The Perspective of Heaven--Wesley Foundation E-letter (Methodist Campus Ministry)

Dear Friends,

 

Hope everyone is doing well.  It looks like Fall has officially begun.  I am actually cold as I sit here in my office, and I even have long sleeves and jeans on!  But it is nice to have a change of season.  It’s good to enjoy the crispness of autumn.

 

This is what we have going on this week.  Tonight at worship (6:30pm) we will focus on God’s mercy:  What does God’s mercy look like?  How does it impact our lives?  And then on Thursday night, after we eat (6:30pm) we will discuss the next part of the Lord’s Prayer—Give us this day our daily bread.  Come and see how God’s provision extends to your life.

 

Just FYI—Our city-wide worship for college students and young adults is on Thursday October 15^th, the next Thursday after Fall Break.  We will meet here as usually for dinner and a brief program, then we will head to State Street UMC to join other college ministries from our local churches for an AWESOME time of worship.  I am so pumped!  DG Hollums is coming to preach!  He is an awesome communicator who really is on the cutting edge of what God is doing in the lives of this generation.  He has a heart for Jesus that translates into a powerful message to change lives.  And he has cool tatoos.  Maybe after this baby is born I might get some too!  J  We’ll see—

 

Now For Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

Last night I watched a PBS special on the founding of America’s National Parks.  Ever since Tim and I visited Yellowstone several years ago, I watch everything I can on the great parks.  I was incredibly moved to be in the vastness of nature and see first hand the wonders of God’s creation.  My dream is to return someday and share the experience with my children.  Even though they are still too small for such a grand adventure, it is enough to go on less dramatic excursions.  We spent time over the summer in the Smokies, taking in the mist covered mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee.  And before Noah’s first day of school we went on a day trip to Mammoth Cave and walked two small trails.  Our little hike around a pond was the most successful venture.  For a few brief moments our lives were transfixed by the sound of bull frogs calling to each other over the water.  Simple miracles—we had never heard those before.

 

I feel close to God when I am in nature.  Its silence and simplicity have a way of revealing to my heart all of the ways I make life more complicated than it has to be.  I love Jesus’ words that admonish us to consider the lilies of the field, to forsake worry because God clothes them in glory and they are but grass.  How much greater is His love for us.  But how many of us ever take the time to actually walk in a field?  When do our lives in this fast paced world intersect with things only God made?  Everything around us is man-made.  If you take your shoes off you can probably find a spot that says “man-made materials.”  I believe this is why last night’s special resonated so much with me.  It told the story of how ordinary people fought to reserve the natural wonders of our country for everyone to enjoy and experience, to not allow unthinking and unhindered “progress” to rob us of the natural treasures that can never be replaced if destroyed.

 

Interwoven through the show was the story of John Muir, the European born conservationist who founded the Sierra Club.  Largely because of his efforts Yosemite National Park was created, and later Yosemite Valley was later added.  The friendship and influence he had upon President Theodore Roosevelt resulted in the preservation and conservation of many sites that otherwise would not have been spared.  The end of his life is rather sad though.  He spent his last years trying to save another valley from the influence of progress and lost.  The city of San Francisco eventually won the right to damn up the Tuolumne River (which originates and runs through Yosemite National Park) and turn Hetch Hetchy Valley into a reservoir for the city’s use.  Heart broken, Muir died in despair. 

 

But that’s not the end of the story.   After seeing how the construction of the damn impacted the valley and surrounding area, many conservationists began to work to arduously to strengthen and shore up the protection offered by federal authorities for National Parks.  Because of their efforts, the existing lands that have been preserved through the national park system are far safer than they were in the fledgling years of the project.  His efforts to save Hetch Hetchy Valley were not in vain.  Others noticed and were inspired.  What did not work for him eventually worked for them in ways he could not have imagined, with affects far more reaching than his efforts alone.  Yet without his humble gift of passion to ignite theirs, their efforts would not have even existed.

