Chocolate Goodness--A Feast of Love. Wesley E-letter (Methodist Campus Ministry)

Hey you guys!  Hope everyone is doing well.  It’s the week of Halloween and so much is happening!  Here is what’s going on around here:

 

Tonight—Worship @ 6:30pm.  Our message will focus on how we can overcome fear in our lives.  There really is a way to not be ruled by it.  Come and see how God has a plan to give you freedom from every nagging worry, anxiety, and fearful thing in your life.

 

TRUNK OR TREAT!!!! –This is so cool!  I am so excited about it.  We will be on South Lawn handing out candy to everyone passing by tomorrow (Wednesday) from 11am till 4pm.  Come and help us spread the love, the chocolate Jesus love.  Woo Hoo!  Feel free to dress up.  This is our way of being a vessel of God’s grace for our campus, but more about that later.  Come and be blessed by blessing others!

 

Thursday—SPOOK DINNER!!!!  6:30pm @ Wesley.  I have the menu; it will be good.  We will be giving away prizes for best male & female costumes.  We will also have karaoke afterwards.  I even bought a new Kareoke CD that has recent music on it.  No longer are you confined to singing 80’s songs.  This is a great time to bring a friend!

 

Now For Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

Timing is everything.  And as I get closer to my due date I seem to be even more obsessed with it.  With my belly expanding, I feel like I have to be ready for anything.  And for the most part I am.  I have been preparing like a crazy woman.  It’s also got me thinking, all this preparation stuff.

 

I can’t help but think of when Jesus was born and all the preparations that Mary went through.  I’m sure His timing was a surprise.  It makes me wonder if he came early; certainly it was unexpected.  Who in their right minds would plan on being out of town when their baby was due, with no place to stay, finally winding up in a barn with all the animals?  Those newborn babes just have minds of their own.  They come when they want to, and everyone around them just has to be ready and deal with it.

 

We will soon be in the season of Advent (which means coming), the time of the Christian year that precedes Christmas.  It is when we prepare our hearts once again to celebrate the coming of Christ as a baby.  But one of the more overlooked themes of the season is preparing for the second advent of Christ, when Jesus returns.  He will not return as a baby but in the fullness of His glory.  His majesty will not be hidden in the frailty of human flesh, for we will see Him riding in on the clouds and clothed in the power of His majesty.  This is the part of Advent I have been pondering.  This is the part where my preparations for Jeremiah’s birth ring most true as reminder:  Am I prepared to see the triumphant Christ return to earth in His glory?  And what exactly does glory mean?  And why in this season of Halloween am I thinking about something that is related to Christmas anyway?

 

Maybe it’s the “Hell-Fire & Brimstone” connotations related to Christ’s return that have me thinking about it during Halloween.  But one of the things you learn about me really quickly is I’m not exactly a “Hell-Fire & Brimstone” kind of girl.  I am so firmly convinced of the unrelenting, all-consuming, perfectly transforming, jealously pursuing, unquenchably demanding, incomprehensibly penetrating, powerfully equipping, exquisitely encouraging, gently leading, intimately connecting, tenderly correcting, wholly healing power of God’s love, revealed perfectly and indelibly through His incarnate Son Jesus Christ.  So when I think of Jesus returning, I don’t think of gloom and doom, I think of something glorious, unquenchable, and undeniable.  I think of Love fully revealed, as Jesus, shining in the brightness of God’s love, undiluted by the deception of darkness and radiating with Truth and Light.  This is the glory of a glorious return!  Holy?  Oh Yes!  Beyond what you or I can even imagine.  Will we fall on our faces in worship?  Oh Yeah!  Will we see the truth of who we are in the Light of Who He Is?  Of course.  But our trembling for those of us who belong to Him will be filled with joy.  We will be reunited to the One our hearts have been longing for all along.  And none of the powers of darkness will be able to suppress, repress, disguise, or deny Him.  Every knee will bow.  Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.  It will be as if Corinthians 13:10 has become real: the partial will end because we will be looking at the Complete face to face.  We will know Him fully, see Him fully, even as we now are fully seen and known. 

