The Gift of Now--Wesley Foundation E-Letter (Methodist Campus Ministry)

Dear Friends,

 

Hope all of you are having a great day, and staying warm!  The weather changes so fast around here.  Before you know it we will be in heavy coats! 

 

Here is fun stuff coming up:

 

Thursday night is our regular meal and program at 6:30pm.  This will be your opportunity to share what the Wesley Foundation means to you with members of our Board of Directors.  It will also give them an opportunity to ask questions about your experience here as a student.  We will also spend some time getting ready for our Outreach program that we will do on Sunday afternoon.

 

This Sunday is our annual Thanksgiving Banquet and Outreach Program.  Please invite your families.  We will be eating a meal together as well as sharing a message of God’s grace that centers around the story of the prodigal.  Meet at the Wesley Foundation at 3:30.  Our meal will be potluck style featuring soup and appetizers. 

 

Each Christmas the Wesley Foundation takes on a project that supports a special need in our community.  This year we will be adopting the Pregnancy Support Center as a way of helping out new mothers in difficult circumstances.  Here is the cool thing:  Next week bring $5 - $10 to the Wesley on Thursday night.  We will pool everyone’s money and go shopping for baby items together!  During dinner a representative from the Pregnancy Support Center will be sharing with us about the ministry they provide to new mothers who need help, and we will have a time of prayer for this ministry and those lives it touches.  This is a wonderful way to celebrate Jesus’ birth by bringing a celebration to those who wouldn’t have one otherwise!

 

Now For Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

As I was running this morning I couldn’t help thinking about the last few months at my house.  Slowly I have been letting go of, giving away, all of the accumulated baby stuff from Noah and Isaiah’s first days and months.  I gotta say it has been hard.  Each time I would load something up, my heart would hurt.  Each box has been one more reminder that a season, a very special season, is over. 

 

But something else has been happening with every box that leaves.  We have more room in our house.  And I am finding that something significant is happening spiritually that mirrors what has happened physically.  Relinquishing the physical reminders of the past has made more room in my heart to embrace what is now.  This morning as we were watching “Cars” for the millionth time, Isaiah just reached over and hugged me.  I relished that precious moment.  And in a split second I realized that there would be a time when I would long for today, just as I sometimes long for those baby days.  It made me want to really be present to this “today” moment, and let nothing, not even fond memories of the past, hinder me from living it fully and joyfully now.

 

I think this is such an important principle for college students.  In this life you live so much is happening so fast.  And every six months your day to day circumstances change with your class schedule.  It can be so easy to wish for days gone by, or to long for days to come.  If you aren’t careful you have wished and longed your whole college career away without really enjoying any of it.  But when you really relish each day, soaking up the gift that it has to give, I believe the special-ness it has to impart stays with you a long after the moment is gone.

 

This is one of those foundational truths that apply everywhere.  Even in ministry.  God’s in-breaking presence is so constant that every moment is a new moment to connect with Him.  And Jesus continues to incarnate Himself (that is to become flesh) every day through brothers and sisters in Christ who allow Him access to their lives.  Truly His followers make Him manifest over and over again, every moment.  And so, while it is good to remember what God has done in our midst before, to learn from it and allow it to make us wise, we cannot become so enamored of the God thing that was that we miss the God thing that is. 

 

This is what it looks like for me in those quiet moments that I share just with Him:  I offer Him my heart, here and now, just as I am.  I ask Him to make me aware of where He is today, and that He would order my steps in this day so that I am a part of His Life unfolding within mine.  I just don’t want to miss Him.  He is everything to me.  And I trust that where He leads is definitely a place worth going.

 

So my dear friends who are also a part of His Life unfolding within you, I want to challenge you to be present to the God thing that is now.  Appreciate what has been, learn from it, cherish it, and let it be held in God’s hands.  But keep your own hand free to receive the gift of today.  You will be so happy you did!

 

This is me trusting,

 

Sami

 

 

To subscribe or unsubscribe to the Wesley Foundation Weekly E-Letter List go to:

http://lists.wku.edu/mailman/listinfo/wesley

 

Sami Wilson

Campus Minister/Director

WKU Wesley Foundation

United Methodist Campus Ministry

270-842-2880

sami.wilson@wku.edu

 

Dear Friends,

 

I hope all of you got a chance to vote yesterday.  It was truly a day of historic proportions.  Whether it was a woman in the White House or the election of an African American as our president, both outcomes make history.  Last week in my University Experience class we watched Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech.  Regardless of who you voted for, yesterday’s election makes me hope that Dr. King’s dream is closer to a reality.  And as one of my students shared in our small group today, even if you didn’t vote for him, our new president elect needs our prayers.  So please join me in praying on behalf of our our country, its government and its leaders:  “Our Father in Heaven, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

 

Thursday night we have our free meal and program.  We eat at 6:30pm and then afterwards we will be looking at the story of the prodigal son.  We will spend time creating skits to illustrate this truth in a fresh new way.  The best skit will be used in our Outreach ministry next spring.

