In the spring of 2025, I decided to attend Alpha with the intention of placing God firmly at the center of my life. What began as a conscious decision, became—as Alpha progressed—something that I was drawn to and deeply desired to continue. Its effects permeated into every aspect of my life allowing me to develop new routines and embark on an exciting new journey.
After completing my first Alpha, the growth I experienced in my prayer life, career, and relationships left me with a deep desire to help others find that same transformation. I was challenged to put the story of change in my life into words. I decided to take this challenge to God in Tuesday night Adoration, praying that the Holy Spirit would speak to me as I sat before the Holy Eucharist. He did, although I didn’t realize it at first.
As I sat in Adoration, the story of Jesus calming the storm came to me, but I pushed it out of my mind because I didn’t think it related to the task at hand. It came to mind a second time and I pushed it aside again. At that point, I wrote the following words in my journal: “Jesus calming the storm came back, but this is not what I’m thinking about.”
When it came to mind a third time, I decided to sit in this story, believing that perhaps God was trying to speak to me. In getting out of God’s way, what came next were six pages of notes that related my transformation journey to the Gospel story of Jesus calming the storm. As I sat in this story, I began to see its parallels to my life—parallels before, during and after Alpha. I realized that the storm was my life before I chose to take the step towards trusting God.
At that time, Jesus was asleep in my boat during the storm. However, when I made a sincere cry out to Jesus for help, He awoke in my boat and calmed my storms that caused a lack of joy and peace in my life.
Since that time, I am still in the boat and Jesus is still awake with me in the boat. The water may be stormy at times and calm at others, but through it all, God is forever with me. The joy and peace that I longed for is constantly with me in any situation. I am extremely grateful for the Tuesday Night Adoration which has given me so many experiences of joy, peace, and gratitude to celebrate with Jesus.