 

I believe that when Christ comes in His glory, His glory will gather those wounded hearts to Himself who were so misled and abused by the enemy that they could not embrace Him before.  I believe that He will remove the blinders from their eyes and they will see Him as He is, in the Truth of His love.  Will all of them accept Him?  No.  Will there be those who reject Him?  Yes.  Will there be ones who choose eternal separation over eternal life with Him?  Sure.  Scripture tells us there will be.  But I also believe that there are those who belong to Him who just don’t know it yet, who have been beaten up so badly they have confused the lie of who He is with Truth of who He is.  Of course they don’t want to give their hearts to a lie; none of us do.  Of course they don’t want to give their hearts to an institutional savior who bears no resemblance to the Real Thing.  If we who are in the church have given our hearts to that, then we are just as deluded as those who have never worshiped Him in their lives.  That false Christ is just as much an idol as money or success.  The question that haunts me, that hunts me, that keeps me up at night is this:  For those who don’t know Him, will they recognize Him when He comes?

 

And this is the question that Jesus asks us:  Have you shown Me to those who don’t know Me in a way that they will recognize Me when I come?  Have we shown them Love?  Have we lived it in front of them?  Have we invited them to taste and see that the Lord is good?  Can we even testify to the Lord’s goodness for ourselves because we ourselves have tasted and seen?  Are we willing to jump in whole-heartedly to share His heart with a broken and lost world?  Not to see them as “those others” but to share in their humanity, to experience their vulnerability, to witness their deep pain, and to understand the depth of their doubt?  Are we courageous enough to really listen to why they disbelieve?  To hear the story that brought them to disbelief before we condemn them for not being where we are?  Are we willing to walk a while beside them with undemanding generosity so that they know we genuinely care for them personally, not just as a number in our salvation count that does not see them in the fullness of who they are?

 

This is why Trunk or Treat means the world to me.  It gets me out of my comfort zone, and into a place and space where God’s love already is, working to reveal the Truth of His Glory revealed through His son.  It is the place where love meets need, where I am most likely to encounter someone who is completely different from me, who might think I am from another planet, but who also might be ready and willing to receive His Word of Love.  It is where my own illusions can be shattered and I can experience the broken, funny, quirky, amazing, wonderfully and fearfully made humanity that Jesus died on a cross to bring Home.  And it is where chocolate becomes the feast of love where strangers are invited to taste and know that the Lord is good.  Who are you willing to invite to Goodness?  Come and join me.

 

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

 

Apple Days--Wesley E-letter (Methodist Campus Ministry)

Yay!  It’s sunny outside!  I am so happy to see the sunshine.  Even though it is still cold, it is just so good to not be surrounded by gray.  So our Fall Retreat didn’t work out.  It’s okay because we will reschedule for Spring.  And after thinking about it, being in the middle of nowhere with no cell phone coverage, late in pregnancy, and engaging in activities like low elements, rappelling, and folk dancing, with no idea how to get to a hospital, while being responsible for other folks as well, was probably a bit ambitious.  I could almost hear God laughing when I booked the retreat and activities, “Yeah, right!”  Anyway, I got to participate in our Kentucky Annual Conference Higher Ed meeting this weekend instead.  Bonus!  We will be able to have a retreat in the spring, and it will be great.  Let’s look forward to it!  J

 

Going on this week:

 

Tuesday we have worship at 6:30pm.  We will be looking at the final part of our messages on “Free + Food = Grace.”  We will look at the promises God’s grace makes us, how they endure over time, and how we can trust that God will bring good things into our lives through our trust in Him.

 

Thursday we will have free food at 6:30pm and our regularly scheduled program.  It will be good to just hang out and open God’s word together.  We will pick up where we left off in our study of “The Lord’s Prayer.”  Come and join us for a great time!

 

Next Week:

 

Coming up we have our special Halloween activities!!!!!!  Yay!  Spooky!!!!