 

And that’s the thing.  I’m sitting here stunned by the power of this realization, the power of the faithful effort humbly given.  Often our efforts seem small and inconsequential.  Often they are thankless and menial.  Often they are unnoticed and dismissed.  And often at the end of the day, we throw in our towel defeated, sometimes even in despair because we don’t believe we made any difference at all.  Yet Heaven has a different perspective.  It touched my heart tremendously to hear one of our new students talk about how she received one of our small care packages last year.  Even though she never made it up the hill for any of our meetings or events, that gift was a huge encouragement to her.  For years putting those bags together has felt like wasted effort, yet in that one moment it seemed God pulled back the clouds and gave me the perspective of Heaven. 

 

We cannot judge the viability of our lives.  We are too immersed in the earthly dimension to clearly see how we impact those around us.  Yet we may be comforted with this thought:  God honors our faithfulness.  As we keep giving ourselves into God’s hands, trying our best to live right, each day seeking His guidance for the little things, and then by faith (because often we don’t have a clue) just going with what we got, we can trust that God will lead us into paths of righteousness.  We can also trust that God will take that daily offering and transform it into something that leaves an indelible mark on history, something that is beautiful and lasting:  “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.  Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people” (Galatians 6:9-10).

 

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

 

What Season Is It? Wesley Foundation E-letter (Methodist Campus Ministry)

Hey everyone!  Hope you are all doing well!  I so enjoy the times I get to spend with you, just hanging out during the day between classes, or at worship in our chapel, or in our very spirited discussions on Thursday nights.  Please know that each one of you are so precious, in God’s eyes and in mine.  And if you are reading this and haven’t been over to check us out yet, come on down!  We would love to see you.  I promise you will find folks who are glad you came.  Find out what you’ve been missing!

 

This week here’s the scoop:

 

Tomorrow night at 6:30pm in the chapel, we continue our look at Grace.  Tomorrow’s message focuses on the durability of Grace.  It’s not a word we are used to in this day and age, but its implications for your life will astound you.

 

And then what we’ve all been waiting for……

 

PROGRESSIVE DINNER!!!!!!!!!!

 

This Thursday night we will meet at the Wesley Foundation at 5PM to begin our tour of all the United Methodist congregations in town.  I am so excited about this!!!! We will have such a great time.  Here is a run-down of the schedule:

 

5:30PM STATE ST. UMC—APPETIZERS

 

6:15PM ST. JAMES UMC—SOUP & SALAD

 

7PM  BROADWAY UMC—MAIN COURSE

 

7:45PM  CHRIST UMC—DESSERT

 

8:30PM  FAITH UMC—COFFEE & TEA

 

Why are we doing this?  You may not realize that each one of these churches (as well as many others who are not in our immediate area) provide for our ministry in some way.  All of them help feed us on Thursday nights or during finals week providing a home cooked meal.  They help us out with worship, sending praise teams to lead us once a month, giving a chance for our student worship leaders to rest and be refueled.  They also volunteer for our work days, painting, mulching, cleaning, whatever needs to be done to help us out.  Many of them have members that serve on our Board of Directors, making sure we are financially healthy and sound in our business workings.  Each one of these congregations loves you, and shows that love of Christ in tangible ways.  This is an opportunity for us to see where they are and get to know them as well!  And many of you stay in town on weekends and need a place to worship, to connect with a church family where your gifts can be used in great ways too. 

 

So I look forward to seeing you soon.  If you have any questions, just give me a call, e-mail, or we always have FACEBOOK! 

 

If you need DIRECTIONS let me know!  J

 

 

Now For Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

Time continues to be a topic on my mind.  This morning I spent time preparing to teach my University Experience class.  We are focusing on the subject of time management, and I have asked all my students to complete a time management chart that has a block for every hour of every day.  They have to fill in the chart by activity, color coding each different kind and labeling each block of time according to how it is being spent.  Afterwards they are to write a paper on what they learned.  In my preparation, I made a time management chart for myself. 

 

It would be so easy to just keep the same one hanging on my wall as last year’s, but there is something about the discipline of creating a new chart each year that is good for me.  I guess it has a way of holding me accountable for the choices I am making, or at least it forces me to be aware of the choices I am making.  That awareness is a gift; with it I am empowered to make different, wiser choices.  Unawareness robs me of the power to choose the kind of life I really want to live. 

