She Laughed--Wesley Foundation E-Letter (Methodist Campus Ministry)

Hey Guys and Gals,

 

I just felt the need to ramble!

 

Now For Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

Don’t know how many of you know it or not, but Tim and I are expecting . . . .  again.  This makes number three for us.  My doctor says I have a condition called AMA.  Yeah, I suffer from “advanced maternal age.”  Basically that means I’m pregnant and over 35.  It’s kind of comical to me because I am at annual conference this week (the big Methodist meeting that happens every year) hanging out with a bunch of campus ministers.  As I engage in conversations with my brothers I am reminded of and experience a rekindling of my passion for young people, especially college students.  The thing that I realized this year as so many of you came to our ministry as freshmen is that I am old enough to be your mother.  Any one of you freshmen could conceivably have been my biological child.  And here I am pregnant.

 

I just recently read the story in Genesis when Sarah and Abraham, an old and childless couple, find out that God is going to give them a son.  The scripture says:  “So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, ‘After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?’  The Lord said to Abraham, ‘Why did Sarah laugh, and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’  Is anything to wonderful for the Lord?  At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son’” (Genesis 18:12-14).  In several ways I have nothing in common with Sarah.  I mean, contrary to popular belief, I am not in my 90’s.  To some people, especially my mom, I am still young.  And while I certainly feel young at heart most of the time, there are days when I physically feel old & worn out: my body is tired; my mind is jumbled; I can barely speak coherently.  You know, I never felt this way until I started reproducing.  Maybe it’s a mommy thing.  Which reminds me of another thing I don’t share with Sarah.  I do have children. 

 

But here are the things I can relate to in her story.  Like in Sarah’s case, God’s sense of timing is kind of funny.  After all, we thought we were done.  I gave away just about everything from our first two.  (Thank God I still have the maternity clothes and breast pump!)  Furthermore I am struck by the juxtaposition of the passions of my heart: a generation of young adults that God calls me to love and my own little family, filled with one precious man I would give my right arm for and  two pre-school boys whom I cherish deeply.  In the middle of it grows a new love for a person I have never met, this child growing inside of me.  This leads me to the other thing I can relate to in the story:  The wonder of God.

 

Because I have that special AMA condition, my doctor sent me to Nashville for a pre-cautionary ultrasound.  It rocked my world.  From the outside, I don’t look pregnant, especially to people who don’t know me and don’t see me on a regular basis.  But within this 12 week belly grows a baby, about 2 inches long, floating, wiggling, waving its arms.  During the ultrasound I could even see the tiny heart beating within its body.  And most amazing of all is that this tiny child already looks like a baby, complete with all necessary organs and tissues.  They just need time to grow.  Seeing that made me realize how wonderful my God is, and how precious and tender is His process of creating life within me.  I wouldn’t have chosen this blessing; but I feel blessed just the same.  One of my campus minister friends says I am assisting God in a miracle.  I guess so. 

 

There are other ways I relate to this story.  Sarah and Abraham had been waiting a long time to see the fulfillment of God’s promise.  In other parts of my life I am waiting too, and not in the pregnant parts.  I am longing for something I can’t even quite explain, I just know I’ll know it when I see it.  The waiting has taken up residence within me, making a home there.  I don’t know when or if it shall ever leave.  I wonder if I too will be like Sarah, believing that my time of seeing that fulfillment will never come because waiting has become a way of life.  What comforts me in my waiting are the words spoken by God to Abraham.  First He asks Abraham, “Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?”  Then God answers His own question with, “At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.”  Both Abraham and Sarah had given up hope of seeing the longing of their hearts fulfilled.  And with good reason.  From a human perspective what they were hoping for was impossible.  But God has a different answer.

 

In my life I wrestle with the impossible longing of my heart.  Yet God’s words to Sarah comfort me.  Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?  At the set time I will return to you, in due season.  This is what I hear God saying to all those impossibilities lodged inside of me.  And if He can knit together this child within my aging womb, then surely He can also fulfill the other hopes I carry in my heart.  At the set time.  In due season.  I just praise Him that the time of fulfillment is already set!  And this precious, funny, and tender God can fulfill your hopes 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

 

Conclusions--Wesley Foundation E-letter (Methodist Campus Ministry)

Dear Friends,

 

Hope all is well as you finish up this last week of school.  Can you believe it?  You made it this far!  Whoopee!!!!  A few more miles and then. . . .

 

Tonight is our special worship time honoring our graduating senior, Kelly.  Join at 6:30pm in our chapel.  THURSDAY is our 80’s Dance Party/Prom.  We will have free food and all kinds of surprises!  So join us at 6:30 then too, and bring a friend!  Let’s help Kelly celebrate in style!  Well, at least 80’s style.

 

Remember, we have free lunch during finals week next week—Monday, Tuesday, Wedesday, and Thursday!

