Liminality--Wesley Foundation E-Letter (Methodist Campus Ministry)

Dear Friends, hope you are all well.  I am so looking forward to Wesley tonight!  It will be so good to see each and every one of you.  And I have a surprise for everyone who comes!  I got you all a present!  WOO HOO!!!!  You have to come and see what it is!  It will bless you, bless you, bless you!

 

Also, a word about Spring Retreat.  If you haven’t told me you are coming, RSVP to facebook or let me know through e-mail, in person, by phone, etc.  Thanks!

 

Now For Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

It is such a privilege to serve the body of Christ in the way that I get to.  I get to walk with young adults through some of the most formative days of their lives.  It is a time of discovery; separated from the framework of home, students must stand without the supports that formerly bolstered them, trying their own strengths that had once been tended and nurtured under the watchful eyes of parents.  I have often said that the most important education of college doesn’t happen in the classroom.  It is the education of learning how to live your own life, separated from home, yet still in an arena of freedom that still provides a safety net for the most scary steps of all.  And some of you make your way to my office, its own kind of safety net, and together we get to explore how walking through life supporting yourself feels.  It is scary, uncertain, thrilling, exciting, new, filled with exhilaration, yet constantly dogged by the unknown.  In a word, it is liminal. 

 

Liminal is such an unusual word.  My spell check doesn’t even recognize it.  It keeps asking me if I want to replace it with the word “luminal.”  No.  Liminal is exactly what I want to say.  My edition of Webster’s defines liminal as:  “of, relating to, or situated at the limen.”  Limen, according to Webster, means “threshold.”  And here is what Webster has to say about threshold: 

 

1) the plank, stone, or piece of timber that lies under a door: sill 2) a: gate, door b: (1): end, boundary; specifically: the end of a runway (2): the place or point of entering or beginning:  outset 3) the point at which a physiological or psychological effect begins to be produced (~ of consciousness) (a high renal clearance ~).

 

So liminality is best described as an in-between time or place.  In essence, things are ending and beginning simultaneously.  To be liminal is to be suspended between two points, without belonging to either.  For all of you biology majors, it is that moment when a neurotransmitter is suspended between the synapses of two neurons.  For all of you outdoor recreation buffs it is that moment when one is jumping from one rock to another and you are hanging in mid-air.  For all of you car owners who drive a manual transmission, it is that moment where you disengage the clutch in order to give it gas.  Hard to define where one ends and the other begins, but something significant is definitely happening.

 

As Christians, ones who belong to Christ, our spiritual walk is very liminal.  God is always wanting to do a new thing within us.  He is really into character development and new, abundant life.  Yet in order for the new thing to be born, something else must be relinquished.  So our lives become suffused with the tension of letting go and grabbing on.  Rarely does God manifest the new thing all at once.  It is a process that demands our blood, sweat and tears.  It must come from within us, so that it is truly a part of us.  Magic appearances do little more than scintillate our senses:  They have no lasting value; they are fleeting.  When God initiates change, it is a labor of Love, for Him and us.  This is God’s provision for lasting change; the cost assures us of its worth.  Thus we value the new life we are given.  But before it is born we labor with it.  Many times we are just so confused as to what the new thing is that we struggle with what old things must be retained as provision for the journey ahead or left behind as extra baggage.  These seasons are rarely neat; they are often messy, disorganized, and filled with disorientation.  And mostly these moments leave us exhausted, while we can’t even articulate why.  On the surface our lives may look as if not much is happening, yet inside tremendous change is taking place.

 

I believe God has enormous patience and love for those who have assented to the new thing He proposes; very rarely do we know what we get ourselves into.  And we cannot even say how or when or why we gave our yes, just that at some point we knew a time had come for the yes to be given.  I believe it is why our Lord has such a special place in His heart for college students.  Each one has said yes to such a radical upheaval of all that they know and love.  And not a one of them can say for sure where the pieces will lay when the four years are done.  Scariest of all is that sometimes at the end of four years, the degree is nowhere near finished, and that precious student stares into an uncertain future wondering where the time went.

 

So for all of those timid and tossed souls who are in the throws of liminality I bring tidings of Good News—God isn’t through with you:  “I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:4-6).  He has better things ahead, hopeful things and helpful things.  It is good to remember the butterfly that is formed only in the cocoon.  And Jesus does not arise resurrected from the cross.  First He was entombed for three days, and His resurrection is born from the resting place of His death.  Is the cocoon or tomb our true home?  Surely not!  But what looks dead on the outside nestles the stirrings of new life within, and at just the right time new life will burst forth with amazing clarity and joy.  Wait for it, it will come.  Hear His promises to you, dear one:  “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him” (I Corinthians 2:9).

 

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

 

You are gift-- Wesley Foundation E-letter (Methodist Campus Ministry)

Hey everyone!  Hope you all had a great spring break.  It is good to be back, and I look forward to seeing you this week.  We have some good things going on!

 

TONIGHT:  Worship at 6:30pm.  Come and be refreshed with God’s Presence!

 

THURSDAY:  We will talk about Spring Break and think about how God showed up for us during that time!

 

Now For Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

You are gift.  Not you are a gift.  Not you are the gift.  Just simply, you are gift.  English majors are probably going crazy right now at my choice of words.  But there is something power-filled in that statement.  When I hear it, receive it as if spoken to me, it has profound meaning; I am charged by its implications, reverberating against the walls of my soul.  You are gift.

