Latest / The Wesley Word / [WW] How Are You Doing? Self Care

Transcript

[WW] How Are You Doing? Self Care · The Wesley Word

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Wesley Ware.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: Holy and gracious God, we thank you for this night to gather around the table with new friends and old friends for the chance to hear your word read and proclaimed.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: To lift up our voices and our hearts in song and prayer to you.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: We pray, O God, this time might continue to be pleasing to you.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: Meet us here somehow, somehow, again through the singing, maybe through the preaching, but definitely through one of us.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: Pour out your Holy Spirit upon us here and now.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: And may you have a word for us, either through me or in spite of me, O God.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: We ask all this in Christ's holy name.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: So I have a new favorite thing that we do at Wesley, or a new one of my favorite things that we do at Wesley.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: We've been doing this for geez, I don't know, three years now, but I had never been to our chem exam cookie drop until this past Monday.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: And that was started by a student who a few years ago was like, uh, hey, why don't we take some cookies to these freshmen that are going through this trauma of chemistry and hook them up?
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, that's a great idea.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's all been pretty much student run, and Bellas helped cook some cookies and such.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: But I was like, this past Monday, I had some time and I said, I'm gonna go on this.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: And if you haven't been or experienced it, I hope you can make it happen.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: But it was really cool.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: We stood outside of Core, stood outside of Schlutter with just homemade chocolate chip cookies and handing them out to freshmen who finished their chem exam.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: And it was neat to see some of their expressions.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: Half of them look like zombies, like they just went through a battle.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: And you felt I just wanted like I told Ben, I was like, I think I'm gonna just give him a hug.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: And he's like, Don't do that, Steve.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I was like, I'm not gonna hug them.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but you know, the conversations, and we started saying, hey, post-exam, pick me up, come get one.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: And then we started asking, you know, is this a celebratory cookie or is this a trauma cookie, right?
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: Or are you thriving or are you surviving?
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: And it was neat, you know, some folks were like, I got a 104, I had a 104, it's incredible.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: And others like, yeah, I think I'm like done with college.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um and it's all these different comments that were going through.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I knew what I was preaching on tonight, but then this one girl, she kind of struck us um like you surviving or thriving.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: She's like, it's over, right?
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, Oh, so you survived.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: And then she said, Yeah, but at what cost?
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but at what cost, right?
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I think about that, and I knew where we're going tonight.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: And like um Carly read Psalm 139 for us.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: Other folks read some good stuff on Sabbath.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: In Psalm 139, the whole psalm, you hear words like, Oh Lord, you have searched me and known me.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: You know when I sit down, you know when I rise up.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: You search out my path in my lying down, you're acquainted with all my ways, right?
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: Where can I go from your spirit, or where can I flee from your presence?
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: It goes on and on and on, and we hear those words, for it was you who formed me in my inward parts.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: You knit me together in my mother's womb.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made, and goes on to say, Wonderful are your works that I know very well.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's hard for me to believe that a God that would sort of inspire David to write that psalm, God who would encourage us to find rest in the Sabbath, and who's created us, would want us to go around and kind of be like, to live a life that's uh, yeah, but at what cost?
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but at what cost.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not knocking this person, think she was where she was at.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: But what I'm getting here tonight is, you know, do we take the time sometimes?
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: At what cost?
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want you to leave college or leave the end of the semester and be like, I survived, but at what cost?
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: My health isn't there.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: I'm more I'm stressed out, I'm even more anxious than when I arrived.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: All those types of things.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I wanted to pause here.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: This is week, this is our sixth week together at Wesley.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: If you can't include the cookout, it's flying by, y'all.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: It always does every year.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: This is our sixth week, but I wanted to pause and think about how it is that we are treating ourselves.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: We spent the first few weeks, we did a little series on what it means to love our neighbor.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: And if you remember the great commandment, love God with all that you have and all that you are, and to love your neighbor as yourself.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: And we spent a lot of time talking about neighbor, but there's got to be a time when we step back and pause and sort of reflect upon how are we treating ourselves?
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: How are we treating the one that God created, the one who formed us in our mother's wombs?
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: And oftentimes I think about this image, like what we're at, I'm kind of the same way.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes on the outside we try to make it look like everything's all good, right?
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: I'm thinking about the image of the duck floating in the pond.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: You may have heard this before, right?
