Dear Friends,
Hope all is well today! Just a reminder that our very own David Sparks will be speaking
tonight at 180 (BCM) at 8:30pm. David is the Kentucky Annual Conference leader of youth
and young adult ministries. He is always thoughtful and passionate about his work with
young people and always thought provoking. It will be a treat to hear him.
Also, "Smiley and the Hot Minute" will be bring praise and worship music to us this
Thursday at SOLID ROCK CAFE'. There is free food at 6:30pm and worship will follow afte rward about 7:30pm. They even have their own page on facebook! The message will look at how we live out a God-sized purpose.
Now for Sami's Ramblings About Jesus:
Every now and then I get to watch Oprah. It's one of my favorite shows because it inspires me. Lateley I've seen a couple that have dealt with the subject of intention, basically what are we focusing on in our day to day lives. It was a powerful insight for me because the message is that we give power to what we focus on.
I am reminded of a time when I was a young and very green pastor in Florida, enrolled in CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education). My supervisor had a saying he would use when we allowed someone else to get the best of us. He would say, "You gave your power away."
I think we do the same thing when we focus on those parts of our lives that are difficult, arduous, challenge us in the most profound ways. It's not that it's bad to think through the difficulties, but it is important where we stand when we do. Where do we focus from?
Let me make it more plain. When we look at our problems, challenges, and headaches, do we do it as beloved children of God? Those whom our Lord delights in? Or do we look at life as one who is about to get run over by it? I have found that simply changing my perspective changes my whole day. And often not just my experience of my day, but also the outcome of it as well.
There is a different kind of energy that flows out of me based upon my frame of reference. When I am conscious of my identity as God's beloved, I act upon the abundance of a Heavenly Father who loves me, and desires to love on me. I act confidently, knowing God has the answers so I don't have to. I act fearlessly, because my heart is full of joy and desire, leaving no room for fear. I a ct passionately, knowing that the passion of God's heart, living itself out through mine, will bring Life to my life. All of those assets that are so admired by the world--confidence, fearlessness, passion--begin to redefine my identity. The power of this redefinition is that its source has nothing to do with me at all. It is like a river that flows through me, originating in the imagination of God.
Who does God imagine you to be? How powerfully would this world be changed if we all allowed our focus settle exclusively on God's identity for our lives instead of our own? It is amazing to me that the transformation of the world resides simply in our focus. Wow.
Hope you have a great week!
Blessings,
Sami
Rev. Sami Wilson
Campus Minister/Director
WKU Wesley Foundation
1355 College St.
Bowling Green, KY 42101
(270) 842-2880
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
It's cold outside, again! (Wesley e-letter)
Dear Friends,
It is amazing to me that yesterday could be so (relatively) warm and today can be so
cold! Weather in Kentucky can change at a moments notice. Anyway, hope you are all
staying warm.
Speaking of staying warm, we are giving away Warm Fuzzies at DUC today (2-4pm) and
tomorrow (10a-2p). I even changed my picture to a Warm Fuzzy on Facebook to commemorate
the event. Be sure and pick yours up!
Remember tomorrow night SOLID ROCK CAFE'. We will be talking about "Listening to God." Specifically, how to tell whether it's God's voice or your own. Free food at 6:30pm. Love to see you there.
Now for Sami's Ramblings About Jesus:
This morning before my quiet time I found some songs I had written a couple of years ago before my oldest son was born. As I pondered them in the quietness of God's presence, it struck me that they still spoke truth to me. All of them were written as love songs to God. All of them speak of the power of God's presence. The funny thing is that they reflect those quiet, intimate moments with the Lord that are often hidden. These aren't mountain-top moments. They aren't blind-me-on-the-roadside moments. They are those simple times when life is ordinary and somehow an ordinary moment belongs to Him. And it's not even that special, as if God shows up in a noticable way. It is that ordinary moment that is given to Him.