 

And men, remember we are having the famous MEN’S BBQ at my house next Thursday night at 6pm.  Free food and fun!

 

Now For Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

I’ve always been somewhat of a dancer.  Not that I’m any good (no you will not see me on “Dancing With the Stars” someday), I just like to move.  I remember the story my mom tells of time we were visiting my Grandparents when I was about three.  My Grandpa was a Nazarene preacher and invited me to sing “Jesus Loves Me” as a special in church.  Let me just mention, Nazarenes, at the time, did not dance.  And as I began to sing, I also began to wiggle with the tune.  Armed with microphone in hand, I would dance right out of my Grandfather’s grasp every time he would try to reach for me.

 

In my bathroom is a picture a friend gave me in college.  It says:  “Those move easiest who have learned how to dance.”  I love the truth in those simple words.  Sometimes I don’t much feel like dancing, but there is something inside that has to dance anyway.  Everything about life dances.  The underlying rhythms of time seem to invite me to join in too, to remember that each moment passes in beat, each day is a measure, and life is too short to let the song pass without moving along with it. 

 

Last week the Wesley Foundation brought the prayer labyrinth to Stresstivus on South Lawn.  We were situated in the back between the rock climbing wall and the free food.  Not too far away speakers were set up, filling the air with the funky beat of Hip Hop.  While not very meditative or quiet, there was prayerful electricity permeating the steps of each person who walked the labyrinth.  Maybe it’s because we walk in rhythm anyway, without even realizing it.  Maybe it’s because God’s presence encompasses all of life, not just the quiet parts.  (Thank God, it’s not very quiet at my house with two small children!)  Regardless of how different the environment of our prayer walking was, it was still full of prayer for me, alive, electric, prayerful.

 

I remember sitting in my folding chair letting the sun pour over me as a group of students caught my eye.  They were gathered in broad stretch of grass in the middle of all the assembled activities.  Together they began to move in unison to the rhythm of the music filling South Lawn.  At first their steps were unpredictable, not exactly together.  And then . . .  perfection.  All of them began moving as one, jumping and dancing in the sunlight.  Time seemed to be suspended as they leapt in the air; joy filled me up just watching.  Something in me danced with them. 

 

Too soon it was over.  But since then, something within me dances still.  I am reminded that each day I can choose to dance, literally and figuratively.  Each day I can choose joy.  Each day I can savor good things, even while being suspended in circumstances beyond my choices.  There are certainly things in our lives we cannot choose:  who we’re born to, whether we pay taxes, how other people respond to us, the amount of homework we receive.  Yet we are blessed with the capacity to dance anyway, to find joy in everyday blessings, and to allow ordinary things to bless us.  In pondering these truths, the words to a Lee Ann Womack song come to mind:

 

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder,
You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger,
May you never take one single breath for granted,
GOD forbid love ever leave you empty handed,
I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean,
Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens,
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance,
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.

I hope you dance....I hope you dance.

 

I cannot conclude this last e-letter of the semester without a word or two for the one I wrote it for.  Kelly Ogles, this is so my prayer for you.  You have been down such a long and winding road.  We have walked many miles together, and each step has been a prayer.  You, my dear friend, are so close to your destination.  My heart for you as you begin a new leg of the journey, is that your walking will be dancing, that you will always hear God’s song in your heart, and that you will always choose to move with it, joining in, and celebrating the dance of life all of your days.  For all the days you have shared with me, thank you for joining me for this dance in this time and this place.  I am, and always will be, so proud of you.

 

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

 

In-Between Times--Wesley Foundation E-letter (Methodist Campus Ministry)

Dear Friends,

 

Hope you are all doing well.  It is that crazy time of year again as we get closer to finals.  Just think, in three weeks we will have crossed the finish line.  Yay!!!!  This has been a wonderful journey together.  I think you all are the best travel companions!

 

Hey, tomorrow is Stresstivus on South Lawn from 11am till 4pm.  We will be set up as a part of it with the prayer labyrinth.  Come and hang out; it will be so fun, and it will relieve stress!!!

 

Here’s stuff coming up.  Tonight is worship 6:30.  Come for a time of reflecting on the ways God has come to life for us this school year.  Thursday is free food, again at 6:30pm.  The elders are coming to share their wisdom!  It will be so cool to be with them.  Also, we will begin a time of OFFICER ELECTIONS.  Come and find out what that is all about!

 

Important end of the year stuff:

 

LADIES TEA PARTY—this Sunday at my house at 6pm.  I will give directions on Thursday night.  Email me and let me know if you plan on being there.  This is one of my most favorite things we do.  Please come and be a part of it!

 

MEN’S BBQ—This will be on Thursday, May 14^th, again at my house.  I promise to provide just as much chocolate fondue as at the tea party.  Lots of fun, I promise.  Again, let me know if you plan on being there!