 

Several things come to mind.  Last week during Spring Break my sweet baby and I went to a continuing education event at Camp Loucon.  Other clergy were gathered there, as well as several facilitators.  Jeremiah entered into this group of twenty five participants, and none of us will ever be the same.  Something about his presence seemed to change the very atmosphere, the air, we all breathed.  Quite literally what it means to come to the Kingdom of God as a child was staring at us wide-eyed and with a toothless grin for three days.  There is something so disarming about a baby.  Weathered pastors, weary from the burdens they left in their churches seemed to breathe easier as they grasped three month old fingers, goo-gooing into three month old eyes, sharing smiles with one that seems to enjoy the Heavenly humor most of us can only guess at.  Something about Jeremiah enjoying us seemed to help us enjoy ourselves, and our loads were lightened.

 

Since it was too soon to be separated from my new baby for seven days, one of my dear friends who serves on our Board took our students to Louisiana to do hurricane recovery for the week.  They found themselves working on a 100 year old house, in need of repair and restoration.  What a joy it was to hear how our students brought their humor and hard work to a monumental task that would have made experienced contractors weak in the knees.  Originally there was supposed to be another group joining ours on the work site.  They couldn’t make it.  This meant our small group of seven (only two of which were guys) had to tackle the whole thing by themselves.  And they completed the whole thing!  I couldn’t be more proud because I remember my original conversations with the site manager.  I know that their hard work and deep accomplishment took everyone by surprise.  What was more encouraging though was to hear how the lives of those who lived in the house were affected by our small group of students.  My friend said that by the end of the week the gruff residents had mellowed so much.  Who knows what ways that Jesus ministered through the collective example of Mona, Adrian, and our precious students.  Eternity is forever different because five students and a Board member and her husband were simply available to hang drywall and install flooring.

 

What strikes me is that in the two examples above there was no preaching involved, simply presence.  Somebody showed up.  Somebody entered into the stream of life with others and the course of the river changed.  You may think this is not a big deal, but lately I am staggered by the power of this “no big deal” in my life.  Sunday, March 14^th was Joe Winters birthday.  Someone said the word “trajectory” in church, and I sat there thanking God for Joe’s life because that is the word I often associate with him.  Joe married my Mom when I was seven years old.  For thirty years he has been a constant and abiding presence in my life.  He is not someone who preaches.  He doesn’t get overly emotional about stuff.  He is strong, steady, steadfast.  Faithful.  And I know he loves me.  For thirty years he has shown up in my life, simply being present.  And his presence has changed everything, altered the very trajectory that my life was headed, and gave this passionate and tender heart the grounding to stay secure in life’s storms.  I don’t have words to thank God for him.  I just have deep wells of gratitude and love.  Where would my life be today if Joe Winters had not entered into its stream?  Where would the course of the river have taken me if a steady hand had not been there to guide it to good places?  This ordinary miracle of somebody’s presence has made a heavenly difference, without even trying to. 

 

So what I say to you (and to me) is that you are gift.  Your life has profound meaning.  Just showing up where you are makes a difference that you cannot comprehend.  And God who gave you as gift gives to those around you in ways you cannot imagine.  So live this day with gratitude, thankful for those gifts who have graced your life, and confident that your life too is gift given.

 

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

 

Miracle on 14th Street--Wesley Foundation E-Letter (Methodist Campus Ministry)

Hey Everyone!  Hope you all had a great weekend and are rested for a new week!  Just one week to go before Spring Break.  Yahoo!  (And not the search engine, Yahoo, but the exclamation of great joy, Yahoo.)  I know that you will be blessed this week as you get ready for the many adventures that Spring Break brings.  You are all in my heart and prayers.  This week, here is what’s happening:

 

TONIGHT:  Worship @ 6:30 in our chapel.  We will be answering the “What” question of faith.  In other words we will be looking at the content of our faith.  If God is our focus, what is it that we believe about Him?  How do we know if it is right or not?  How can we tell if we are being misguided?  Come and find out the answers to these questions and more!

 

THURSDAY:  Free Meal & Program @ 6:30pm.  We will be taking time to put together our Outreach ministry for this spring.  Come and help us choose songs, scriptures, skits, etc.  We will also start putting dates on the calendar for visiting area churches and telling them about what God is doing at the Wesley!

 

NOW FOR SAMI’S RAMBLINGS ABOUT JESUS:

 

If you come to the Wesley Foundation, you will notice there is a cross on the concrete connecting the sidewalk to our door.  I’m not sure how it got there.  A few weeks ago one of my students brought it to my attention.  And she was amazed.  I had noticed it before, but I just believed that one of my Jesus crazy friends had anointed the sidewalk with oil or something.  I mean, if people could use oil to signify that something or someone has been separated unto God for His special purposes, why not a concrete entrance ramp?  So a couple of days ago I asked my crazy for Jesus friend if she knew where it had come from.  She told me she hadn’t even seen it, and no, she had not poured oil on our concrete.  Now I am amazed.  (See Brittany, you were right—God has shown up in a big way!!!!)  And even if someone did pour oil on our entrance ramp, it would have washed off a long time ago.  Only God knows how it got there.  Every time I see it I am reminded of Jesus’ words:  “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23).  And here’s the really cool thing:  Anyone who comes into our ministry house must pass over the sign of the cross to do so.  And everyday that I walk into our building I am reminded that I must die to self so that something much better can be given life within me.

 

Not sure what your daily dying or denying looks like, but here is mine.  Yesterday was my day to go to Nashville to see my spiritual director.  I think of it as my monthly spiritual pilgrimage that helps keep my soul healthy and my head screwed on right.  But getting out of town is a bit more difficult now with a new baby thrown into the mix.  So from the beginning of my day I felt like I was rushed, anxious that I couldn’t enjoy the special journey that keeps me nourished and able to do the work God has called me to.  On the way to dropping the kids off at Nanny’s, Isaiah found a toy fire truck and was holding it in his lap.  Once we left the house I began our morning ritual of asking him what he wanted to pray for.  He said Lightning McQueen and Mac.  So I began to pray for Lightning, Mac, and the rest of our family.  As soon as I began though, Isaiah began making siren noises.  At first I thought, “if I say something he will just want to do it more, so I will not say a word and he will tire of the noisemaking soon.”  No such luck.  In fact, the more I prayed the louder the siren noises got.  And what I really wanted to do was turn around and shout, “Hey, keep it down!  I’m trying to be spiritual here!”  Then I remembered the way people with grown children speak longingly of those days when their kids were small.  So I held my tongue.  After all, I decided, maybe it was just a sign that I needed Jesus to come and fight the fires in my life.  Maybe that’s what prayer is anyway, our way of calling upon God to come to our rescue.  And Holiness is like a fire anyway.