I can hear in the songs the rythm of my life speaking. In one there is so much pain. And yet a repeating affirmation of faith answers: You, God, are there. In one there is that beginning awareness of God's closeness and a companion awareness of yearning to be His. In another there is a simple trust that speaks beyond circumstance: My heart and my life are safe in Your hands.
Where do you hear the rythm of your life speaking? I guess this experience brought forth for me that awareness that life, at its most basic, is a search for God, and living is being found in God. When everything "spiritual" is stripped away (that sense of being used by Him, the pride of serving Him, the fruit or growth that comes from Him, the elation of feeling close to Him, the compulsion of having to see Him) all that's left is simply Him. And in the grand scheme of things, that is enough. That simple Presence is enough to order my days, our days.
Now I like spiritual fireworks better than anybody. I like the rush of feeling God's power move through my life like a racing river. I love seeing Him work. I especially love being a part of His work. Yet I find in that hunger a spiritual greed that tends to take over. If I really had to choose, it's really His quiet closeness that I need more. Because it's really the only thing that sustains. Nothing else, not even the things of God, can take the place of God in our lives.
Gosh this is such a profound truth. It's like I hate it even as I write it. But I know it is true.
My most honest confession is, "I want the stuff of God." Yet God is so much more satisfying, ultimately, than all His stuff. Some spiritual guru, somewhere, sometime, said, "Seek the God of consolation rather than the consolation of God." I'm beginning to understand more what that means.
So here's the good news in all of this. While we cannot eat spiritual dessert all the time, we can be quite nourished and ultimately satisfied with the simplicity of just being His. And out of all that being, our lives begin to make sense. We begin to know peace. We begin to know, without having to be reminded every second, who we are and whose we are. And God's most important work is done then because no one gets to take the credit but Him.
Blessings,
Sami
Rev. Sami Wilson
Campus Minister/Director
WKU Wesley Foundation
1355 College St.
Bowling Green, KY 42101
(270) 842-2880
It is amazing to me that yesterday could be so (relatively) warm and today can be so
cold! Weather in Kentucky can change at a moments notice. Anyway, hope you are all
staying warm.
Speaking of staying warm, we are giving away Warm Fuzzies at DUC today (2-4pm) and
tomorrow (10a-2p). I even changed my picture to a Warm Fuzzy on Facebook to commemorate
the event. Be sure and pick yours up!
Remember tomorrow night SOLID ROCK CAFE'. We will be talking about "Listening to God." Specifically, how to tell whether it's God's voice or your own. Free food at 6:30pm. Love to see you there.
Now for Sami's Ramblings About Jesus:
This morning before my quiet time I found some songs I had written a couple of years ago before my oldest son was born. As I pondered them in the quietness of God's presence, it struck me that they still spoke truth to me. All of them were written as love songs to God. All of them speak of the power of God's presence. The funny thing is that they reflect those quiet, intimate moments with the Lord that are often hidden. These aren't mountain-top moments. They aren't blind-me-on-the-roadside moments. They are those simple times when life is ordinary and somehow an ordinary moment belongs to Him. And it's not even that special, as if God shows up in a noticable way. It is that ordinary moment that is given to Him.
I can hear in the songs the rythm of my life speaking. In one there is so much pain. And yet a repeating affirmation of faith answers: You, God, are there. In one there is that beginning awareness of God's closeness and a companion awareness of yearning to be His. In another there is a simple trust that speaks beyond circumstance: My heart and my life are safe in Your hands.
Where do you hear the rythm of your life speaking? I guess this experience brought forth for me that awareness that life, at its most basic, is a search for God, and living is being found in God. When everything "spiritual" is stripped away (that sense of being used by Him, the pride of serving Him, the fruit or growth that comes from Him, the elation of feeling close to Him, the compulsion of having to see Him) all that's left is simply Him. And in the grand scheme of things, that is enough. That simple Presence is enough to order my days, our days.
Now I like spiritual fireworks better than anybody. I like the rush of feeling God's power move through my life like a racing river. I love seeing Him work. I especially love being a part of His work. Yet I find in that hunger a spiritual greed that tends to take over. If I really had to choose, it's really His quiet closeness that I need more. Because it's really the only thing that sustains. Nothing else, not even the things of God, can take the place of God in our lives.
