Early one morning at age 46, I walked into a church and ate a piece of bread, took a sip of wine. This is a routine Sunday activity for tens of millions Americans. Except at this particular moment—my first communion—everything changed.
The mysterious sacrament turned out to not be a symbolic wafer, but actual food—indeed the bread of life. In that shocking moment of communion, I realized what I was meant to do: feed people. Opening a food pantry has been the most challenging and rewarding thing I have ever done.
Holy Communion knocked me upside down and forced me to deal with the impossible reality of God.
When you next partake of the holy sacrament, open your heart to the possibilities that exist. How will God challenge you?
This message was adapted from “Take this Bread” written by Sara Miles that first appeared in the January/February 2008 issue of Lutheran Woman Today (now Gather) magazine.