 

Eventually I was able to get the boys settled at Nanny’s and myself onto I-65 Southbound.  I made a brief stop at Hobby Lobby and bought a new journal, but instead of leisurely browsing and getting coffee and a bagel at Panera’s next door, I left realizing my time was quickly fleeting.  See, I’ve been visiting my aging grandmother who lives in Nashville before going on to my appointment.  When I started these visits, it just seemed like a natural thing to do because she lived so close to where I was headed.  How could I not when I my journey took me almost directly to her house?  And then last October my grandparents’ house burned.  Now they are living in an assisted living facility, and, again by God’s grace, just minutes from where I go for spiritual direction.  My short visits seem even more important now.  Getting there yesterday was a bit more frenzied.  I got caught in traffic, making me ten minutes later than I wanted to be.  Once more I felt rushed and anxious, longing for a day empty of an agenda without the pressure of time restraints.  And yes I did indulge in the thought that it would be so much easier to just skip the visit.  But once I was there, it was just so good to be there.  I realized how precious those few moments were.  And I remembered that someday I will not have the opportunity to visit my grandparents.  Someday they will go home to be with the Lord.  As I was leaving, Grandma said she really enjoyed being with me; we hugged several times as she walked me out the door.  Making my way to the next stop my whole feeling about my day had changed; my soul was charged with gratitude.  Something so simple had become something so Holy.  During my time with my spiritual director, we spoke of interruptions, how they are really invitations to a deeper life.  In fact, as she reminded me of Henri Nouwen’s words, interruptions are our ministry.

 

As I began making my way back home, I stopped at a favorite coffee shop.  It’s the place I go each time on my journey home to reflect on what I’ve learned, writing the God messages in my journal so I won’t forget, preparing myself to return to life in Bowling Green.  I noticed that there were new faces at the counter.  An older woman waited on me.  She seemed a bit confused by the whole thing.  Once I ordered she set about making my drink.  She was trying so hard to get all the elements right, to be attentive, and to figure out the crazy expresso machine.  Finally my drink was just about ready when one of the other workers remarked that they didn’t have decaf expresso.  So she had to start all over, going to the back of the store to get some ordinary decaf coffee to make my latte.  I was so tempted to say, “never mind, I’ll stick with caffeine,” but for the first time in my day, I didn’t have to hurry.  And my head was still spinning with the deep things that came forth from my heart earlier at my appointment; I just didn’t have the energy to chase after her.  It crossed my mind to be irritated with this woman for the slowness, but ultimately I didn’t even have the energy for that.  So I just waited.  Eventually she returned with my drink, she rang me up, and took my money.  As I turned to go, she said to me, “Thank you for your patience.”  And I could tell she really meant it.  For the first time it dawned on me that patience was what she needed the most; then I remembered how grateful I am when others are patient with me.  Once again I felt the press of the Holy on my heart.  He really is so near.

 

I feel like I spent a lot of yesterday dying to self, experiencing the press of the cross on my life.  I’ve titled today’s ramblings “Miracle on 14^th Street.”  I’ve discovered that miracles are much like seasons.  Some miracles we would choose.  They are the ones where the gift is obvious, abundant, and beautiful, like new life bursting forth as the glory of Spring.  But then some miracles choose us.  Like the certainty of winter, where things look very dead, empty, and barren.  Several things about winter strike me as I consider the trees having lost their leaves.  First is that one can finally see what the tree is made of.  Its trunk and branches stand in stark relief against the pale winter sky.  How beautiful to see the structure and the symmetry laid bare.  I marvel even at the tenacious growth of those trees previously cut back.  New branches sprout and take new life beyond the cut places.  Even though it is obvious where the branches were first sawed off, new sticks grow around and fill in the empty places.  This miracle is often hidden in the spring and summer time.  And then I am reminded that it is in winter that the roots go down.  Something that looks so dead is very much alive.  The growth of those roots makes longevity possible, especially for those times when there is little rain to sustain new growth.  That tree has developed in such a way during the winter months to dig deep for nourishment, drawing from the place of its birth everything it needs to survive.  And really, without those winter months, Spring never happens.  In this way the miracle of the cross invites us to die to self so that the precious Life, more abundant Life, of Christ may be realized within us.  So that God’s glory is manifest for us.  So that He can draw all people to Himself through us.  I believe that this is a miracle that has chosen us at this time, in this place, in this Lenten season.  It is an invitation to deny those first self-centered impulses in favor of a Christ consciousness that changes the atmosphere we’re living in.  And that is our reason for being:  to put a human face on God’s love; to create a safe place for students to meet Jesus; to discover who we are in Christ, and to take the love of Jesus beyond our own four walls.  So join me friends.  The Holy is near, and His cross presses upon us not as punishment or correction, but so that Christ may be lifted up, and we can bring Him near to everyone we see.  Winter may be here now, but soon Spring will burst forth with joy and reckless abandon.

 

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

 

Wesley Foundation--Weekly E-Letter (Methodist Campus Ministry)

Hello Everyone!  Hope you had a great weekend.  It was such a blessing to experience sunshine and warm weather!  Awesome!  Maybe Spring is on its way.  How cool would it be to be warm outside again?  That’s a funny sentence!