Gosh this is such a profound truth. It's like I hate it even as I write it. But I know it is true.
My most honest confession is, "I want the stuff of God." Yet God is so much more satisfying, ultimately, than all His stuff. Some spiritual guru, somewhere, sometime, said, "Seek the God of consolation rather than the consolation of God." I'm beginning to understand more what that means.
So here's the good news in all of this. While we cannot eat spiritual dessert all the time, we can be quite nourished and ultimately satisfied with the simplicity of just being His. And out of all that being, our lives begin to make sense. We begin to know peace. We begin to know, without having to be reminded every second, who we are and whose we are. And God's most important work is done then because no one gets to take the credit but Him.
Blessings,
Sami
Rev. Sami Wilson
Campus Minister/Director
WKU Wesley Foundation
1355 College St.
Bowling Green, KY 42101
(270) 842-2880
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Wesley Foundation E-letter, Methodist Campus Ministry
Dear Friends,
Hope you are all staying warm on this cold evening. The Super Bowl party was great fun Sunday night. For those who missed it, we will try to have another sports and chilli get together for the NCAA Basketball championship game. Come on down for another night of mayhem.
We are also beginning a new Ladies Bible Study. Meet at the Wesley Foundation at 11:30am on Thursdays.
Tonight at Solid Rock Cafe' we will be having hot food and good fun. We will be talking about listening to God. I mean, how is it possible to know what God wants for us and from us? Together we'll find out. Join us at 6:30pm at the Wesley Foundation.
Enough announcements.....
Now for Sami's Ramblings About Jesus:
Ever been lost? There's a hit TV show by that name. I don't know that I've ever been lost like that before, but immediately what comes to mind is shopping with my mother as a child. When I was a small girl, and even a teenager and college student, I loved to shop. And anytime my mother and I would go shopping (the mall, Wal-mart, wherever) I had a tendency to get pre-occupied with stuff she wasn't interested in. I would wander off, first just a few feet, being sure to keep her in sight. Then I would go a little farther. I would stay gone a little longer. And then before I knew it, she was no where in sight, and I couldn't find her. I can still feel that pit of the stomach sickness that would kick in the moment I realized I was . . . . lost.
Yes, these were the days before cell phones.
How many of us could say, "Been there; done that"? It's so easy to get lost. It just takes the lure of a minute second of diverted attention, the itch to just check something out, the hook of becoming engrossed, and then the sickening realization that finding one's way back is more than difficult; it begins to look and feel impossible. It happens in so many different ways, times, and places. It even happens to responsible individuals. It even happens to persons of faith. It can happen anytime we wander off and take our focus away from where it is supposed to be.
Rather than focus on the many ways we wander off, I want to encourage us to think of the One who is always ready to find us. Back in the day, my mom didn't always know where to find me. Sometimes I'd be in Wal-mart and hear my name on the loudspeaker. But God always knows right where we are, even when we think we've wandered off from Him. It's true that we can so run away with our choices that it is hard for us to think about Him, much less see His presence in our lives. But even if we are lost from God, God is never lost from us.
The thing that gives me hope more than anything else is the realization that God sees us and He wants to connect with us. All I have to do to experience this is to stop running from Him, and to start running to him. To begin to make different choices about how I spend my time, who I spend it with. It is really as simple as redirecting my gaze to Him. One of the most powerful statements of this truth came on the night we went to see Maya Angelou speak last semester. After she was raped as a child, she chose not to speak for many years. But then one day she dared to speak so that the poetry she loved so much could come alive. This is what she said about that day: "I found that I had left my voice, but my voice did not leave me." All she had to do to reclaim that lost part of herself was to speak again.