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: They look nice and smooth, but on the bottom, under the water, they're like crazy, right?
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: How many of us are doing that, right?
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I can't even hardly sit in a room anymore without thinking of all the 10,000 things that I've got to do.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes I have to tell myself to slow down, like even right now speaking and take a breath so I can get the words out because the words are coming faster than I can speak them sometimes.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: My mind goes crazy.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: Midterms, some of you just finish your first group of exams and you can take a deep breath.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: Many of us, when we're talking to people, like, how are you doing?
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they're like, Oh, busy.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm busy too.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I'm busy, I'm busy, busy, busy.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: Busy, busy, busy.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes we get so busy that we forget.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: That we forget to take care of ourselves.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: I knew I was preaching on this, and yesterday I was in a meeting in Columbia, uh, Board of Higher Education and Ministry, that's like people I answer to.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: We try to vision for campus ministry across the whole conference.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I was sitting there in discussion, a very tense discussion about something that was going on.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I was sitting there and I just went, and it was just like a moment of silence.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: I went, and they all looked at me like I was about to say something profound.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I kind of giggled to myself.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: I said, no, no, no, no, no, don't worry about it, just keep going.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: I went, I was sitting there, I didn't realize I was holding my breath.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: I forgot to breathe in the meeting.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: And so I laughed at myself that I forgot to literally breathe, right?
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and sometimes we have to pause and remember that we have to breathe, both literally and you know, metaphorically, right?
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: And when I say that about this, we talk about self-care a little bit tonight.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: I want you to know that self-care is not selfish.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: Self-care is not selfish.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: Now we're not talking about, you know, I'm gonna sit down and binge all eight seasons of my favorite show.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: That kind of self-care.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: But how are we taking care of ourselves in meaningful ways throughout the week, right?
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: Uh self-care is no more selfish than asking for a breath to stay alive and be able to breathe, right?
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: Self-care is no more selfish than asking or wanting a drink of water that you might hydrate and stay alive.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: We have to take time to breathe.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: I truly believe that God doesn't want us to be just fine, right?
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: But the God who knows us in Psalm 139, right, I think he's saying it's not just good enough to survive something all the time and say, at what cost, right?
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: So we're looking at three areas that maybe you want to kind of take some inventory in tonight.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: And we're gonna spend a little bit of time in a small group afterwards, um, sort of like last week chatting and spent a little few minutes um thinking through some of these things.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but we're gonna look at spirit, body, and mind, right?
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: Three things I think God kind of calls us to.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: As you think about that spirit, um, Ethan and Molly read for us um bits of Sabbath, right?
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: We see in in Exodus and many times where we see God proclaiming that Sabbath is important, to take a rest.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: Just as God did a lot of creating on six days, pause and take some time on the seventh day.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: Even the land we see, right?
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: To work and harvest it for six years.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: On that seventh year, just let it rest, y'all.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: To let it rest.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: Oftentimes our spirit, we're we're we're we're in this culture of busyness, as I mentioned earlier, where we've got to be busy, we've got to be busy, we've got to be busy.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I would encourage you to take some time, not for everything, but to develop a spiritual discipline that I'm starting to love in my life.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: And it's the practice of saying no.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: The practice of saying no.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: Now, you're like, Steve, you try to taught me this stuff all the time.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: That's true.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: I really think you should go on fall retreat, even if you have an exam on that Monday morning.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: I really think you should go on spring break, even if you want to go home and see your parents.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: You only have four years to do all those things.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: But even telling me no when I'm trying to press and push is okay because sometimes we load up with so much stuff.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: I know I've done this in my life where like I was physically ill because I kept taking on so many things.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: We've got to develop a practice of saying no.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe it's not no forever, maybe it's no, not right now.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: I've got other priorities that are going on.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: But for our spirit to be whole, we have to be able to take a pause and tell folks no sometimes.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: And to know spiritually, we got to go back to the source of where we're at, right?