 

This week:

 

TONIGHT:  Worship @ 6:30pm.  Faith must have an object.  And all of us practice faith of some kind, we just may not realize it because its object may not be something we are conscious of.  Come and find out what it is utmost important to keep God as the object of our faith.  Tonight we will be answering the WHO question. 

 

WEDNESDAY:  Ladies group @ 3pm.  Yes we are on Ladies!  Woo Hoo!

 

THURSDAY:  Meal & program @ 6:30.  We will continue to dig into the word.  This time we will look at tools from critical thinking skills.  The university wants students to be able to think critically.  But those same skills that are used in the classroom can also take us deeper into an understanding of what God’s Word may be saying to us.  Should be fun!  Spice up your thinking!

 

SPRING RETREAT @ LOUCON:  Let me know if you can go April 10-12 to Loucon for our Spring Retreat.  Just got word that there is a possibility we might be able to partner with Wesley Foundation from U of L.  How completely cool is that!  Steve Boutell, campus minister there, is awesome.  We would have a fantastic time for sure!!!!!  Cost is $40. 

 

Now For Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

Last Wednesday several of us gathered in the chapel and received the imposition of ashes.  It was a time to mark the season of Lent, to remember how much we need God.  When I was in high school, my youth group celebrated Lent by having breakfast and a devotional every Wednesday morning before school.  I’m not quite sure how I got there, because my parents both worked in the big city, an hour away from the small town I lived in.  A part of that also involved giving something up.  My favorite thing to go without was always Dr. Pepper.  At the time it was my favorite soft drink, so there was some element of self denial there.  As the years went by I would give up TV shows that I knew weren’t good for me.  It seemed to be a natural way to break myself of bad habits and cut off the in-flow of mental junk food.  It’s seemed to help.  Whatever show I gave up has remained on my “let’s not watch this” list.  So I believe self-denial is good.  Those pangs of longing for that thing we’ve cut ourselves off from can serve as a reminder to turn our attention towards God.

 

This Lent there is an element of that in my practice this go around.  But in my heart is a deeper desire than to simply purge or order my life so that the extra baggage is done away with.  My prayer for each of us this Lent has been that we would enter deeply into the love of Christ and fall deeper in love with Jesus.  It is odd to be so focused on love during Lent, but I believe greater love is the ultimate goal of this season of repentance and discipline.  But it’s a lot easier for God to love us than it is for us to love God.  After all, He is invisible.  It takes faith, believing beyond what we can see, to know Him and commune with Him.  We are completely dependent upon Him to get this love feast started.

 

And that is exactly what He does.  The last few days I have been drawn to Song of Solomon.  I remember singing a song in Sunday School as a child, “He brought me to His banqueting table, and His banner over me is love; He brought me to His banqueting table, and His banner over me is love; He brought me to His banqueting table, and His banner over me is love; His banner over me is love.”  I’m sure if my Sunday School teachers had read all the words to that book, they probably wouldn’t have had us singing that song.  After all, of all the books in the Bible, this one is particularly laden with very strong language about the sharing of love in a physical way between a man and a woman.  It is very full of passion.  If it were a show on TV there would be an insignia in the upper right hand corner listed as TV-14, or even as TV-M, mature audiences only.  (I can just see Bibles being opened right now, and feverish turning of pages to the book right after Ecclesiastes.)  However, I believe it is the passion that draws me.  The Church included this book within the Bible because it is a picture of the passionate love God has for His people, and that Christ has for His bride.  The Lord would have us know that He is unashamedly, passionately loving us, right this minute, always, and forever.  John Wesley, the founder of Methodism put is this way:  “Grace for all and in all.”  God is reaching out to us in love, every moment of every day, to every person, whether He is recognized or not.

 

And what happens when we recognize and receive Him sets the world on fire.  John Wesley said just that, “I set myself on fire and people come to watch me burn.”  His heart was so stoked by the love of God that his radical message of grace was kicked out of the churches of his day.  He didn’t care.  He preached on the sidewalks.  And legend has it that he preached God’s message with such fervor that he left imprints of his feet in the concrete.  All because he discovered God loved him, really loved him. 

 

I can’t help but wonder what it would be like if each one of us made that discovery.  How radical would we be if our hearts were set on fire by His love?  To know in the core of who we are that He longs for us?  To hear Him speak of us with tender joy, and unabashed desire?  To know that if we allow it He will claim us for Himself and set a banner over us that declares His love to the world?  I have seen this.  A few weeks ago during the midnight feeding I discovered a woman preacher on TV who teaches scripture like I’ve never seen.  She has a way of uncovering the meaning of the text word by word, going to the deepest places and showing the original intent from the original language in a way that marries passion with study.  Only a nerd could be so consumed by such laborious study of text.  Yet this woman is no nerd.  She is stunning, with flawless features and flowing hair.  Physically beautiful.  Sure of the Gospel she preaches.  You can tell her confidence in the Lord is deep.  You can tell it has changed her life.  You can tell it is personal. 