 

FINALS LUNCHES—We will provide free lunch on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of finals week.  Bring a friend and fill your tummy! 

 

JOE’S CRAB SHACK ROAD TRIP—Friday of Finals week we will car pool to Nashville.  Oh Yeah!

 

SENIOR STUFF—Next Tuesday & Thursday—Come and help us celebrate Kelly’s journey!

 

Now For Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

Time is such an interesting concept this time of year, especially as the end of the semester draws nearer.  There is a sense of burden and sometimes panic that seems to hang in the air as students juggle their obligations with approaching deadlines, due dates, and finals.  It is a crazy time, and most of us begin to feel crazy as the demands of our lives levy a pull upon our energy, thoughts, and emotions.  We come away feeling drained and depleted, needing to be filled back up.

 

There is also a sense of impatience.  I keenly remember it even from grade school as an intense longing for summer vacation (a time of rest and play) that increases with each moment.  It is that all-together different time where one can breathe easy and restore balance to living.  Never was this longing so intense as those moments that also brought great transition to life, a moving on or a moving up.  I am remembering graduations, marriage, ordinations, etc.  Momentous times when far-off goals are suddenly near, but never near enough.  As I write this I think fondly of Kelly, our graduating senior.

 

At some point in our lives, each one of us will be stuck in an in-between-ness, where we long to move forward at a rapid pace, but must continue on in a daily-ness that can seem almost painful because it is so slow, so routine.  Movement seems to have disappeared completely and we find ourselves wondering if time will ever move again.  We know that life is meant for more, but we just can’t get to that precious “more” yet.  We feel figuratively and literally stuck.

 

I am reminded of the scripture quoted so often at momentous times:  Jeremiah 29:11.  In it the Lord says, “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.”  It’s one of those famous Bible verses; you can walk into any Christian bookstore and find all kinds of merchandise printed with those words.  But rarely does anyone mention the verses that come before it.  In Jeremiah 29:10 we find God saying, “Only when Babylon’s seventy years are completed will I visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.”  And here is the paradox that God’s people and many of us live in:  Life exacts patience from us the very moment we discover that life as we know it is not what we are meant for.  There is purpose to delay.  I’m still trying to figure out what that is, but I know it to be true.  And I know that we have the opportunity to discover God’s greatest mercies, in fact God’s greatest miracles, in the waiting.

 

Go back with me a few more verses.  God is speaking to His people about their exile in Babylon.  Yes, they are ultimately destined for the Promised Land, but in the meantime, God intends for them to sojourn in a foreign land.  Hear the tender words of grace:  “Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce.  Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease.  But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare” (Jeremiah 29:5-7).  It is from the sojourn in Babylon that God’s people produce their greatest heroes, and our most important examples of faith.  Remember Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?  How about Daniel and the lion’s den?  What about Esther?  These powerful stories of God’s power and deliverance were born in a time and place when God’s people wanted to be somewhere else.  It makes me wonder what God can do with our in-between times as well?  What would we be missing out on if we just hurried on to the next thing and never lived well these in-between days that we live in?  The real truth of the matter is that these moments offer us a kind of grace that no other moments can, and when they are gone, they are gone forever, as well as the opportunities and gifts they bring.

 

I offer these thoughts as a way of affirming that our in-between moments are fleeting.  We think we want the semester over and done with, this chapter closed for the rest of our lives.  But there are gifts in these days that we can enjoy only while they last.  And I hate to miss out on a party, no matter where God is hosting it.  So join me in taking a few moments every day to enjoy the gift that “today” is.  It may not be where we ultimately want to be, but even in these moments of in-between, God is longing to bless us.  Let us look for the blessing hidden in our longing.

 

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

 

Beauty in Unlikely Places--Wesley Foundation E-Letter (Methodist Campus Ministry)

Hello Everyone!!!! Hope you are all very blessed.  We had a fantastic time at Mt. Union UMC on Sunday morning.  I am so proud of all of our students who went.  It was such a blessing.  This week we go out again to Christ UMC on Wednesday (meet at Wesley @ 5pm) and to Faith UMC on Sunday (meet at Wesley @ 8am).  It will be so cool!!!!!

 

Remember we have worship tonight at 6:30pm and then a free meal and Bible Study on Thursday, again at 6:30pm.

 

Are there any of you out there who would be interested in putting together a 3 person team (or several) to play in a basketball tournament at Christ UMC on Saturday, May 2?  Let me know.  They could also use help setting up too.  Very cool!

 

Now For Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

 

Yesterday Tim and I stepped out of Kroger’s on Scottsville road and saw the most beautiful rainbow.  It stretched all the way across the sky.   It was amazing.  So beautiful.  It was hard not to stop and stare at it as we were making our way back to the car.  And is was also kind of cool to hear the gasps coming from others as they stepped outside for the first time.  It was kind of a validation that we had witnessed something impressive.  Others noticed it too. 