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: We think about Matthew 11.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: We didn't read this one where he says, Come to me all who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think Jesus would have said this if he hadn't known that people were going to be tired, that people were gonna be weary.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so, one, it's okay to be that spot, but also know that we can find rest in God.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I encourage you to stay connected, stay plugged in as you get super busy, as life picks up, as the semester picks up.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: Again, I say all the time, whether it's coming, showing up here on Wednesday nights, even if it's just for a meal, to sit down and pause for 30 minutes around a table with people that are gonna love you and care for you, or stick around for worship, or a small group, or devotional life.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: You gotta keep that spirit nurtured.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: You gotta keep that spirit connected.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: I tell a story I used to go to summer camp in Tennessee outside of Nashville.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: Loved it.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: It was awesome.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: And they had a spring that was constantly flowing.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: It was as cold as water, the best water I've ever had in my life.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: And we would just go and bring our water bottles.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, back then we didn't have water bottles.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: We like were dehydrated all day.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: We would go and like drink at the out of the I'm thinking like here, right?
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: It was coming out of pipe, it was just flowing, right?
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: And we'd go hiking, we'd play soccer, we'd do all our tree, do all the stuff all day, but we all would always stop by throughout the day and come back to the spring and just get that cold water to refresh us, right?
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: We're all out in ministry, we're taking classes, we're doing the things that we're doing, but we have to stay connected to our source, to be refueled by the spirit, to be refueled by the God who created us and redeems us.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I say this often on Sunday mornings, who also sustains us with the Holy Spirit.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: Stay connected to that source.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: So, how are you renewing your spirit?
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: Is a question I want you to think about tonight.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: That spirit.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: And then also, how are you taking care of your bodies?
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: We're six weeks in.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: Some of this is your first semester away.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: Some of you have been doing it for a long time.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: Uh my mom hadn't told me how to eat in a long, long time.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um sometimes Julie tells me that.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: She helps cooks me up, try to remind me a little bit here and there, right?
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: But but what are we eating?
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: What are you what are you fueling your body with physically, right?
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, are you exercising?
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: Are you sleeping?
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: Steve, we're in college.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: We don't we'll sleep when we're like when we graduate, right?
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: But are you finding time to just be a physical rest, right?
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: Physical rest.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and sometimes that means that your body, sometimes you just gotta go for doing doing something.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's not always about saying no, but sometimes you gotta go out, right?
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: I know it's hard and you're like, Steve, I don't have time for this.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but are you finding time, even you know, take a break and go take a five-minute walk?
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: Go up and down the steps.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I kind of look kind of weird out here.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: I'll go walk the parking lot, or I'll just go walk to Mo's and back just to kind of get out and about and allow my body to move a little bit.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: So think about body self-care.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just gonna ask a whole lot of questions, and if one of these like hits you, just kind of percolate on it and ask God to help you with that.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: What do your relationships look like?
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: Are they affecting your body?
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: Both like friendship and remote and romantically, right?
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: Are there people that give you life?
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: Like who are your people that you need to spend more time around that help give you life?
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: On the opposite side, who are the people that are sucking the life out of you?
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: That maybe that's where that practice of saying no might come in and say, look, not right now.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: Too much of a project for me right now.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: Who are those people?
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I would encourage you to find some physical rest for yourself.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: And again, sometimes that means pausing and saying no, and sometimes that means taking a nap.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it means going out and doing something that gives you joy and gives you life.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, Barbara Brown Taylor is one of my favorite authors and pastors, and you'll theologians, and you'll hear me reference her often.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: But she talks about in this idea of Sabbath and the practice of saying no, she encourages folks to actually make a list.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: Like make a list of the things that bring you life.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: Make a list of the things that bring you joy, and particularly things that you often tell yourself no or you often don't get around to doing, right?
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: Whatever that might be.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: And it looks different for all of us, but actually make a list of the things that bring you joy, that bring you life that you don't get to do too often.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: And she says, put them somewhere like where you can see them, right?
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: Put them on your on the mirror in your bathroom, put them on your desk, put them somewhere.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: And when your soul starts yearning, right, when you feel depleted, give yourself permission to say yes to something on that list.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: Again, whether it's a walk, whether it's calling friends, whether it's hanging out on the dikes of the lake, whether it's going to pet some puppies, whatever it might be, right?
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: Spend some time doing that.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: It is not selfish to practice self-care, right?
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: And find, again, it could be short, it could be 15 minutes, right?
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: So spirit, body, and the last thing, think about how it is that you might renew your mind, how you might take care of your mind.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: What is it that you're watching?
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: What is it that you're listening?
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: What is it that you're reading?
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and to think about too, taking care of your mental health.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: We've gotten much, much better here on college campuses, but even in the church, a lot of times talking about mental health is something that we're like, that's like a big no-no, apparently.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and sometimes, right?