 

So last week I wanted to know more.  I googled her name and found her website.  Along with it came entries from all kinds of different sources, some with a very different perspective on this woman preacher.  Her critics blast her because of a sordid past.  I mean sordid.  The kind that go way beyond a TV-M rating.  And apparently their accusations of what she was could very likely be true.  She doesn’t address her critics.  She ignores them.  She just keeps on preaching God’s word.  There is a big part of me that really wishes she would openly tell her story.  Because it is clear that whatever she may have been, she is not now.  I have often said that if God could call someone like me into ministry, God can call anyone.  Because I’m short.  Because I look like a teenager (although you have to stand further away now to be fooled).  Because I get so visibly excited about the craziest things.  Because I have such a college sense of humor.  Because I will use anything I can to get the message of God’s good news across . . . anything!  Because I am absolutely weird and quirky to the nth degree.  Because I am the last person you would want to organize anything.  Because I cry openly and laugh loudly.  Because, because, because.  But here’s the thing.  Here is a woman whose past defined her in way that is totally shunned by the church.  No one associated with anything religious would want her as their spokesperson.  It might send the wrong message.  But God wanted her more than her past branded her.  God placed His banner over her in boldness.  And she stood under it.  And today she waves His banner, the gospel in a way that brings Him near where others can’t.  Through a shunned and rejected vessel God is able to transform the world.  It’s true of her.  It’s true of me.  And it is true of anyone who reads this message.

 

The world would have us believe that true love is a competition, and only the most worthy woman (or man) left standing gets a rose.  And the enemy would have us believe that God gives roses the way the world does.  But the good news says that we are the rose.  We are the rose that God delights in and chooses for Himself.  He never rejects us.  He just gives us the room and free will to reject Him.  Yet even our  rejection will not quench His love.  So just immerse yourself in it this Lent.  Jump in.  Be drenched with love, and let it change everything.  Let it change the world you’re living in.

 

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

 

E-letter

Hey Folks!  Again, so much snow.  The good news is that we will be so happy and appreciative of Spring!  Woo Hoo!  Here are the things coming up this week:

 

ASH WEDNESDAY SERVICE:  Wednesday @ noon in the chapel.  Come and focus your heart and mind on the season of Lent, a time of reflection and drawing close to God. 

 

FRONT PORCH OUTREACH:  Wednesday, 12:30pm – 4pm  We will be giving away Warm Fuzzies, as well as free coffee and hot chocolate from our front porch.  Please come and join us! 

 

VERITAS:  Tonight.  Meet at Wesley at 7pm and we will walk over to Garrett Balroom together.  Well known speaker Os Guinness will be speaking on “The Thinking Person’s Search for Meaning.”  Bring a friend!

 

THURSDAY:  Join us on Thursday for free food and our program at 6:30pm.  We are having pizza and lots of it.  The good kind with oodles and oodles of toppings.  And a couple of pastas as well!  Also, we are beginning a time of looking at how Bible Study can make a difference in our lives.  Over the next few weeks I will be showing you the tools I use to keep Scripture in my head and heart, taking it in deeply to do its work.  We begin this Thursday by looking at how to study Greek when you don’t know Greek.  It’s not hard and it can be such a blessing to get a true picture of what the original writers meant.  Woo Hoo!

 

NOW FOR SAMI’S RAMBLINGS ABOUT JESUS:

 

Do you ever just have one of those days?  Sometimes I think I am just having one of those months, or even one of those years.  Like everything in life, difficulty and challenge seem to circle through our experiences; like the seasons periods of tough times come around on a regular basis.  It is so easy to get discouraged, but that is not God’s intention for us.  God has something better in mind.

 

Ever since last week I have pondered the whole distinction between the peace Jesus gives and the agitation, or troubling, we get from the other guy.  What is clear to me is that the Peace Jesus offers and promises does not come with a smooth sailing guarantee.  In fact, storms are just a part of life.  I’ve always been kind of tickled by the story of Jesus and the disciples caught in the storm while in a boat.  Jesus sleeps through it.  (I would assume He had been up in the wee hours of the night before feeding an infant, but that’s not part of His story.  Tim would attest to my ability to sleep through just about anything.)  The disciples freak out!  They wake Jesus and ask Him if He even cares that they are perishing.  A little miffed from being awoken, Jesus speaks to the wind and the waves, “Peace! Be still!” (Mark 4 39).  And I tend to think it is not so much because He minds the wind and waves, but because it is the only way He can get the disciples to allow Him some shut-eye.  After he rebukes the wind and the waves, He turns His attention to the disciples saying, “Why are you afraid?  Have you still no faith?” (Mark 4:40).  I don’t think the intonation was like, “Okay you little darlings, why were you scared?”  I believe it was a ton more irritated, like “What is wrong with you, and why are you waking me up!?”  I mean really, isn’t it comforting to know that Jesus thinks the wind and waves are no big deal?  Isn’t it nice to know He knows He can sit this one out?  It’s not like He is in the Garden of Gethsemane sweating blood.  Now that would freak me out!  But ironically, that is when the disciples are asleep.

 

It is so like us.  So like me.  I look around at the storms in my life, or sometimes just the ones in my heart, or sometimes just the ones in my head, and with great affect I cry out, “Oh God!  Don’t you care that I’m perishing?!”  God has such a different perspective than me.  I can see Him kind of laughing and saying, “Little one, why are you afraid?  Have you still no faith?”  How many storms has He already brought me through?  Things Jesus could sleep through, because He knew they were really nothing in the grand scheme of my life.  I believe His perspective on difficulty is supremely helpful here.  It gives us a frame of reference for locating difficulty in its proper place.  No, we are not perishing.  He is just allowing a good polishing.  It’s just something about Him.  He likes really shiny believers!  So here are a few ways that God’s perspective reframes difficulty for us.

 

Scripture tells us that God will allow difficulty in our lives for several reasons.  One is for bringing maturity.  The book of James says,

 

“My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:2-4). 

 

Another reason is for discipline, or training, (as in an athlete that is training for the Olympics, or a child who is learning good manners).  After talking about running the race with perseverance, the writer of Hebrews says,

 

“Endure trials for the sake of discipline.  God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline? . . . . Now, discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:7,11). 

 

It also yields the wonderful fruit of Olympic medals!  One more reason for difficulty is that it reveals God’s glory in our lives.  Romans teaches that while we already have obtained peace with God, standing in His grace, it is through difficulty that we share His glory: 

 

“Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.  And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Romans 5:1-5).