 

As we made our way home, I kept trying to get a good picture of it before it faded, and before the road veered toward a different direction.  Here’s the best picture I got:

 

 

This is the best one I got.  I hated it that it’s in a parking lot, and the view is obscured by traffic lights, billboard signs, and the golden arches.  But then I began to reflect upon the significance of God’s grace.  God doesn’t just choose pretty landscapes to reveal His glory.  And He certainly does not reserve His grace for only those lives that are already well ordered and pretty.  In fact, Jesus makes it very clear that He comes to those who need him.  In response to the Pharisees he says, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’  For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners” (Matthew 9:12-13).  So why should I complain that God’s beautiful sign of promise appears in the midst of an ugly human landscape?  Isn’t that where it is needed most?

 

I love that it also means that things in my life don’t have be perfect for the hand of God to begin to move in them.  Often, that is when I need to see glimpses of God the most, when I feel most desperate, most separated from His love, and the most surrounded by the fallout from my own mistakes.  It’s like we all need to be able to look around at the debris of our lives and say, “Yeah, I’m responsible for that, but I see that His mercy is bigger than the mistake that got me here.” 

 

Recently I watched a movie starring Antonio Bandares called Take the Lead.  It is the story of a dance instructor who is moved to begin teaching ballroom dancing to students in an inner-city high school who are relegated to detention in the basement.  There comes this moment when his regular dance students confront these street wise kids and basically tell them their efforts are worthless and don’t amount to anything.  The inner-city kids are dejected, ready to give up.  They feel Banderes has fed them, a bunch of “rejects,” a pack of lies, and that he should just give up too.  And then he says to them, “I don’t see rejects.  I see choices that have yet to be made.”  He tells them that excelling does take work, but they have it within them to choose excellence.  Isn’t that good news?  Isn’t that the hope we all need to hear?  That our lives are not determined by the mistakes of our past but by our ability to allow something better to take root?  That’s what a rainbow over McDonald’s means to me.  It feels like God saying, “You may have given up on yourself, your dreams, your life, but I haven’t given up on you.  And I can show up in the most un-likeliest places.”

 

As we complete another semester together, let’s remember that we are still in the season of Easter.  It is still a time to reflect on the amazing ability to God to turn things around in our lives in un-mistakable and even un-likely ways.  God is not bound by any human condition.  In fact even death is not a hindrance to Him.  He promises to make all things new (Revelations 21:5).  And as you finish the next few weeks, remember that He is with you, and He is completely able to work in any circumstance you have.  You just have to allow Him.  He has a rainbow for you 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

 

Reason to Hope Again--Wesley Foundation E-letter (Methodist Campus Ministry)

Hey everyone!  I hope you had a fantastic Easter weekend.  It was just so good to be with family and remember God’s goodness.  Now it’s time to jump back into the craziness of a semester speeding toward conclusion!  Let’s all hang on for a wild ride!

 

This Tuesday night at 6:30pm we will conclude our look at the armor of God.  Join us for a message on the Sword of the Spirit.  In the armor this is the only offensive weapon God gives us.  Find out what it is so important, and so powerful. 

 

Also on Thursday night at 6:30pm we will eat FREE FOOD, and we will talk about the message we want to bring to local congregations as we tell them about the Wesley Foundation.  Come ready to sing and celebrate all the good things God is doing! 

 

This Sunday we travel to Mount Union UMC to sing and share.  Meet at the Wesley Foundation at 9:15am.

 

Now For Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

I have just finished a book called The Centurion’s Wife.  It is the fascinating story of a centurion who is assigned by Pilate to discover the truth behind the missing body of Jesus following His crucifixion.  As a reward for his services the centurion is promised the hand of Pilate’s niece who lives as a servant within Pilate’s house.  Specifically this young woman is the handmaiden to Pilate’s wife, who sends her on a similar mission, asking her to befriend Jesus’ followers as a way to understand why she is troubled by dreams of the dead prophet and whether they are planning to revolt against Rome.  The journey of discovery that both pursue lead them to a faith they never imagined.  But it also reveals the story of the first believers and how they experienced the baffling events of the crucifixion, resurrection, and eventually Pentecost.

 

What intrigues me most about the story is how it brings a fresh insight to the events of the resurrection.  For many of us we have heard the story so often that its implausibility is lost to us.  Of course Jesus was crucified.  Of course on the third day He rose from the dead.  Of course He ascended into heaven.  Of course He gave us His Holy Spirit so that we might know His presence with us always.  These are things we take for granted.  But could you imagine the shock and impact that these events had upon those who actually lived through them?  They had no way of knowing what would come next or what the implications would be.  They were immersed in a sea of confusion, impossibility, and faith-full waiting.