 

Trunk or Treat will be on Wednesday on South Lawn from 11am till 4pm.  Dress up with me and help me hang pumpkins from the Mini Van as we hand out free candy on campus to students walking by DUC.  This is so much fun!  Let me know if you are willing to help!

 

Spook Dinner & Karaoke is next Thursday night.  We will meet for our regular time at 6:30pm.  Dress up in costumes (best male & female prizes will be awarded).  We will in engage in our traditional spook dinner; your only hint about the menu is that I will be cooking.  It means so much to me to be able to cook for you, so bring a friend.  Woo Hoo!  Afterwards we will have a karaoke contest.  I will work on getting some updated CD’s with 90’s music.  J

 

Now For Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

Today was a really cool day.  I got to spend the morning with Noah, my oldest son, at his school field trip to Jackson’s Orchard.  I am so thankful for the flexibility to be able to do this.  My parents were never so blessed during my grade school years to do that sort of thing.  It really meant a lot to me.  It reminded me of the old Mastercard commercials:  Cost of field trip: $5; cost of bag lunch packed by school: $1.65; cost of making sure little brother got to do everything big brother did: $3:  Cost of being with my little boy in the crisp Autumn air on a hay wagon, covered in smiles, holding baby pumpkins: priceless.  My heart just seemed to be bursting with gratitude.  All I could think was, “Thank You God, for these precious moments.”

 

At one point we got to go out to the apple trees and pick an apple off the branches.  Once we found Noah’s apple he held on to it with the greatest of care; he watched over it; he made sure he didn’t drop it.  And when it was time to get on the bus and his teacher asked the students to put their apples in the plastic bag, he was more than reluctant to give it up.  As I ponder this it brings to mind David’s words from Psalm 17:7-8: “Wondrously show your steadfast love, O savior of those who seek refuge from their adversaries at your right hand.  Guard me as the apple of the eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings. . . .”

 

As I was driving to the Wesley from the Orchard, I recalled worship last Tuesday night.  In the middle of our closing song I had the strangest sensation of God’s heart just bursting through mine.  In my mind’s eye I could see each face gathered there and love for each person just surged through my heart.  We were singing the phrase, “O God let us be a generation that seeks, that seeks your face O God of Jacob.”  And I was struck by the realization that God seeks us, seek our faces, and beholds each of our faces with such love that we barely comprehend.  It was all I could do not to go around the room and hold each face there in my hands.  I somehow just wanted to communicate to those gathered what God was showing me about how He loves them personally, with intricate detail and appreciation, with wonder too awesome to tell.  But because I didn’t want to freak anyone out, I just tried to explain it in words.  Maybe I chose wrong.  But here is what I am certain I am not wrong about:  Just as Noah held on to his apple with the greatest of care, watched over it without letting it leave his sight, making sure he didn’t drop it, so God watches over each of us, guarding each of us as the apple of His eye.  But unlike Noah, at the end of the day He does not have to surrender us to the grocery bag; He will not ever surrender us; we always belong to Him. 

 

When it was time to go this morning, it kind of caught us off guard.  I tried to give my big boy hugs and kisses as he got on the bus. It didn’t work much.  Noah is more of a high five kind of guy.  Always has been.  I told him that I had to go back to work.  He seemed to be upset.  He wanted his grandparents and cousin to be able to go to the park and eat lunch with him.  I was confused about whether they would be able to or not.  And so I watched him climb the steps to the big yellow bus and find a seat next to the window.  As I walked around to see him through the window on the other side, I saw his teacher come and sit with him, the disappointment registered on his face, tears pooling in his eyes.  I know that in the grand scheme of things, some disappointment and confusion about the end of a field trip is not a big deal, but seeing my tender hearted boy with tears in his eyes broke my heart.  Luckily grandparents, cousin, and little brother were all able to join him for lunch and the moment passed, yet I can’t help but still feel that same ache I felt when I remember watching him through that window.  Again it brings to mind words of scripture, from Psalm 103:13:  “As a father has compassion for his children, so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him.  For he knows how we were made; he remembers that we are dust.”

