Monday, February 23, 2009

The Difference Between Tutors and Tooties--Wesley Foundation E-letter (Methodist Campus Ministry)

Dear friends,

 

Hope all is well with you this week!  This week begins the season of Lent, the 40 days (not including Sunday’s) leading up to Easter.  Lent has traditionally been a time to focus on turning our whole attention to Christ, to actively create space in our lives where this is possible (especially where it has not been before), and to listen intently to what He would say to us as we prepare for the celebration of Easter, Christ’s death on the cross and His resurrection.  This week we will be offering an opportunity to offer yourself to God in a new way, to consecrate more of who you are to more of who He is.  I hope you will join in this journey of preparation.  It will be a total blessing!

 

With that in mind here are the activities this week:

 

Tuesday Worship—6:30pm, we will look at the Belt of Truth, especially how it relates to Jesus’ time of temptation in the desert. 

 

Wednesday, Special Ash Wednesday Service—Noon in our chapel!  Come and receive the imposition of ashes.  We will prepare our hearts together  for this time of consecration!

 

Thursday Free Meal & Program—6:30pm, we will look at how life can so easily become like the soil on the path, as well as what to do when that happens!

 

Ladies Groups:  Wed. 1:30pm / Thurs. 3pm

Men’s Group:  Thurs. 5:30pm

 

 

Now For Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

I live in a testosterone zone.  I am married to a wonderful man and also have two small sons.  Clearly I am outnumbered three to one.  The thing about being around boys all the time (and college students by the way) is that humor can often be very earthy, especially when it comes to bodily functions.  Passing gas is very much a moment of triumph and humor at my house, especially for my two year old.  We will be sitting in a room, hear a tell-tale noise, smell the tell-tale smell, and know that somebody “tooted.”  Isaiah will often say, with much enthusiasm, “I did it!”

 

One afternoon I was picking my boys up at their grandmother’s house.  I had just arrived and walked into the kitchen where my 12 year old niece was explaining that she had spent the afternoon helping one of her schoolmates with his work.  It was a proud moment when she explained to Nanny that she had been his tutor.  Isaiah was in the same room as well, and every time she said the word tutor, he would bust out laughing.  It took us a little while, but I finally figured out that he thought she was talking about passing gas.  He thought it was hysterical!

 

I can’t help wondering how many times we are trying to share with someone about our faith or trying to tell an unbeliever about Jesus and the results turn out the same?  We are trying to be helpful, like a tutor, seeking to share the knowledge that brings God’s life and goodness to those who need it, and instead they respond as if we are smelly, like a tootie, which is really all about hot air.  There were many times when I was a teenager that a friend would try to convince me I needed to be “saved” (apparently they thought infant baptism didn’t count), and I came away feeling less like I had received good news and more like I never wanted to speak with that person again.  Which also created quite a dilemma when I too felt led to share my faith with someone else:  I really didn’t want to stink up the place and turn them off instead of turning them on to a relationship with Christ.

 

What I have learned since then is that good news only has its source in the only One who is truly good.  Consider the following scene as it unfolded for the first people to really share God’s good news:

 

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.  And suddenly from heaven there came a sound lik the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.  Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.  Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.  And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.  Amazed and astonished they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?  And how is it that we hear each of us, in our own native language?  . . . .  in  our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power” (Acts 2:1-13).

 

The Holy Spirit, which is God’s power and presence with us, gave them everything they needed to speak the word of truth to those who needed to hear it, and who were also vastly different from them.  So what I have learned, and what I have witnessed in my own life, is that the Spirit of God makes the message of God clear in a language the hearer can understand.  On that day it had a lot to do with literal languages.  I think that is still true, but I also believe that today it has as much to do with different generations, different cultures, different experiences, different everything.  Each one of us hears differently, for all kinds of reasons.  It takes the wisdom and power of God to translate His good news into truly good news for all of us.  We each hear differently; we need God to translate His Holy Word into our difference.  We may still not accept it, but at least then we can understand it. 

 

So this Lent, it is my prayer that God will fill us with the power of His Holy Spirit, just like Jesus came out of the wilderness filled with the power of the Spirit, so that we can truly convey the good news of Christ’s death and resurrection to people who need to experience it so badly.  If we try to do it without Him, even though our intentions might be good, our results will smell.  And who wants to be smelly when we can be the aroma of Christ?  May God’s grace and goodness help us to become tutors of His Holy Word.  And may we receive all the help we can get, especially in all the ways we try to give it.