 

Here is what I learned this morning.  I have been allowing stuff to creep into the time in my schedule that belongs to God.  It’s not that I don’t think about God a lot during my day.  I do.  It’s not that prayer isn’t a regular part of how I spend my time.  I talk to God a lot!  But what I have not been doing is just being, allowing a fallow time in my schedule where God can just show up and do what He wants to.  I have not created space where I have an opportunity to “lie down in green pastures,” to sit “beside the still waters,” to “restore my soul.”  God hasn’t had the room to shepherd me because I have been so busy shepherding everyone else.  Even my prayer time has been about praying for someone instead of just being replenished.  No wonder God keeps waking me up in my bed at 3 am.  I’m preoccupied with other stuff every where else.  How’s that for confessional!

 

As I finished coloring my chart this morning, a verse of scripture came to mind, and I wrote it in brown across the top:  “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1).  Beside it I wrote last week’s verse of inspiration:  “My times are in Your hand” (Psalm 31:15).  I wrote them in brown to remind me that I am only dust after all.  All the grandiose ideas I have about being everything to everybody, and accomplishing everything that lives inside my head, are after all unrealistic.  But if I never take time to slow down, and simply be a sheep led by The Good Shepherd, I will never have the insight or wisdom I need to know the season I am in, to decipher which things are most important, and to have that special awareness of God’s Holy Spirit within me that gives life to my days and always directs my steps right to where they need to be. 

 

I share this because old habits die hard.  I remember that it’s not just “out of college” schedules that need a heavy dose of heavenly overhaul.  I remember that the craziness of my life started way back in the good ole days, when higher education began to demand more of me than I thought I could give.  I know many of you live that reality every day.  Just know you are not alone.  God knows you have responsibilities and obligations.  He also knows better than you and I what our deepest and truest needs are as well.  When we live each day from the palm of His hand, everything finds its rightful place in the grand scheme of things.  It all has a way of working out.  My challenge to you is to make sure you have given God time in your life to tend to the needs of your soul.  You could do it yourself, but quite honestly, like me, you are only dust.  We have no way of knowing what it is that really breathes life into our fallible bodies.  We need to allow Someone better able than us to lead us into green pastures, so that eventually we will also walk in right paths.  Notice the right paths, those paths of righteousness (right way-ness) only follow the moment spent lying in green pastures and reclining by still waters.  Don’t be afraid to let Him restore your soul.  It is the best time-management choice you will ever make.

 

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

 

All Will Be Well--Wesley Foundation E-Letter (Methodist Campus Ministry)

Hey everyone!  Did you have a good weekend?  I did—and I’m so glad to be back on campus with you.  I feel so blessed that I get paid to walk this journey with each of you.  If I’ve forgotten to tell you lately, YOU ROCK!  And you have a special place in my heart.  So how about all the cool stuff we have going on this week?

 

WORSHIP is tomorrow night, 6:30pm as usual in the chapel.  We will begin looking at our theme for the year:  FREE FOOD.  What are we really saying when we offer people Grace that is best demonstrated in free food?  What does it mean for us?  How does it change our lives forever?

 

Also beginning on Wednesday @ 3pm LADIES SMALL GROUP!  Yay!  It’s time to start up again.  I know the time may not work for everyone, but we might be able to have some student led groups at another time as well.  I’m so excited about what we will be doing!

 

THURSDAY is free meal and program.  We will be looking at what does it mean to pray, “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done.”  Wow, what does it mean?  Come and find out. 

 

Anyone up for stuffing bags with me?  Our project for the week is to get our grab bags out to campus!  Yay!  I have more to put in them, but just need help dropping candy in. 

 

