Don’t define Sarah Alley by her disability.
Alley was an athlete her whole life. At six feet tall, she was a college basketball player, a basketball and volleyball coach and an avid runner. The Dyersburg, Tennessee, resident taught middle and elementary school for 20 years until 2015.
It was then that she was diagnosed with ALS.
ALS is a disease of the nervous system that weakens muscles and impacts mobility. There is no cure. Several months after her diagnosis, Alley felt anger and bitterness toward God.
“I was physical all my life,” she said. Below on the right, she is pictured as an athlete in her youth.
“And here I was on crutches at the time trying to walk across a soccer field,” she said.
Alley had always been deeply involved with her parish, Holy Angels Catholic Church. She read at Mass, served as an extraordinary minister of the Eucharist, volunteered as youth director and served as director of religious education for five years.
But ALS took that all away. Her physical paralysis was seeping into her soul.
Embracing adversity
A friend encouraged her to “have it out with God.” Alley went home, got in her closet and yelled at God for all of the unfairness.
She asked, “What is happening to me?” Alley said God answered her back right away with,
Sarah, you are much more than your body.”
And that is when Alley discovered her special ability, an ability forged by embracing her adversity and grounded in the enabling Spirit of God. Currently, she is unable to walk or use her hands due to her illness. But that hasn’t stopped Alley. She now uses a technology that enables her eyes to type and share her experience with ALS and her journey to spread God’s love to others.
She began blogging about her experience with ALS and living out her Catholic faith more intentionally. The Dyersburg State Gazette was so inspired by her blog that the newspaper began publishing it on its news website and still does to this day.
In 2016, she became race director for “Autumn March for ALS,” an annual walk and run that supports ALS research and college scholarships for local high school seniors.
To be considered for the scholarship, seniors must write an essay on how to be the light of Christ in their lives. This is in keeping with Alley’s view, that every occasion is an opportunity for spreading the faith, even a scholarship essay. It is a sublime irony that the former athlete now confined to a wheelchair uses a physical race to benefit the causes close to her heart.
Alley’s work doesn’t end there. She is the president and CEO of the YMCA of Dyersburg. She also works with Matthew 25:40, a local outreach ministry that assists in feeding 700 people per month who are homeless and in need. Additionally, she runs three separate weekly Bible studies with people from different Christian denominations.
How does she do it all? How does she stay hopeful?
Allowing the Lord to help carry your cross
Alley said, “I was sitting in church one day to be with the Lord. I was having a rough day and I was praying. All of a sudden, I started crying because I realized that the Lord is carrying me. That is how I’m getting through life. He’s carrying my cross. It’s been so long now since I thought of quitting.”
This abiding faith that the Lord is carrying her is at the heart of her amazing ministries. Alley said simply that she has seen so many miracles. “I want to spread so much love and light. The more you give God’s love, the more He gives you.”
Currently, she is writing a book titled My Life Has Been Resurrected, which is about ALS and her faith journey. Alley said that being confined to a wheelchair doesn’t stop her from continuing to work for the Lord.
As long as I’m living, I will use my brain to help others in need. I love my city and I love the Lord. I want God to use me until there is nothing left.”
Disability? Hardly. One would be hard-pressed to find a more abled person. But that is what happens when we give our lives over to God and use all we have until there is nothing left.
And Sarah Alley is our example, our beacon of ability. A true Lumen Christi.
Catholic Extension Society is honored to share the story of Sarah Alley, a finalist for our Lumen Christi Award. This award is our highest honor given to people who radiate and reveal the light of Christ present in the communities where they serve. Visit this page to read the other inspiring stories from this year’s finalists.
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