Just like all we have to do be found is to stop running away and start looking for the Lord, because He is always looking at us. (Since He never loses us, He never has to look for us.) I love that part of Psalm 23 that says, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life." Goodness and mercy do follow us as surely as the eyes of the Lord follow us every step we take. And if we just stop walking away from them, they bump right into us. How painfully God longs to embrace us with love, and yet we seldom let Him. We think if He follows us at all it is with retribution. Really He is following us with love and longing, wanting only to heal us of the wounds we found in lostness.
My friends, join me in not being lost anymore. Let's just be found. By God. And His amazing goodness.
Blessings,
Sami
Rev. Sami Wilson
Campus Minister/Director
WKU Wesley Foundation
1355 College St.
Bowling Green, KY 42101
(270) 842-2880
Hope you are all staying warm on this cold evening. The Super Bowl party was great fun Sunday night. For those who missed it, we will try to have another sports and chilli get together for the NCAA Basketball championship game. Come on down for another night of mayhem.
We are also beginning a new Ladies Bible Study. Meet at the Wesley Foundation at 11:30am on Thursdays.
Tonight at Solid Rock Cafe' we will be having hot food and good fun. We will be talking about listening to God. I mean, how is it possible to know what God wants for us and from us? Together we'll find out. Join us at 6:30pm at the Wesley Foundation.
Enough announcements.....
Now for Sami's Ramblings About Jesus:
Ever been lost? There's a hit TV show by that name. I don't know that I've ever been lost like that before, but immediately what comes to mind is shopping with my mother as a child. When I was a small girl, and even a teenager and college student, I loved to shop. And anytime my mother and I would go shopping (the mall, Wal-mart, wherever) I had a tendency to get pre-occupied with stuff she wasn't interested in. I would wander off, first just a few feet, being sure to keep her in sight. Then I would go a little farther. I would stay gone a little longer. And then before I knew it, she was no where in sight, and I couldn't find her. I can still feel that pit of the stomach sickness that would kick in the moment I realized I was . . . . lost.
Yes, these were the days before cell phones.
How many of us could say, "Been there; done that"? It's so easy to get lost. It just takes the lure of a minute second of diverted attention, the itch to just check something out, the hook of becoming engrossed, and then the sickening realization that finding one's way back is more than difficult; it begins to look and feel impossible. It happens in so many different ways, times, and places. It even happens to responsible individuals. It even happens to persons of faith. It can happen anytime we wander off and take our focus away from where it is supposed to be.
Rather than focus on the many ways we wander off, I want to encourage us to think of the One who is always ready to find us. Back in the day, my mom didn't always know where to find me. Sometimes I'd be in Wal-mart and hear my name on the loudspeaker. But God always knows right where we are, even when we think we've wandered off from Him. It's true that we can so run away with our choices that it is hard for us to think about Him, much less see His presence in our lives. But even if we are lost from God, God is never lost from us.
The thing that gives me hope more than anything else is the realization that God sees us and He wants to connect with us. All I have to do to experience this is to stop running from Him, and to start running to him. To begin to make different choices about how I spend my time, who I spend it with. It is really as simple as redirecting my gaze to Him. One of the most powerful statements of this truth came on the night we went to see Maya Angelou speak last semester. After she was raped as a child, she chose not to speak for many years. But then one day she dared to speak so that the poetry she loved so much could come alive. This is what she said about that day: "I found that I had left my voice, but my voice did not leave me." All she had to do to reclaim that lost part of herself was to speak again.
Just like all we have to do be found is to stop running away and start looking for the Lord, because He is always looking at us. (Since He never loses us, He never has to look for us.) I love that part of Psalm 23 that says, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life." Goodness and mercy do follow us as surely as the eyes of the Lord follow us every step we take. And if we just stop walking away from them, they bump right into us. How painfully God longs to embrace us with love, and yet we seldom let Him. We think if He follows us at all it is with retribution. Really He is following us with love and longing, wanting only to heal us of the wounds we found in lostness.
My friends, join me in not being lost anymore. Let's just be found. By God. And His amazing goodness.
Blessings,
Sami
Rev. Sami Wilson
Campus Minister/Director
WKU Wesley Foundation
1355 College St.
Bowling Green, KY 42101
(270) 842-2880
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