Now For Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

Time is a big deal for me lately.  I am constantly seeking to know what time it is.  It is time to walk up the hill to teach my University Experience Class?  Do I have time to prepare my lesson?  Was the time I gave it adequate?  Is it time to lead worship?  Is it time for students to start arriving for our weekly meal?   Do I have time to make an extra trip to Walmart to get last minute groceries to make sure we have enough to go around?  Will all the projects for the beginning of school that fit in my head fit into the actual hours and days I have allotted to fulfilling them?  These are the time questions that I wrestle with every fall.  However, this fall my time questions are punctuated with more down to earth, basic concerns (for those of you who don’t know, I’m 27 weeks pregnant):  Is it time to eat?  My stomach is growling.  Can I wait the extra half hour at the nice restaurant or do I need to just get something fast because I am SOOOOO hungry?  Do I have time to pee?  Where is the nearest bathroom?  When will I go poop?  I sure don’t want to miss that important time each day!  If I don’t go, does that mean something is wrong and I’m in for another painful episode where I spend the afternoon in the hospital?  Then where does my time go?  Did I take the time to rest like I’m supposed to?  Did I remember that rest time right now is the most important time, that it’s no longer wasted time but healing time?  What if I don’t take time to rest, will my body crash?  Will I have enough time to devote to those I love so much-- my three precious boys at home, my dear students at my Wesley home?  Did I take the time to make sure that this baby growing in my belly is safe and nourished and healthy?  Where does all my time go?

 

It seems like such an insignificant question, but it’s one of the most important questions I struggle with each day.  I realize now that the decisions I make regarding my time affect not only me, but others. I want to honor the time God has given me in a way that honors Him, and especially those He has placed in my care:  my students, my children, my husband . . . as well as this Jeremiah boy who will be born in a couple of months, and this body that must keep him safe and well until he arrives.  How I spend my time does matter.

 

It didn’t used to seem like how I spent my time was such a big deal, but even as a young person I struggled with time, as I see many of you doing.  I see you struggling to adjust to the demands of your professors, each of whom believes that his or her class is the most important one you will ever take in your college career and levies assignments to match that expectation.  I see you struggling to find the time to work, knowing that if you don’t work, you won’t eat, or be able to pay your tuition, or even buy your books.  (btw, if you are worried about eating, please come see me.  I don’t want any of you to be hungry.)  I see you struggling to make sure you have time for friendships and Wesley activities, needing that precious time to unwind and laugh, and just be.  I see you struggling to juggle time commitments to family members, who are still important in your life, but not necessarily a part of your everyday life.  I know that like me you ask yourselves often, “Where does all my time go?”  And the pressing demands of each day also tend to stretch into worries for the future:  Will I be able to graduate on time?  Did I lose too much time with that bad semester?  What happens when it is time to declare a major?  I still don’t know what I want to do.  What if the time I am spending in college, working so hard for, turns out to be wasted time, and I can’t get a job when I get out?  What if the time I have invested in this relationship turns out to be a dead end, and I end up without a life-long companion?  As it turns out, time questions are not just big deal questions for me, they are big deal questions for us all.

 

I spent some time today going through a box in my office.  In it I found some odds and ends and a few forgotten pictures chronicling forgotten moments in my life.  The one in particular that caught my attention was a picture of me and Tim, sitting in a swing at Camp Loucon.  We had just started dating and were at the Wesley Foundation’s fall retreat.  It was the beginning a relationship that would stretch 16 years and would eventually produce three children (almost).  Sitting there with my brand new sweetheart, I had no idea that one day I would be leading Wesley Foundation retreats at Camp Loucon, or that the man I was sitting next to would be the anchor that would keep me strong, grounded and tied securely to God’s grace for rest of my life.  I had no idea then that I would end up where I am now, joyful, crazy, and finally at home in the craziness that I am.  Like many of you, I was a college student filled with apprehension and even some fears of what my life would be like, what would lie ahead.  But what I have learned since is that God is in the details.  Every moment life is held in His hands, and He has no intention of ever letting go.  As Psalm 31 says, “But I trust in You, O Lord; I say, ‘You are my God.’  My times are in Your hand.”  God is constantly guiding, shielding, nudging, PUSHING, pulling, encouraging, molding, helping, holding, hoping, building, and pruning us.  Every moment that He is active in our lives (and that would be EVERY one of them) is an act of love.  We cannot get away from Him, and when we entrust ourselves to Him (instead of fighting Him), just letting ourselves be held by the Strength that shapes the universe, we can rest in knowing that all will be well.  I can confidently say to that young woman (and young man) sitting in a wooden swing at Camp Loucon, “All will be well. You will see; all will be well.”  And I confidently say it to all of you, whom I see each day giving it your all, doing your best, and struggling to make the most of your time, “All will be well.  You will see; all will be well.”  And because I most often need to hear the sermons I preach, I say to my self even now, “All will be well.  You will see.  All will be well.”

 

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

 

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