 

Nothing going on in your life is too insignificant for God’s attention.  His love for you encompasses even what you believe is the most meaningless detail.  And if it is something that affects you deeply, you can be assured that it also affects Him.  He may have a different perspective than you do; He may have wisdom that you need to hear and you may not want to.  But you can rest assured that God’s heart is moved with compassion for you, the same way my heart is moved with compassion for my children.  If I can be moved with tender love for my little boy Noah, when I am an imperfect woman who loses my patience with him way too often, then you can trust that God who is perfect, and never loses patience, is moved with tender love for you.  So when you are stressed beyond belief, your perfect internship has just gone by the wayside, your best friend hurt your feelings over some stupid misunderstanding, your parents don’t get what you want to do with your life or why it will take an extra semester to get the degree to do it, your significant other forgot your anniversary and has been writing more on someone else’s Facebook page instead of yours, you can know that God is with you and loves you even in the midst of all your craziness.  When your heart hurts, He hurts for you and with you.  And He longs to wondrously show His steadfast love to you.  So be encouraged.  You are an apple in His eye too.

 

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

 

Missteps & Meanderings--Wesley Foundation Eletter (Methodist Campus Ministry)

Dear Friends,

 

Hope you all had a great Fall Break.  It was so good to get away and be frivolous for a little while.  Our family visited Atlanta for the weekend.  The big thing for us was the indoor swimming pool. Woo Hoo!  Anyway, my prayer is that you each made it home safely and found yourself refreshed for the second half of the semester.  Just think, in two months it will be finals!

 

Worship tonight @ 6:30pm!  We will continue our time looking at Isaiah 55.  Our message will focus on the providence of grace.  Exactly how is it that God provides for us?  What is the connection between God’s plan for our lives and free food?  It there a process to the way His gift makes it to our table?

 

Thursday night free meal and District Wide Worship!  Come and hang out as usual @ Wesley about 6:30pm.  We will order pizza and eat around 7pm and then head over to State St. UMC around 8pm.  I am so excited to gather with other college students and young adults from around the city!  And DG Hollums is going to be awesome.  Quite honestly, he may be the best preacher I’ve ever heard under the age of 35!  You will definitely be blessed.

 

Friday we leave for Fall Retreat!  There are still spaces available for our Fall Retreat at Camp Loucon.  Cost is only $40, and that covers your lodging, meals, and activities.  We will meet at Wesley Friday afternoon at 3:30pm and car pool.  They will have dinner for us about 5:30pm that evening with hayride and campfire (with smores!) later on.  On Saturday we will do low elements, rappelling, and folk dancing!  And feel free to bring lots of movies!  Here is what you will need to bring with you:  toiletries, towel/washcloth, bedding, warm clothes, and comfortable shoes.  On Sunday we will leave Loucon around 11am.  We will eat breakfast there, but not lunch.  It is supposed to be really cold this weekend!  I find dressing in layers is helpful.  And also be prepared to get dirty.  We will be outside quite a bit.  If you have questions, let me know.

 

Now For Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

When I first came to Wesley in fall of 2002, Geoffrey would often say to me, “Sami, you’re definitely a 90’s Christian.”  I’m not sure what that means exactly, but I think it has a lot to do with my favorite worship songs and the fact that they all have hand motions.  Oh, and that I get very excited when I get to sing them (and do the hand motions too).  Let’s just say I never lack enthusiasm.  One of my favorite songs from my youth group era went something like this:  “Oh God You are my God, and I will ever praise You. Oh God You are my God, and I will ever praise You.  And I will seek You in the morning; and I will learn to walk in Your ways; and step by step You lead me; and I will follow You all of my days.” 