 

This is me hoping,

 

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

 

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

You're Beautiful! Wesley Foundation E-Letter (United Methodist Campus Ministry)

Dear Friends,

 

Hope all of you are doing well!  I look forward to getting to see you this week.  We are back on our regular schedule this week:

 

Worship Tonight @ 6:30pm at Wesley

 

Thursday night free meal & program @ 6:30pm at Wesley

 

Ladies Groups:

 

Wednesday @ 1:30pm

Thursday @ 3pm

 

We begin a new series of messages tonight based on Ephesians 6, being clothed in the armor of God.  Come and experience God’s grace in giving you everything you need to meet the challenges of your everyday life.  And Thursday we will experience “Spontaneous Melodrama.”  I am so excited!  It’s going to be great!

 

Now For Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

Last night after giving baths my boys and I sat down to color.  I told them that if they were good while they took their baths I would teach them how to draw butterflies.  We had great fun, and I re-discovered a part of me that has been neglected for awhile:  the artist inside.  I like making things.  I like to draw and color.  I like to sew.  I like to give expression to the pictures I see in my head, and then see them take shape as something pretty to hold in my hands.  I love seeing that vision come to life.

 

I think this is how God is, the One who spoke all of creation into being.  One of my very favorite scriptures is from Psalm 139: 

 

For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.  My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth (vs 13-15).

 

I can imagine God at the beginning of every life, watching it unfold, working through the process of growth even while a child is in its momma’s belly, choosing how the genes will fit together and express themselves, shaping and forming every part, seeing the totality of the life within His grasp, present and future, personality and body, spirit and mind, all coming together as a tangible expression of His creative love.  How cool is it that God is intimately and intricately involved in every part of our coming to life?  I can’t imagine God looking at any human being alive without a deep sense of joy and longing; joy because the vision of that person has become tangible, longing because each one of us has free will and may or may not choose to be in relationship with the One who made us.  Of course He longs for us.

 

I can’t help thinking about this creative labor of love that God gives whenever I reflect on the visitor who stood on the steps of DUC last week.  I’m not quite sure I can name his purpose for being there.  I suppose he felt called to expose and name the sin that enfolds many college campuses.  He argued forcefully with many who stopped to listen to his rampage, having their comments rebuffed with his determinations about their spiritual status.  Many came away feeling condemned by this man.  I hope and pray they didn’t come away feeling condemned by God.  “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17).  I just feel in my heart that this man did not communicate the longing that God feels in His heart for His children who are not connected to Him, whose lives are somehow missing the fulfillment, the fullness, that He wanted to bring forth when He created them in the first place.  I just know that when God looks at us, He sees His labor of love.  Certainly it pains Him to see us living in brokenness and sin.  But He also understands why we are broken, how we got that way, and especially the tender mercy of Jesus Christ that heals us so that we can choose well, so that we can choose Him.  Jesus took all that condemnation to the cross so we would bear it no more.  It is His gift to us.  He has removed everything from us that could separate us from the God who created us.  When God looks at each one of us He sees the child He made and loves.  And even before we see it ourselves, He sees the magnificent being, mature and complete, that He created us to be.

 

Thursday night after experiencing an amazing day of sharing God’s love through warm fuzzies (200 feet down from the guy with fuzzy purposes) and an amazing night of prayer, I had a dream.  In my dream people were lining up to receive a revelation from God, but the person sharing it said they must be spanked to learn a lesson in submission.  As I stood looking at these persons standing in line to be beaten, something within me broke and began to say passionately to the pastor, “You can’t do this!  You don’t understand, these persons have been abused!”  I knew that they would connect the abuse of their past to this “lesson in submission.”  I knew it had to be stopped.  That’s all I remember from that dream, but it’s message is clear.  Coming to know the God who made you is not a fearful and degrading thing; it is a joyful and life-giving thing.  God does not sanction any abuse, including religious:  “They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord” (Isaiah 65:25).  Even His judgment is filled with love, always wanting to redeem and fulfill that initial creative impulse that made your birth His tangible expression of Divine Love.