 

Also, we will be having our annual Thanksgiving Banquet on Sunday, November 16^th at 3:30pm.  This is a special time when we invite all parents and friends to come to Wesley Foundation and join us for a special meal and program.   This year will be a soup and appetizer potluck.  Our Outreach ministry will provide the program and afterward we will eat.  Please let me know how many of your family will be attending! 

 

Now For Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

Sometimes in my quiet time I take out an old journal and peruse its pages.  Sometimes I am looking for something specific because a current experience mirrors a previous one, and I know God gave me wisdom before that could be beneficial now.  Sometimes I am completely led by a nudge that says, “Look here,” or “read this.”  Sometimes I stand amazed at how deftly God weaves together a message to sooth my heart when I least expect it.

 

So I open up to 11/29/01.  Here’s what I find:

 

Dear Father, I long for You, and in my longing faith and doubt dance, each engaging the other at deeper levels until the two collapse in exhaustion and all that is left is silence.  Father, the call to intimate connection with You is constant, yet it comes so quietly.  What does connection with You mean?  We are together, Your life filling up my life, my life utterly dependent upon Yours to be sustained.  I am ashamed of how easily my attention is diverted.  Yet You are constant.  I reach for You beyond feelings.  You are here.  You love me.  You are working on my behalf.  You are within me bringing forth the new life I prayed for.  My waiting is not in vain; it will be fulfilled.  I am Yours.  I trust You.  You are all of those things which I am not.  Perfect in wisdom.  Perfect in love.  Perfect in mercy.  Perfect in forgiveness.  You are everything good and pure and whole.

 

The thing I love about old age is the perspective of time, and the gentle gift of wisdom that comes.  On that day in November so many years ago, I was heart sick over my own poverty and confusion.  I felt so lost in my own brokenness.  Today I can see how gently God’s mercy healed the broken parts of me, and I am so thankful.  But believe it or not (and those of you who know me well believe it) I am still very poor in spirit, and still have moments when I am confused.  At that time in my life I assumed that maturing in God would fix those things, that magically I would become a different kind of person. 

 

Well what I can say is that God’s mercy has healed my broken-heartedness in ways I could not have imagined.  And yet God’s healing has not changed me into some other kind of person.  Instead, God’s mercy has taught me the all-sufficiency of His love applied to my need.  So now instead of being discouraged or distraught by my deep need of Him, I simply bring those feelings with me to prayer and tell Him all about it.  And I do it with an expectation that He will be able to bring something beautiful out of my deep need.  He has done it time and time before:  my desperation is nothing compared to His ability and desire to redeem it.  He always brings something good out of my pain and ineptness.  I am so convinced of His ability to use my weakness for His glory that I no longer worry that weakness is often the only thing I really have to offer.  I may not be impressive by any standards.  Just trusting. 

 

This is the scripture that challenges and sustains me:  “Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.  They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream.  It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit” (Jeremiah 17:7-8).  And here is why I share it:  I know many of you have faith and doubt dancing within you even as you read these words.  In fact it may feel less like a dance and more like a wrestling match, each one struggling to topple the other.  And instead of collapsing, the two are colliding, making a shambles of your inner life.  “What inner life?” you say.  I know.  Sometimes the noise and confusion becomes so unbearable that it is easier to drown out the struggle by ignoring it, plugging in the iPod, becoming buried in Facebook, or texting incessantly on the iPhone.  Yet there in that deep part of you the grace of God is speaking.  God’s word to your heart is, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakeness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). 

 

So be encouraged dear ones.  God loves you and is ready to take everything you offer Him and transform it by His glory.  Whatever that burden on your heart is, when you allow Him unmitigated access to it, He changes it and builds His kingdom through it.  You can trust Him to fulfill it.  Just like the song says:  “Something beautiful, something good.  All my confusion, He understood.  All I had to offer Him, was brokenness and strife, but He made something beautiful of my life.”

 

This is me trusting,

 

Sami 

 

 

To subscribe or unsubscribe to the Wesley Foundation Weekly E-Letter List go to:

http://lists.wku.edu/mailman/listinfo/wesley

 

Sami Wilson

Campus Minister/Director

WKU Wesley Foundation

United Methodist Campus Ministry

270-842-2880

sami.wilson@wku.edu