 

It is also a hope-filled waiting because the tragedy of Holy Week has been transfigured into the triumph of hope.  I love that.  I love that Jesus has a way of taking our most desperate moments and making them beautiful reasons for celebration and praise.  I don’t know how He does it; He just does.  It is the power of resurrection that remains alive within Him.  He resurrects all kinds of things.  Just when we think all hope is gone, and there is no basis for believing anymore, Jesus gives us a reason to hope again and legitimizes our belief. 

 

This to me is the miracle of Easter:  the God who seemed so distant during our black Good Friday legitimizes our belief with Sunday morning, in ways we could not have foreseen or even have had the good sense to hope for.  The Easter experience of resurrection is so far out of our sphere of imagination, we don’t even know how to ask for it, yet in God’s tender love and mercy He gives it to us anyway.  Eventually God makes the basis for our faith legitimate.  Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  Did you get that?  This is powerful!  Eventually our God-inspired faith finds its fulfillment in things that ACTUALLY come to pass.  Our faith in Christ is not baseless.  While Jesus asks us to trust Him, it is not without good reason, and it is also not without proof.  It’s just that the proof comes later.  We can trust that He wouldn’t ask us to trust Him if He knows that evidence of our faith won’t come at all.  Could you imagine what it must have been like for those early disciples when they finally got it?  When they finally understood that He meant what He said?  That when he predicted His own death the part about His rising again was just as real?  That moment of recognition must have changed everything for them.  In fact it did.  They go on to become fearless messengers of the good news that Jesus is alive to us all. 

 

So I find this truth to be at work:  We cannot always prevent, escape, or get out of our Good Friday’s, but the power Easter Sunday morning is still working within us.  We just have to wait to see it come to 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

 

Hope in Desperate Places--Wesley Foundation e-letter (Methodist Campus Ministry)

Hey folks!  Hope all is well with you!  We still have a lot going on this semester.  Our outreach season is getting ready to launch.  Next week after worship on Tuesday and during program on Thursday we will put together exactly what we will be doing for the churches we will be visiting.  Our outreach schedule is as follows:

 

Sunday, April 19^th—Mt. Union UMC

Wednesday, April 22—Christ UMC

Sunday, April 26^th—Faith UMC

 

I know God will bless each of these outings, and give us the grace to share boldly the wonderful things He is doing in and through this ministry.  Come and join us as we share.  It will be fun!

 

Thursday night is our free meal and program.  Remember to meet at Wesley at 6:30pm for dinner.  Around 7:10pm we will walk together up to Garrett ballroom where we will get to experience the Veritas Forum.  This is going to be amazing!  Dr. Fritz Schaeffer will be talking about how faith and science, and sharing how God is working through both.  I’m so excited for it!  Been praying for it for a long time!!!!

 

Now For Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

We are officially in the middle of Holy Week.  Since February this is what the whole season of Lent has been preparing us for: a time to focus on the journey Christ took to the cross.  It continues to be a part of the Christian year that brings me the most puzzlement and pondering.  I mean, I get the whole baby in a manger thing.  It’s so easy to cozy up to the warm images of Mary and Joseph staring with breathless wonder at the infant Jesus.  And Easter morning is cool.  It’s like the lilies are trumpeting out the joyful news that death has been demolished, while the smell of heaven wafts through the pews.  Who can’t get excited about that?  Of course the new Easter outfit helps.  And so does the whole, let’s look for eggs thing.  But Holy Week?  That one is so hard to understand.

 

Some people skip Holy Week all together.  They go straight from palm branch Hosanna’s to Easter morning Hallelujah’s.  I can’t seem to do that.  I guess it is because too much of my life seems to resonate with the uncertainty of Jesus’s journey to the cross.  There are too many unanswered questions in my life to ignore the one week in Christ’s earthly life where unanswered questions just hung in the air, especially the one that goes, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?”.   Sure we know that Easter is on the other side.  But the disciples did not.  His mother did not.  He even felt so staggered by the weight of what was to transpire that He begged His heavenly Father to make it go away.  In the middle of the darkest moments of Jesus’s life, answers just don’t come.

 

And that is why I have hope.  Hear Rainer Maria Rilke’s words to a novice poet seeking direction: 

 

I would like to beg of you, dear friend, as well as I can, to have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart.  Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language.  Do not now look for the answers.  They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them.  It is a question of experiencing everything.  At present you need to live the question.  Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day.

 

I have hope because I can hear the comforting words of Christ in the words above, comfort that comes from having to live through a hopeless experience, not being able to rush it, not being able to change it, but simply and courageously living it, listening to it, and allowing its story to bring its own answers to light, in its own time.  It gives me hope because it shows me that Jesus lived into the answer He was longing for, that the whole creation was longing for, one simple moment at a time.  And I know when I struggle, when I can’t find satisfying answers, His presence is right there living the questions with me until moment by moment that longed for answer begins to emerge. 