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes, sometimes it's something that can be helped, like, you know, I feel better when I'm exercising or I get out and I go and move.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: But sometimes you need a little more professional help.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I want you to hear from someone that's ordained in the church that that is okay.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: And that God puts people in our lives that can help walk us through.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes chemical imbalances and things happen, and you just need to get some help, and that is okay.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: That doesn't make you less than or issue or anything like that.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: I encourage you to take care of that.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: And if you need to seek out some help, be sure and do that.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: I know I got to a point in my life a few years back where I finally had to go talk to a counselor, and I didn't realize just how grumpy and how just how whatever I was until I went on a family vacation like three months later, as I was on like my wits in, and they were like, My sister-in-law and my sister were like, Man, something's different.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: My nephews are like, Uncle Stevie, you like changed a little bit.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I didn't realize just how deep I had gotten and also how it was affecting the people around me as well.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: And so I encourage you to practice a positive and healthy mental health, whatever it is that that might need or what that might look like for you.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: So again, and I want you to kind of talk about this and think about because everything's different for everyone.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: But again, self-care is not selfish.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: Self-care is not selfish.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: Just as we need to pause and take a breath, you need to make sure you're taking care of yourself by your mind, your body, and your spirit, right?
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: And part of the reason um we used to do this thing called perspectives, and we still a little bit allow um, well, invite some students and some seniors to speak and to share about their perspectives and ways in which God has shaped them.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: I've been doing this for 13 years, and I think I remember like two of them, to be honest with you, like in detail, um, maybe three.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: And the one one of the ones that stick out the most, um, this guy named Drew Whitley, um, he's my first, one of my first freshmen, I think he was like the third person I met when I became the campus minister, but he was talking um on his night, and he was talking about the the cups, right?
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: And he had the water and he was saying, you know, if we're called to pour into others, if we're called to love our neighbors, but we are dry as a bone and we have nothing to pour into them, right?
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: What are we doing?
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: What are we doing?
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: And so the part of the self-care, in the one hand, is to make sure that we're filling up our cups that we can pour into others.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um I literally needed some while I was singing, I was like, can't can't speak, so I was really grabbing some water, right?
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: Also, I think God does not want us to walk around empty on our own either, right?
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: I believe God wants us to be a full cup, and so part of this journey towards that is self-care, avoiding compassion fatigue, and all those kinds of things, right?
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um so last is sort of wrapping up before I give you some time in your conversations tonight.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we think about the first night here, I talked about how Genesis 1 and 2 were two of the most overlooked chapters in scripture because we like to hurry up and get to sin and the fall and all that kind of stuff.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: But be remember or be reminded that God, I feel God wants you to be whole.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: Self-care is not selfish.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: Think about a God who created you in God's image and likeness.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: Think about in Genesis 2 as we see that God reached down the dirt and formed humankind in his image and took the time to breathe the breath of life into humankind and to call them good.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: To be reminded of the psalm that Carly read for us earlier, that for it was you who formed me my inward parts, knit me together in my mother's womb, right?
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: I am fearfully and wonderfully made, says the psalmist.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: Wonderful are your works that I know well.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: Think about John 10, 10, who says the thief comes only to steal and to kill and destroy.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: But Jesus says, I have come that they might have life, and they might have life to the full.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: This does not sound like a God that wants you to just be barely getting by and say, at what cost?
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's a God that wants you to have an abundant life and a full life.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: Now, there are some times when you do have to just grind, right?
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: Exam weeks are exam weeks and they're tough.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: But hopefully, even in those busy times, even in the most stressful times, in the most over-anxious times, the times when you have to grind, find little moments, even if it's a minute or two here, that you might find ways to take care of yourself because you are worthy of that self-care.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: Because God has formed you.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: You are indeed wonderfully made.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: Holy and gracious God, again, we give you thanks for our new night, a chance to gather together, bless our conversations, oh God.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and Lord, help us to move from a place that's not just merely surviving, um, but that we're thriving, oh God.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: I know sometimes it's easier said than done, but show us the path, oh God.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: Give us the moments to pause and reflect upon you to take care of ourselves that we might indeed be a people who can seek you, serve you, and love our neighbors all the same.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: We ask all this in Christ's holy name.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: The Wesley Word is a production of the Clemson Wesley Foundation.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: For more information about Clemson Wesley, check out our website or follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, get out there and love your neighbor.