 

So I don’t care if your life is filled with sin, you are still beautiful to me because you are a child of God.  Where I see you hurting I hurt.  Where poor judgments keep your heart and life broken, I weep for and with you.  But God’s Love always sees you through the redemptive power of Jesus Christ.  When God looks at you He sees the Love that gave you life in the first place, and the promise and possibility of Christ’s love fulfilling that life within you.  You are precious to me and especially to Him.

 

This is me hoping,

 

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

 

Thursday, February 05, 2009

Chili Prayers--Wesley Foundation E-letter (Methodist Campus Ministry)

Dear Friends,

 

I hope you are staying warm in all of this cold weather!  If you want a ride to the Wesley Foundation just call 270-842-2880 thirty minutes before we meet and someone will come and pick you up!  Also, this should warm your insides:  We were able to give $94.11 from our student offerings to help people who are still suffering from the winter storm.  I know many of your families remain without power.  We pray God’s protection and help for them.

 

Tonight is our FREE MEAL and program.  It will be lots of fun.  The food is always good.  So join us at 6:30pm.  Next week we will be in DUC for our Valentine’s outreach to campus giving away warm fuzzies.  Come and find out how you can be a blessing!

 

Now For Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

Last Sunday night we had our annual Superbowl party at the Wesley.  We also had some special guests join us (hi Justin and Beth!).  It was a wonderful time of fellowship and fun.  And the game was so exciting even I got into it!  Like most events in life, it took some preparation.  And as I began that afternoon to brown the beef for our chili feast, my heart began to think fondly of those who would be consuming the very thing I was in the midst of cooking. 

 

I think all things in life can be holy when offered to the Lord, because the Lord is always near.  On a plaque at a retreat house I often visited in Florida were these words:  “Bidden or un-bidden, God is present.”  How true.  There isn’t anywhere He is not.  Psalm 139 puts it this way: 

 

Where can I go from your spirit?  Or where can I flee from your presence?  If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.  If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.  (Psalm 139: 7-10)

 

And even when we exert all kinds of energy to go to places He is not, even then our efforts are wasted because He is still there.  How much better then to give up running and simply welcome the inevitable; let Him join us where we are, even as we are. 

 

I think one of the biggest reasons people run from God is because they expect Him to try and squash them.  Kind of like the new reality show called  “Wipe Out,” they think God is just waiting for an opportunity to wipe them out and knock them off of their feet for all the ways they haven’t been able to live up to what they think are His expectations.  I remember in high school English having to read a sermon by Jonathan Edwards called “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”  In high school I think I believed it.  But since then, as I have gotten to know the Lord in a very personal way, I have discovered Him to be nothing like that at all.  I have found that God is funny and gentle, tender and wise, mischievous and good, constant and persistent, steadfast and patient, creative and comforting, new and challenging, unrelenting and stubborn, consistent and expectant, hopeful and helpful, generous and courteous, everywhere and intimate, knowledge giving and mysterious, loving and leading, inviting and welcoming, sending and commissioning, quiet and consuming.

 

So I stood at my stove top making chili, thinking fondly of those who were about to eat it, thinking fondly of the Lord, and I began to pray that all who eat would be fed with God’s love, even as they would be fed with ground beef, tomatoes, beans, and spices.  And just as that chili would give nutrients to sustain, I prayed that the Love of God would make its way all through their lives giving strength and guidance where it is needed most.  God is as present to us as chili in our stomachs.  And the pervasive love of God works its way into our lives in ways we are totally unconscious of, making ripples of impact the way the co-centric circles of water ripple forth from a stone’s throw.  Often we only hear the stone drop and think the event is over.  We rarely are patient enough to see water lapping gently against the shore. 

 

And so here is to chili prayers and a Superbowl party, a holy event in the life of our ministry.  Jesus chose a party to perform His first miracle.  And those who received it were barely conscious of the grace that had just changed their lives forever.  In the same way our precious Lord still shows up at parties.  And He still transforms ordinary things into miracles of grace.  May His chili blessings be with you always.  (Just not the indigestion!)  And may you know that you never have to run from God’s love.  His love is everything your are trying to run to.

 

This is me hoping,

 

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