Hey there! I am still so pumped up about last night's big cookout. Wow! It was so cool to sit outside
on the front porch and talk and eat free food. Thanks to everyone who came by!
Tomorrow night (Thursday) we are eating at 6:30pm. State St. UMC is providing food, and Broadway UMC is
coming to lead us in worship (7:30pm). I am so excited! You know how on Sunday mornings the praise band
will only do three songs? I always feel like I'm just getting warmed up when all the music is over.
Well, for worship tomorrow night, we are spending a whole hour in worship! Louis has 13 songs lined up.
Yeah! So come and get lost in praising God. It will be awesome.
Reminder—If you are going on our Fall Retreat (October 19-21) to camp Loucon, you need to get a $25
deposit (total cost $50) to me this week!
NOW FOR SAMI'S RAMBLING ABOUT JESUS:
I think one of the most elusive qualities about life in today's culture is joy. So much of life in so
many different sectors is full of stress, striving, competition, and general anxiety. I see it when I
talk to students, professors, people in the work force, moms who stay at home, church folk, secular folk,
every kind of folk. Everyone seems stretched thin to breaking. And no one seems to have time for joy.
Or real community.
For me the two really go hand in hand. Perhaps that's why last night's cookout on our front porch was so
edifying. There was no agenda. There was no schedule. There was simply food and friendship being
offered to anyone who would take it. And in the laughter and simple community that was shared, my heart
felt light and joyful.
I love just being together without having to accomplish anything, simply appreciating the company of the
person(s) one is with. I often wonder if that is what Jesus experienced as He walked among the throngs
of people gathered to together to taste something of the Kingdom of God that He brought with Him. I
wonder if that is why the disciples stayed with Him morning, noon, and night, forsaking an old way of
life that no longer satisfied. It seems a Christ-like community transforms one's experience of the world
in profound ways. Life together, sharing the Holy Spirit, saturated with God's love, is satisfying in
the deepest ways. And the joy one lives with in that kind of community changes everything. It brings
with it the courage to step out as a new kind of being: a human being who for the sake of Joy runs with
perseverance the race of life, following the example of Christ and trusting in His Holy Spirit to keep
him or her following.
It's why hanging out at the Wesley Foundation is a spiritual exercise, even if we aren't doing
anything "religious." When we are together, and the Spirit of the living God permeates the spaces we
live in, we are transformed. And that transformation changes the world as we step out into it.
So I wish for you my friends joy and community. That you may have the courage to live boldly in a world
that does not understand either one. So that you may have the courage to be transformed and then to
transform every other place you go.
Hoping,
Sami
Rev. Sami Wilson
Campus Minister/Director
WKU Wesley Foundation
1355 College St.
Bowling Green, KY 42101
(270) 842-2880
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