 

In the midst of all this, the enemy works really hard to influence what we believe about difficulty.  The fact is that life is difficult.  Whether you have faith in Christ, whether you don’t, all of us will experience hard times.  But the enemy tries to frame our beliefs about that difficulty around untruth so that we stay defeated, discouraged, and disgruntled as a way of dimming God’s light in our lives and subsequently in the world.  The first lie the enemy tries to get us to believe is that Christians should not experience hardships because they belong to God, as if being a child of God is a special club that exempts its members from the unpleasant aspects of belonging to the human race.  But as Christians, or Christ’s ones, we are to follow His own example.  And as He explained to a would-be follower, often times He didn’t have a place to lay His head.  Jesus came to us in the flesh, not to give us a way to escape the human condition, but precisely to enter deeply into the human condition, to reveal His glory in every part of it.  Scripture says this to us:

 

“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.  But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed”  (I Peter 4:12-3).

 

Another false belief the enemy would lure us into is believing that God is absent in our trials.  That we must endure them alone, without any help.  And yet it is God’s very own presence that allows us to bear up under whatever difficulty we are experiencing.  II Corinthians puts it this way:

 

“But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.  We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. . . .  So we do not lose heart.  Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.”  (II Corinthians 4:8-10, 16).

 

Even when we get the first two perspectives, the enemy would try to keep us defeated by trying to get us to believe that our experience of difficulty is empty and barren, with no redemptive value whatsoever.  It is one of the ways the enemy tries to rob our lives of their value.  Paul says, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18).   As we are obedient in submitting our difficulty into the hand of God, allowing Him to shape us through it, to develop within us those qualities that reveal His light to the world, God is then able to reposition our lives to the place where our light shines the most.  He never wastes the life of humble submission.  Those rare souls who will bear up under trials, choosing no matter what to love Him and seek His face even when it is hard, have a metal that has been tempered in life’s fires without faltering.  They are then ready to be used in ways that they could not before.  Their strength has been developed for a purpose that once exercised brings them great joy and the Heavenly Father great glory.  Scripture says it like this:

 

“Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time.  Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.  Discipline yourselves, keep alert.  Like a roaring lion you adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering.  And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you.  To him be the power forever and ever.  Amen”  (I Peter 5:6-11).

 

The right frame makes all the difference in the picture that is presented.  I have in my office a photograph that was taken from an ordinary camera on a Wesley Foundation Spring break trip during the 80’s.  When I first saw it in a stack of other old photos, I first thought it was pretty ordinary.  But then I had this nudge to use it for a worship service.  So I put it in a frame and displayed it with a purpose of sharing God’s truth when decorating a prayer room.  Now it speaks to me through beauty that God’s grace brought to light.  And that is the picture God is making in our lives.  His grace reframes our hard times in such a way that beauty and light pour out of them.  We just have to give Him a chance to do it.  As one of my Wesley guys says, it’s all in the attitude.

 

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

 

Wake Up

Now For Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

There is a book sitting on a shelf in my office called The Awakened Heart.  While the book itself is kind of a hard read (I’ve started and stopped it on several occasions), the title suggests something that stirs me deeply.  I believe it is so easy to get into a rut in life, following the well worn path of the previous day, the previous week, the previous year.  In many ways it makes life easier.  The habitual tending to well-known events creates patterns of behavior that require little thought and thus less effort than new endeavors.  It saves energy.  It frees us up for the extra stuff we really enjoy.  Yet what tends to happen is that we never get around to enjoying life with our extra energy—we simply spend it doing another something mindless:  another video game, another Facebook perusal, another Grey’s Anatomy, another hour spent without really connecting with, adventuring in, or enjoying the life we were given as gift.  Our greatest gift seems to become drudgery.  Ho Hum.

 

But there really is something more.  Last night during worship I encouraged each person to consider the faith that God has in each of us at the moment of our creation.  Each one of us is a unique expression of the Father’s heart.  How it must delight Him to see the creative handiwork He intentionally crafts in our mama’s bellies come to life at our birth.  I can imagine His joy radiating from Heaven’s vantage point as He closely follows each part of our developing self.  And when those funny little quirks, talents, and special abilities present themselves, I can just see Him elbowing Jesus and commenting, “See that?  I put that there.”  What faith He expresses in humanity when He gives us life, each person delivered to the world bundled with a destiny and purpose that only she or he can fulfill.  And our sweet and precious Creator risks it all in releasing us to our own choices, with no predetermined law that says we must become what He intended, only a simple invitation to fulfill the life He has given to us by entering into His life filling the earth.

 

And so I say to every heart that hears me, “Wake up!”  Life is too short to let it pass by in familiar oblivion.  Wake up!  This past week my family got a wake up call when our dear neighbor passed away on Monday.  Our boys called him Mr. Lonnie.  What spoke to me most about Lonnie was the way he lived a woken up life.  It was so sweet a couple of years ago to see the kayak he bought for his wife.  Together they would pull it out when it was warm and explore the different creeks and rivers in our area.  Last year he took her to Hawaii.  Just last fall they traveled to New England, just the two of them.  Enjoying the beauty of a different part of the country as a way to get away and just be together.  I love the boldness such excursions.  When the economy would dictate prudence and thrift, they enjoyed each other and invested in what matters most for relationships, each other.  It has truly been a witness to Tim and I.  When it was warm outside and our family would play in the front yard and drive-way, Mr. Lonnie would always come over and chat when he went to retrieve his mail.  He and his wife Linda would always share themselves with us with such generosity.  He was interested to hear what the boys had to say, which was really important stuff coming from a five and three year old.  He would patiently listen, taking an interest in their stories, and would then invite them into his own life, showing them the vegetables growing in his garden, letting them help water his plants, allowing them room to run in his front yard.  Lonnie had a way of connecting people to each other, connecting neighbors to neighbors, building a sense of community for all of us as he would share news from along the street.  It’s hard for our family with three children and two full time jobs to really be neighborly and connect.  He made it easy.  His welcome smile and easy going warmth helped us to look beyond the boundary lines of our own yard.  It seems now that his faith, again, easy going and welcome, is helping us look beyond the boundary lines of earth and into the sweet embrace of heaven.  I hate that he’s gone.  I hate it for Linda.  But I know that he is home with the Lord, whom he loved very much.  And it reminds me that someday when I die on this earth I will be glad to go home too.

