pg. 26 — lightandlifemagazine.com
urfm You are the church
She said that sometimes she finds it scary to share
openly about personal experiences, but then she
thinks “about those private messages I get — and I
honestly get them almost every day — of someone
who reaches out and says, ‘Me too. I’ve been there,
or you’ve finally put words to something I’ve been
experiencing, or I’ve been having these same
thoughts, but I’ve been scared to approach it,
and now I’ve read it and know that I need to
make a decision.’”
Alyssa sensed God calling her to write the
book in a way that shares her life story without
telling other people how to live their lives.
“When I first started writing the book, I considered
putting all my opinions in there,” she said. “I don’t
think there’s anything wrong with people sharing their
beliefs. I think that’s so necessary, but I feel like I have
been called specifically, for whatever reason, to quell
my quote-unquote ‘opinions’ and instead show people
my experience that led to my opinions without overtly
stating them, so that people can really put themselves
in my shoes and understand where I came from.”
Alyssa said she has seen a lot of judgment —
especially among Christians — about widows,
remarriage and “what grief is supposed to look like
versus what it actually looks like.”
Pastor Eric
A recurring character in the book is Pastor Eric who
provides spiritual guidance and even career advice.
For example, she writes, “After I got home, I touched
base with Pastor Eric, letting him know I’d made it
back to the Pacific Northwest. He knew I still had
questions, but he had been undeniably happy when
he heard what God had revealed to me, or rather what
I had finally accepted, in Florida.”
Alyssa told LIGHT + LIFE that she first met
Eric Spangler during her teenage years when her
family began attending Lakeside Community
Fellowship (now LifePoint Church), a Free Methodist
congregation in Lake Stevens, Washington.
“He was a big part of my family, and I consider him
honestly like a dad to me,” she said. “When Nick and
I got married, he did our premarital counseling and
married us. Then he did Nick’s celebration of life and
was there the day Nick passed away. Then he did Jay’s
and my premarital counseling and married us.”
“It didn’t
matter what
anyone else
said, because I
knew what God
was calling me
to do.”
— Alyssa Galios
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