 

I love that line “step by step You lead me.”  Lately my prayer has been, Lord, just order my steps.  Boy do I need it!  I’ve shared with many of you my misstep a few weeks ago.  I was at Panera’s having some quiet Jesus time when I felt the urge to go pee (happens a lot lately).  So I got up and went to the Ladies Room.  When I got inside I stared incredulously at the urinal on the wall.  I thought Panera’s had become some sort of freak of nature restaurant for putting a urinal in the Ladies bathroom.  Yes, I really did think that.  Luckily I realized where I was before any men came in. 

 

My Panera’s incident is a good metaphor for the missteps we take in life.  Missteps often fall into two scenarios:  wrong paths and wrong perceptions. Often times we are convinced that we are headed in the right direction, and then believe the whole world is wrong when things don’t measure up, look unfamiliar and weird, or are just plain wrong.  We start off on the wrong trajectory and wonder why we didn’t end up where we wanted.  We assume the problem lies with the place we stumbled onto, instead of considering the possibility that maybe our steps headed us to the wrong place.  Or sometimes there is nothing wrong with the place we end up.  In this scenario we actually followed the right path, and we are coming to a place along the road that isn’t what we thought it would be.  The problem isn’t so much the place we are as much as it is our perception of where we are and why we are there.   We assume we are capable of assessing our circumstances ourselves, instead of listening for direction that comes from a source much wiser than our own stores of wisdom.  It’s like we do the right thing and don’t understand why it’s not getting us where we want to go fast enough.  It’s like we do the right thing then take a look around at our situation and think to ourselves, “This sure is a crummy place to be.”  Then we look around at others who are doing really well doing their own thing (instead of the God thing) and we think, “I should have joined them.  If I hadn’t followed You God, I would be in a much better position.  Gee thanks.” 

 

I’ve taken both missteps in my life.  It is so easy to not do the God thing, or to put off doing the God thing until life is less stressed, I have more free time, or things get easier.  I mean really, it is a hassle to give God the first portion of everything I am; that means the first and best part of my day, the first and best part of my paycheck, the first best part of my energy, the first and best part of my heart.  It’s so easy to “do the Christian thing” but not to put Him first in my life, to just offer Him the leftovers.  It’s so easy to think, “I can’t have quiet time today, I have to study; I can’t spend time in worship, I have too much reading; I can’t do that thing that keeps nudging me, I have too many tests.”  What I have found is that when I give Him the best of who I am, He multiplies what is left in a way I never could have done.  Only then is there really enough of me to go around.

 

On the other hand, I have often not put my faith in the process of faith.  I wanted a quick fix and easy answers to my problems and dilemmas.  I have often forgotten that God is working from the perspective of eternity, not the immediacy of my small moment.  I forget that God has a way of working out the really big deals in my life in His time and His way.  I want to see His hand move now, minute by minute.  It’s like I do the right things and get so exasperated that I am not seeing the differences I want to see when I want to see them.  My perception is focused on my own desires and not on Him.  It’s like I’ve allowed my head to be so full of my own thoughts and opinions that I have not allowed God any room to speak Eternity into my now moment.  So it’s not that I have arrived at a wrong place as much as I’ve allowed my thoughts and my emotions to settle in a wrong space, a self-centered and selfish one, instead of that space of trust and peace.  The question that matters most is “Am I allowing God the space to interpret my circumstances to me, or am I demanding that I get to interpret my circumstances to God?”  As if I could know better than Him.  J

 

And so my prayer is, “Lord, just order my steps.”  Sometimes I feel like all I have to offer God is my weakness.  I look around and there isn’t any real grand accomplishment from my efforts.  I can honestly say I feel deeply and love with abandon, but both things have gotten me in trouble.  And so it’s like, okay God, all I can offer is the trouble I seem to get myself in:  Trouble, here she comes.  But I believe that God is glad to have our weaknesses, because it is there that He reveals His strength.  And out of our missteps freely surrendered to His loving hands we discover the beautiful gift of His gentle leading, teaching us to walk in His ways.  So my prayer for you and for me is that we will be courageous enough to do the God thing first, and patient enough to wait on His revelation of why that is a good thing in our lives.

 

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