 

In the meantime I am here.  And I don’t want to waste a minute of it.  Just like Lonnie I want to be mindful of the time I spend living.  I want to go on adventures with my sweetheart; I want to sing silly songs at the top of my lungs with my children; I want to laugh with abandon, surrounded by students; I want to pray, and encourage, and rejoice.  I want my heart to be awakened to God’s invitation of joy that lives in each moment.  I want to receive the gifts that life has to offer, even when they may be wrapped in difficulty, challenge, and heartache.  I want to be the kind of person that welcomes others into God’s life alive all around us, to laugh, to play, to sing, to dance.  I want to wake up.  I don’t want to be oblivious to the gift of life, within and around me. 

 

It’s hard to be reminded that life is short.  But here we are at the beginning of another year, a chance for a new beginning, a fresh start.  Let’s give ourselves the gift of life that is really life.  Let’s wake up.  Let’s enter into God’s life that is alive all around us.  Let’s make Him grin as we enjoy the sweet gifts of another day. 

 

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

 

Niggles--Wesley Foundation E-Letter (Methodist Campus Ministry)

Dear Friends,

 

Hope you are all doing well on this cold snowy morning!  It’s slick out there, so be careful walking to class.  It will be so nice once spring comes!  Here are a few announcements about stuff coming up:

 

Warm Fuzzy Outreach:  Obviously not happening today with the snow.  We will decide what to do tonight at worship and explore the possibility of doing it inside later on in the week. 

 

WORSHIP TONIGHT!!!!  We are still on at 6:30pm.  Tonight we will be looking at faith and what it looks like in our lives.  We will be answering the “Who” question.  Every experience of faith has a focus—what’s yours?

 

THURSDAY NIGHT:  Food @ 6:30pm.  Then program.  Yes, we will be reviving the Warm Fuzzy Tale.  For those of you who have never heard it, you are in for a treat.  Apparently it is quite funny, while having a good message as well.

 

SPRING BREAK DEPOSIT:  If you are going on our Spring Break Mission Trip I need a verbal confirmation this Thursday and a $50 deposit by next Tuesday.  Again, our trip is to do hurricane relief in Louisiana March 6-12.  Total cost is $200.

 

VERITAS, CAMPUS WIDE EVENT:  Next Tuesday night at 7:30pm at Garrett.  We will meet here at 7pm and walk over together.  This is an awesome event involving all of the campus ministries at WKU.  It is also a great opportunity to bring up the subject of faith with someone who doesn’t really believe, but who is curious from an intellectual standpoint.  It is a great discussion starter.

 

Now For Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

You know when something catches your attention and won’t leave you alone until you really pay attention to it?  It’s like it stays at just the edges of your consciousness, never quite going away.  It sits in your heart and mind, like a shadow cast from an unknown object, like the buzzing of an unseen bee.  You can sense its presence without pinpointing its origin.  In a word, it niggles.

 

What a cool word is that!? I used that word one night in a lesson at Wesley and the students looked at me like I had lost my marbles.  But I LOVE that word, because it describes what happens when a thought plays hide and seek with our recognition; it is really an invitation to something more, something deeper, disguised as a riddle.  It niggles.

 

Last Thursday night I attended the “Celebration of Life” service for our dear friend Lonnie, who went to be home with the Lord early last week.  In the course of his service one of the pastors read a passage from the gospel of John.  As I listened and followed along in my Bible a sentence caught my attention and all weekend niggled at me:  “Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not let them be afraid” (John 14:27).  I have heard and seen that verse many times, but last Thursday night something about that verse struck me in a way it never had before.  I think it was implication and invitation.  Let me explain.  In this chapter of John, Jesus is speaking to His disciples shortly before His death.  He is telling them many things which will take place in the days to come.  He senses the difficulty they have in hearing it, and in the midst of compassionate words of comfort He tells them to not give themselves over to troubled-ness and fear.  It is as if He is saying, “you are the gate-keeper here.  Only you can decide whether these elements have access to your heart.  But by the way, they don’t automatically get access.  That is something only you provide.”  The implication is that we allow our hearts to be troubled and fearful when we don’t have to.  The invitation is to choose differently, to carefully guard the gate of hearts and not let those things in.  At the niggling continued, I was intrigued.

 

This morning I decided to dig deeper.  My search led me to really try to understand the original meaning of the words used, to see if there were treasures hidden in the Greek.  I began with the word “troubled.”  The original Greek word is tarassestho  which means “to stir or agitate (roil water), to trouble”.  It is a present (happening right now) passive (subject is receiving the action of the verb) imperitive (expressing a command or request, Jesus asking us to not allow the troubling) verb.  What really got me is that there is someone outside of us who is doing the troubling.  We are the objects of someone else’s stirring or agitating.  We are definitely getting trouble, not as a noun (as in random difficulty), not as an adjective (that describes how we see an event or thing that happens), but as in a verb (we’re being messed with!).  The implication is that we have an enemy that is actively working to keep our emotions stirred up.  The good news in this realization is that this troubling definitely has a source outside of us.  So many times it seems as if our anxiety is something that originates from within.  Those pesky areas of upset just always seem so personal to us, and so imbedded in who we are that it feels impossible to escape those tormenting worries.  But in fact we are being troubled from the outside.  The enemy will purposefully thrust certain details into our attention as a way to agitate and stir us up, to keep us in unrest.  Just recognizing that somehow takes the enemy’s power away.  It’s like when siblings push each other’s buttons.  Once we understand the tactic, we can ignore it and go on.  Jesus seems to be saying just that:  “Ignore it; go on.”

