At Harding University, seeing God may have been easy while being surrounded by a community of believers. Since COVID-19 has disrupted everyday life \u2014 bringing changes like social distancing practices and life off-campus \u2014 students, faculty and staff may have to work harder to find Jesus in a time of confusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While saddened by the unexpected end to the year, senior Kennedy Barden said he finds hope in the Harding community near and far as people pursue connection with one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDespite all the uncertainty and sadness and anxiety that COVID-19 has brought to the world and to our Harding community, I haven\u2019t seen any shortage of strength or faithfulness in this community,\u201d Barden said. \u201cTo me, this is nothing short of the Holy Spirit\u2019s work in the body of Christ himself to bring about the goodness of God. God is present even in the difficulty of our present situation, and it\u2019s been made obvious in the people of God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this time of confusion, Dr. Shawn Daggett, professor of Bible and the faculty member at Harding University in Latin America (HULA) this spring, said he finds Jesus in the shared stories and experiences of the students and the people of the HULA program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe night that the students weren\u2019t able to fly out of Arequipa and were going to be coming back to the hotel, Jeremy Daggett, the director, called me and asked me to meet his neighbors who would help bring his large washing machine down from the fourth floor,\u201d Daggett said. \u201cHis neighbor, Pedro, was there to meet me. He and his sons shook my hand, [Pedro] looked me in the eye, and he said something like, \u2018Shawn, these are upsetting and unpredictable times, but I think we can look for Jesus moving and working in all of this.\u2019 Pedro was a rock and wanted to encourage me. He reminded me of Romans 8:28 and God\u2019s style in working through difficulties for the good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Along with finding Jesus in the people he is around, Daggett said he is finding contentment in enjoying each day in spite of the fact that the future is unknown. Sophomore Kelsey Smith agreed with Daggett and has taken on the same mindset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m taking everything one day at a time right now,\u201d Smith said. \u201cIt’s definitely hard not knowing when this will be over and life will be back to normal, [but] on the tough days, I try to gain perspective and pray for peace and guidance. I’m trying to see this as less of an abrupt and disruptive change and more of a temporary redirection.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In spite of fear some may be feeling, Daggett, Smith and Barden urged the Harding community to use this time to seek God through his word and through prayer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWake up to prayer, listen to God in reading scripture, and look for opportunities to share faith, strengthen positive relationships and act on each godly, scripture-directed and Spirit-led impulse,\u201d Daggett said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a time when many things are uncertain, Smith said there is one who remains the same always.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNotice that during all of this, as life is stripped down and most of your stimulants are removed, God is waiting underneath the layers,\u201d Smith said. \u201cWe can use this time to increase our knowledge of God as we’re forced to learn to trust and lean on him.\u201d
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At Harding University, seeing God may have been easy while being surrounded by a community of believers. Since COVID-19 has disrupted everyday life \u2014 bringing changes like social distancing practices…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15177,"featured_media":14640,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[136],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15177"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14639"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14641,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14639\/revisions\/14641"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}