Be a child today! Wesley Foundation E-letter (Methodist Student Center)

 

Dear Friends,

 

Hope you are doing well this fine October day.  It seems to be too hot to be Autumn, but the trees have begun to change and fall is in the air, even if only briefly.  We do have some fun things going on this week, so take a look!

 

Tonight is worship at 6:30 pm.  Come and join us!

 

Thursday we will be having a cookout and movie night on South Lawn!  This will be so much fun.  We will gather around 5pm, grill some burgers and dogs, watch some fun and frivolous movies, listen to Kyle and Justin play their guitars, and generally unwind and relax. 

 

Fall Retreat is this weekend.  Gather at the Wesley Foundation on Friday at 4pm.  We will have all kinds of outdoor adventures.  And some sweet relaxation Jesus time too.  Go deep!  Go bold!  Go to Loucon!  Cost is $40, which can be paid this weekend.  Financial help is available if needed.  Don’t let the cost keep you from going!  Please email me if you are interested in joining us.  I do have several openings available.

 

Now for Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

Yesterday I drove to Nashville to see my spiritual director.  It is one of those monthly pilgrimages I make to keep my spirit.  To keep it in all manner of senses.  Like to keep it so I don’t lose it.  To keep it so I remember it’s there.  To keep it, as in upkeep and maintaining its vitality.  To keep it fresh and available.  To keep it as sacred space in the craziness of my life.  It’s my way of remembering my first call, to be a child of God, that is the foundation for every other call upon my life.  Sometimes I get them confused.

 

Yesterday in particular I needed that reminder, that I am a child of God.  Not a servant of God (although I do earnestly try to serve Him).  But a child.  His child.  I should have had a clue that I was forgetting this last week when someone said something about giving the message, “God loves you,” to people and as I heard it tears filled my eyes.  I know so keenly how deeply He loves everybody else.  I forget so easily that He loves me, that I am included in His love.

 

And so I made my pilgrimage to Nashville, the Mecca of Methodism, the home of my spiritual director.  We spoke as we often do of balance.  Usually I come in with a hunger for silence and a deep complaint from my heart that there just hasn’t been enough.  But yesterday was different.  I had been regular about quiet times, attentive to God’s Holy Spirit leading, seeing God unfold His plan in a way only He could do.  The problem was not about being more “spiritual.”  It was in fact about being more of a child.  In a moment of recognition I finally realized God was not asking for more and harder work.  He was asking me to play.

 

Here these words of wisdom from writer Michael Joseph: 

 

We live in a serious world.  For too many of us, work is competitively cut-throat, social expectations are high, parenting is a burden, and marriage is a project.  Religion is solemn and our “recreation” is largely of the spectator variety.  If this isn’t enough, we project our success-driven and labor-based ethic onto children, pressuring them—albeit inadvertently—to learn, achieve, and succeed almost from infancy.  Is it any wonder that we become bored, tire, and frustrated by life and our children become candidates for depression at an early age?

 

Why do we live this way?  Is it perhaps because we’ve forgotten the importance of play?  We stake too much of our personal value and dignity on what we do and accomplish.  We overorganize and overanalyze our lives.  In the process we forget that life is a gift as well as a task.  If we are to enjoy this gift and truly live our lives, we’d best learn to play authentically once again.

 

From ­Play Therapy

 

By simply changing some of the scenarios, this so perfectly depicts the pressures and obligations of college life.  Everyone seems over analyzed and over organized.  We all need a break and are deathly afraid of taking one.  Now I am all for responsibility.  So please do, be responsible.  Turn in your assignments.  Be a good student.  But in the midst of it all don’t forget to get some fresh air.  Take a break.  Laugh.  Practice the spiritual discipline of joy.  God’s word for it is Sabbath.  It is so important He made it one of the top ten.  And we reap the consequences from disregarding this commandment as much as when we break the other nine.  Is it any wonder we are a prozac nation? 

 

You are God’s precious child.  He wants you to know that.  He wants you to rest in His goodness.  He wants you to trust Him.  And learning to enjoy life as gift is a true act of faith.  As Michael Joseph says, “Consider playfulness as a gift from heaven.  After all, only people with faith can play.  Others must work and worry.” 

 

So take time to love and laugh.  Take time to enjoy the life God has given you with a childlike heart.  Play.  And enjoy by entering into the joy of the One who gave your life to you.

 

“Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these’” (Matthew 19:14).

 

This is me trusting,

 

Sami

 

 

 

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Sami Wilson

Campus Minister/Director

WKU Wesley Foundation

United Methodist Campus Ministry

270-842-2880

sami.wilson@wku.edu