applied a massive amount of stickers or paint to the lid of the laptop to the point that it has been “sanded” off. I also had to add a USB Wireless adapter to connect to the internet over WiFi.
This is why i call it my Ghetto Laptop. It is rough. Really rough. It has had a tough life. But it works for its intended purpose. A cheap “knock around” laptop for a little typing (like this post), email, and connect Hulu to the TV.
We are like this laptop in a lot of ways. We have been hurt, beaten around by life and those close to us. We may have scratches, scars, and broken places. God still has a purpose for every one of us. His purpose may look a little different than what we maybe thought (or even others thought) was the original plan. God knows.
Go take some inspiration from this chunk of plastic and silicon and go do what God’s purpose is for your life.