 

And this is the hope of Holy Week that I offer to you.  All of us have those things that we wish we could be done with already.  All of us have those moments that leave us begging God, “Make it go away!”  All of us have those experiences that demand all we have to give and more.  And the reason I cling to the hope of Holy Week is because in any given excruciating moment there is a Savior standing with us.  One who has been there, and literally done that.  One who knows what it means to endure through until something gives.  One who does not offer glib reassurances but who waits it out with us, bringing a deep compassion and quiet strength that helps us make it through too.  This is why I need the message of Holy Week.  I need to know that my Savior knows my heart, especially when it is breaking.

 

He knows your heart too.  In the midst of your pain and uncertainty, He gives you His own broken heart fully and completely, so that yours may be healed.  Moment by moment.  Patiently resolving within you all the questions that leave you aching, until the answers you’ve been longing for are there in your midst.

 

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

 

Seed Life Planted Here--Wesley Foundation E-letter (Methodist Campus Ministry)

Dear Friends,

 

Hope all is doing well!  Isn’t it beautiful outside?  It is so good to just sit in the sunshine.  Let’s all agree we’ll take a moment to let the sun shine on us today!  I’m in! 

 

Hopefully you are having a good week.  Remember to bring your CANNED GOODS to the Wesley Foundation to participate in the campus wide food drive sponsored by CSF to help restore the food levels at our local help missions.  This is such an important ministry.  Also, tonight is FREE FOOD, and our program.  Tonight we finish up with our study of the parable of the soils.  We will really look at what it means to be fruitful.  You also may want to come by and look at the Chapel.  It got painted as a part of our work day last weekend, and it looks really good!  Who knew that “butternut” was such an amazing color?

 

Now For Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

On the window seal in our bathroom at home sit a couple of terra cotta pots.  They measure about two inches high, an inch and half wide.  And growing within them are several tiny shamrock sprouts.  While I was gone on spring break I arranged for my boys to have little gifts to open everyday, so they wouldn’t feel so far away from me.  I picked up the little pots at Target, complete with dehydrated soil, a seed pack, and instructions.  A couple of weeks ago the boys and I carefully added water to the dehydrated soil pellet, mixed it into each pot, separated out the recommended number of seeds, and placed them in the reconstituted soil, with a light blanket of dirt on top.  Every day we go to window seal to see how our “potted plants” are doing.

 

It’s quite amazing really.  Since I only paid a dollar each for them, I wasn’t expecting much.  But it has been pretty cool to see little green clovers poking their way through the dirt, seeking the sunlight, drinking in the water that little boys slosh all over them.  I am reminded of Christ’s words about faith as a grain of mustard seed.  Even though it is the smallest of all the seeds, it grows into some more shrub!  I believe clover seed is smaller still.  How cool is it that something so tiny could have so much life in it?  And that its life could spring up so quickly given the right conditions?

 

It makes me ponder once again the mystery and majesty of Easter.  Jesus also said of seeds that it is only when they die to their seed life, and are buried, that they can experience the true life they were created for in the beginning.  Of course He was referring to Himself, and trying to help His disciples understand that He too must die so that something greater could be born.  They couldn’t see past their limited perspective that dying to His earthly life was actually a wonderful, marvelous thing.  And tougher still was their understanding when He suggested that they also had to die to life as they knew it for His life to take root in them.  It’s crazy, but true.  We have to let go of the penny we hold tightly in our hands so that we can receive the vast treasure He holds in His.  But we will never have enough room in our hearts for His gifts if we cling stubbornly to what is already within our grasp.

 

Have you ever wondered what life is like for a seed?  It grows within the bloom of the plant that produces it, it is harvested, packaged, and then sits around dormant.  For months.  For years.  Maybe forever.  It is almost unbearable to consider that it was created for more, and yet the more that it was made for has to be delayed indefinitely, because packaging takes precedence over dirt.  I wonder how many of us are like the seeds that get relegated to indefinite packaging instead of dying to the seed life and finding the life we were made for?  I mean, I can understand the objections.  Dying to a self-directed life is kind of scary.  We are definitely trading the known for the unknown.  And for all the control freaks out there this is utmost in unbearable.  Of course it sucks when our lives are no longer neatly packaged and predictable.  Of course it is way neater, less messy, to have pretty flower pictures on our package, than to actually have to get dirty and grow real ones.  But holy cow, where is the fun in that?  Where is the adventure?  Where is the amazing fragrance and beauty that makes others stop and look and appreciate God’s handiwork?  I would much rather spend my days being a reckless, unpredictable, living work of grace than a lifeless picture of what might have been. 

 

Yeah.  That’s really how I feel. 

