MOMENTS OF MEANING: TELLING STORIES OF HOW FAITH, SHAPED IN THIS COMMUNITY, HAS HELPED SOMEONE FIND MEANING IN THEIR LIFE.

Alana has this wonderful calling to feed people.  Most of the time this calling shows up when other people in her life (family, friends, acquaintances, even friends of friends) are going through a rough time.  It’s during those times of deep waiting that Alana beholds God in her neighbor: waiting for a surgery or diagnoses, waiting to see if they will get better, waiting to see what’s going to happen.  That’s where Alana has found a calling.  It’s a space we all find ourselves in with others, where there seems to be nothing we can do to make it better, and most of us feel completely useless.  She feels this way too, but she reminds herself that she can’t fix it, nor should she, and she decides to give them muffins, or a casserole, or cookies. 

Alana says this calling came out of a wish to say yes to more opportunities to accompany those around her – to “Be Open” to recognizing God’s invitation to love her neighbor as herself.   While she is cooking, she uses the time to say a prayer for them, and thinks about them and all they’re going through.  And that’s what struck me the most during our conversation.  The noticing of people.  The acknowledgement.  It seems like such a small thing, to give muffins to someone in that hell but we laughed about it because if you’re in hell at least this way you get delicious muffins. 

She does this whole thing out of a sense of gratitude.   She feels that her life has been a gift from God and really the only response she can think of is to give back.  To walk alongside people and fit into the cracks that form in their lives, even if it’s just to say hey, I made you lasagna, eat it or freeze it, but it’s here for you.

Submitted by Rich Holleque.