 

But that is much easier said than done.  Which leads to the next word worth pondering:  “be afraid” or deliato in Greek.  It means “to be cowardly, to be timid, to be afraid.”  It is a present (happening right now) active (subject is performing the action of the verb) imperitive (expressing a command or request, Jesus asking us to stop being scared) verb. The distinction this time is that the subject, instead of being acted upon is now doing the acting.  It is as if we experience the troubling that comes from an outside source and our internal response is fear, which is exactly what the enemy is intent on stirring up.  Instead of ignoring the agitation, we focus on it and come into (walk into) a state of fear because of it.  It takes up residence within us and we actively participate in making it bigger.  This tweeks my first impression.  It isn’t that we allow fear into our heart.  It’s that our heart chooses fear as a response to whatever is stimulating it (thus making the original agitation much bigger than it is, and giving it so much more power than it has).  Not only is Jesus suggesting that we ignore the original agitation, He is also saying that we can choose a different response.  Instead of buying into the enemy’s illusion that the trouble we are experiencing is bigger than we are and bigger than God, we can rather focus our hearts on God, remembering His might, His past faithfulness, His ever-present goodness, His current presence. When our attention is focused on our fear  we don’t have room to look for God’s perspective.  But when we focus our hearts on God’s heart and perspective, we no longer have room for fear.

 

So how do we do this?  Jesus says to us, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you” (John 14:27).  The word for “peace” in the Greek is eirenen.  It means “one, peace, quietness, rest.”  Jesus is saying that He is giving us (from didome: bestowing upon us, committing and delivering to us) the very rest and quietness from within His own soul.  Before He ever suggests that we can disallow the trouble and fear that reside in our hearts, He invites us to give space to something else; He is offering us the undisturbed nature of Himself as the antidote to the unrest that our enemy would cause.  What is amazing to me is that Webster’s defines antidote (a derivative of the Latin anti, against, and the Greek word diddonai, to give) as 1) a remedy to counteract a poison and 2) anything that works against an evil or unwanted condition.  As we allow the quietness, rest and peace of Christ to dwell within us, there is no longer any room for anything else.  His peace within us cannot be troubled, and He cannot be afraid. And so too as we are one with Him, neither can we.

 

I don’t know how else to experience this but to love Him, spend time with Him, especially to praise and worship Him, to surround myself with people who help me do this.  When I am filled up with Him it leaves no room for the enemy.  When I am distracted or when I allow my attention to be troubled by well-known triggers, I am allowing myself to be left wide open to the enemy who delights in agitating my fears, stirring them up, until they take on a life of their own.  Jesus seems to be saying to my heart that I don’t even have to open that door.  I can slam it shut at the first hint of agitation.  And you can too.  This niggles for 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

 

Baby News and End of Semester Schedule--Wesley E-letter

Hey everyone!  Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving.  You have been in my heart and prayers.  I finally finished a couple of weeks ago the prayer ring that has each of the different kind of beaded lanyards on it that we handed out (and I hope you kept) at the beginning of the semester.  I have it at home with me, so even though I’m not there in person, I am there in heart.  I think of all of you often and I have been praying for you as the end of the semester nears. 

 

Just a word about Jeremiah’s arrival.  I go to the hospital tomorrow morning at the crack of dawn.  My c-section is scheduled for 7:30am.  For those of you who have seen me in the mornings you can pray for me.  I’m a night owl for a reason.  J  I was hoping he would be here by now so I could participate in our end of semester activities, but that hasn’t panned out.  BUT I am determined to be there for at least some of our Christmas party a week from this Thursday.  Tim and I have already talked about how we can make that happen.  Don’t know how long I will be able to stay, but I really want to see you all before you leave for the break.  And I will have Christmas presents with me for y’all.  Please be there so I can hug your neck!  J

 

Speaking of which, here is a look at the next two weeks (Tyler will send more details on facebook):

 

Tuesday, Dec. 1^st, 6:30pm—Advent service.  We will have this in our chapel, and it is going to be student led!  Awesome!  This is my favorite worship service of the year.  We do all the advent candles in one night.  It is so cool; you don’t want to miss it.

 

Thursday, Dec. 3^rd, 6:30pm—Hot Chocolate & Christmas Clips.  Will have dinner and drink hot chocolate and maybe decorate and watch Christmas movies.  Woo Hoo!

 

Tuesday, Dec. 8^th, 6:30pm—Christmas Communion Service.  This is going to be great.  Louis from Broadway will be there to lead us in a time of reflection on the special-ness of the season, complete with a candlelight communion.  How cool is that.  Come and finish the semester with a special time of worship.

 

Thursday, Dec. 10^th, 6:30pm—Food & Christmas Party.  This is the one I’m going to try to get to!!!!!!!  Yay!  We will eat as usual and then have our gift exchange, etc.  Hound Tyler on facebook about what to bring for exchange.

 

Finals Lunches—On the Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday of finals week we will have free lunch provided.  Come and relax and be blessed!!!

 

Now a final word…..

 

I can’t tell you how much you all mean to me.  You remain so close to my heart, and I am so thankful for the opportunity to be a part of your lives.  Know that I miss and love you, and am praying for you during this crazy time.

 

Blessings,

 

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