 

So as we draw closer to Easter, let us remember once again the journey that Jesus made to the cross.  Let us also remember that the cross has a claim on us too.  Just as He gave His life to us, we are invited to give our lives to Him, to let Him direct their course and flow.  I know He is so gentle in His invitation, and so generous in the love and understanding that champions every step forward we take to dying to the seed life within us so that REAL LIFE can be born.  I know He cheers for us when we get up, disregarding our clumsy attempts that make us fall.  He really only wants our best, and is fully equipped to give it to us if we let Him.  Let’s let Him.

 

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

 

The Best Things In Life Can't Be Ruined By the Economy--Wesley Foundation Eletter (Methodist Campus Minsitry)

Hello everyone!  Hope you had a great weekend!  This week as we gather together, lets remember to bring some canned goods for local food banks.  This is a small way we can impact people’s lives with God’s grace.  Thanks to CSF for organizing it!  They rock!

 

As we look ahead we have some cool stuff coming up.  Next Monday night at 6:30pm in Garret room 301 there will be a prayer gathering for the Veritas event coming up on April 9^th.  This will be an opportunity to gather with folks from other campus ministries to pray for and with each other, and especially about this joint effort to share Jesus with our campus.  On April 9^th we will be hosting Dr. Fritz Schaefer, chemistry professor from the University of Georgia.  He will be speaking on the topic of “The Big Bang, Stephen Hawking, and God.”  The whole aim of this event is to engage people on our campus in a way that shows how faith in God and a love for science can coexist.  There is a meeting on Thursday at 4pm at CSF to involve students in the planning and implementation of this event. If you are interested in attending on behalf of the Wesley Foundation, please let me know.

 

Again we have a great week planned, filled with worship Tuesday night at 6:30pm and free food and a program at 6:30 on Thursday.  Our theme for worship on Tuesday is the shield of faith, how exercising our faith is so important in our lives, how to have it and how to use it.  Thursday night we will continue to look at the parable of the soil and learn how to get rid of those pesky weeds and thorns.  See you soon!

 

Now For Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

A few years back Nicholas Cage starred in a movie called “The Family Man.”  It is the story of a man who lives life in the fast lane, has everything imaginable that he could possibly want, is wealthy beyond his dreams, and is thoroughly miserable.  Even while surrounded by opulence that only copious amounts of money can provide, he is haunted by memories of his first love and what might have been if he had chosen love over the ladder of success.  As the movie progresses he has an encounter with a mysterious individual who grants him a glimpse of what could have been if he had chosen love.  This glimpse reveals a life far different from the one he lives, filled with a humble house, mini-vans, penny pinching, and sparse living.  But at the same time he discovers the joy of belonging, a wife who loves him unconditionally, children who bring laughter, and the kind of happiness he had been longing for all along.

 

If you haven’t seen this movie, I would recommend it, especially at a time like this.  I believe that the gospel, or good news, can be wrapped in a video box.  Because this movie comes with a message that the things in life most precious to us can never be bought in a store.  I am reminded of Tim’s and my first two years of marriage.  I was a full-time seminary student in Lexington, Kentucky.  I was a part-time youth minister at a small church.  He was in graduate school at UK working on a masters, also working part-time.  We had a crazy-high rent that we paid for a tiny apartment on campus at the seminary; it made a dorm room look spacious.  I believe the only reason we ate was because Tim’s parents fed us every weekend, and then sent food home with us to nourish us during the week.  I’ve tried to add it up in my head; I don’t know how we made it.

 

But as financially strapped as we were, I have very fond memories of that time.  We would take long walks together down-town.  One of our favorite dates was to walk to the public library and check out books.  Sometimes we would stop at a Mexican food stand on the sidewalk and get these amazing chimichangas, cheap.  Our big night out was to splurge and go to Fazzoli’s.  In those lean times we learned how to love each other well when times are tough and it doesn’t come easy.  And that love has sustained us for almost thirteen years.  It’s kind of funny now that both of us would love to take leisurely walks hand in hand.  We could for about five seconds.  And then reality would hit and we would both be chasing little boys, trying to keep up.

 

All this is to say that the life God promises does not come with a price tag attached.  It is available in any economy, and it survives any stock market crash.  In the gospel of Luke, Jesus sent out his disciples two by two, and said, “Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals.”  Just a couple of paragraphs later it says, “The seventy returned with joy.”  Did you see that?  I never noticed it before today.  It is almost as if Jesus is proving Himself to them by asking them to rely totally on His provision, leaving behind their own efforts of self-sufficiency.  And He indeed provided!  We don’t know how, or through whom, or in what measure, but undoubtedly they returned to him not needing to complain.  There was no room for complaint because His joy had filled them up.

 

The point is that we can trust God.  God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  Governments may change, stocks come crashing down, politicians and elected officials can disappoint us.  Even education, church, and family cannot provide the stability we long for.  We are really hungry only for Him.  And only He can satisfy.  We can even be surrounded by the stability that worldly success can provide and still be devastatingly empty.  So in this crunch time, let Jesus be it for you, your all in all.  He is able out of the storehouses of His love and provision to meet your every need, teach you to be wise, and fill you with unmistakable joy, regardless of what wall street says.  I believe our country’s current financial crisis is, at its heart, another opportunity for God to show off.

 

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

 

Somebody fed me on our Mission Trip--How Cool! Wesley Foundation E-letter (Methodist Campus Ministry)

Hellooooooo!  I hope each of you had an amazing spring break!  It is good to be back in town.  I can’t wait to swap stories of our crazy adventures!  Can anyone say Chevy Chase and National Lampoon’s Vacation?

 

Anyway, this week we are back to our regular schedule.  Worship tonight at 6:30pm.  And Thursday we will have a free meal and program.  Justine Pile will also be there to discuss specifics of Relay for Life.  There is much to do as we prepare!  Also, we are participating in a campus wide food drive.  Our brothers and sisters from CSF are implementing it as a way to rebuild food pantries after the terrible ice storms this winter.  So bring non-perishable items to worship or free meal night.  We will do this each week until the end of the semester.  This is an easy way to share God’s love with someone else!

 

Also we will have small groups this week too!

 

Now For Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

It is good to be back home in Bowling Green.  Like many others I spent Spring Break on the road. And traveling can be such a weary business.  However, one of the truths that became evident while we were away was that being on a journey is as exhilarating as it is exhausting.  All of us who were on our Spring Break mission trip could testify that we were blessed in the going.  How thankful I am for the experience. 

 

This morning in my quiet time I discovered the following quote from a journal article: 

 

Perhaps Jesus’ knowledge of road lessons compelled him to send the twelve disciples on a journey through villages (Luke 9:1-6, NRSV).  He “gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal.”  Although given “power and authority,” they needed something more; the needed to rely upon hospitality and its possibilities. . . .  Being dependent and vulnerable is how disciples come to experience God’s sustenance through community. . . .  He insisted that they rely upon the communities that awaited them.  They needed to give hospitality a chance to flourish (Weavings:  The Road.  “At Home on the Road,” by Luther E. Smith, Jr.  p.10).

 

Luther Smith must really dig mission trips with college students!  Or else he has an insight into the nature to stepping out in faith to serve God in places far removed from “home.”  What he describes is just what we experienced.  The whole way we found ourselves drifting between two extremes of a paradox.  On the one had we had left the comfort of home to serve, to share Jesus with those whose paths we intersected.  On the other hand we were served by the hands and feet of Christ who provided the comforts of home in order to enable our service for Him.  As much as we were a face of compassion for others as we went out, each day we were bathed in the compassion of hospitality that attended generously to our needs.

 

We never know which we will be called upon to give, yet both kinds of service are interwoven into the fabric of the Kingdom of Heaven.  At each church we stayed at we were received with joy.  We received home cooked breakfasts, lunches to sustain us on the road, and company eager to hear the stories of our adventures when we returned.  Each day we ventured out to share the love of Jesus with people we didn’t know, in all kinds of ways.  Sometimes it meant knocking on doors and offering prayer to strangers; sometimes it meant holding a baby or playing with a special needs toddler; sometimes it meant hanging dry wall and offering prayers of encouragement for a family we will never meet, and sometimes it meant giving food to a homeless person and seeing them as a child of God instead of a stranger to be avoided.  Each day God offered us an opportunity to experience giving away His love in a new way.  And each night God surrounded us with the body of Christ, ministering to our weary bodies so that the next day we would be refreshed and able to serve again.

 

When I hear Jesus say in the gospels, “Behold, the Kingdom of God is at hand,” I believe this is what He was talking about.  Every moment is a chance to leave the ordinary self-seclusion of safety and step into the adventure of love that is ready to participate in God redeeming the whole world.  And every moment God invites us to participate in redeeming our corner of it.  Extraordinary love looks quite ordinary.  In fact, making beds, serving lunches, offering smiles and encouragements are things we do everyday.  It’s just that we do these things for ourselves and those we are comfortable with.  What makes love extraordinary is when we offer it to folks we don’t normally do such things for, even those we see everyday and we’d rather not do them for.  I believe the miracle of transforming the world is not that amazing things happen as much as God enables amazing generosity in us human beings who are so conditioned to just take care of our own.

 

Driving to work this morning I saw the following bumper sticker:  “Welcome to America.  Now speak English or leave.”  Something in my heart broke when I read that.  I could never imagine Jesus saying that to one of His children that He painstakingly knit together in its mother’s womb.  I am so thankful that our hosts last week did not say things like that to me.  So often we will encounter people who don’t have what it takes to live up to someone else’s expectations.  And we are faced with a choice:  will we love and enter into a redeeming relationship with them through the power of God’s love, or will we demand they be like us and throw them away when they aren’t?  Will we have the courage to allow Jesus to shape our response?  Will we become a community where hospitality has a chance to flourish?

 

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

 

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