{"id":15961,"date":"2021-03-25T16:18:57","date_gmt":"2021-03-25T22:18:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/?p=15961"},"modified":"2021-04-01T17:07:18","modified_gmt":"2021-04-01T23:07:18","slug":"loving-through-the-distance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/2021\/03\/25\/loving-through-the-distance\/","title":{"rendered":"Loving Through the Distance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Written by Rachel Beckham<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not an extrovert. I love people, and I want to help them in any way I can, but at the end of the day, they absolutely exhaust me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am perfectly content to spend my nights at home crossing things off my to-do list or binge-watching whatever my latest obsession may be. Yet when the world locked its doors and I found myself trapped inside, I couldn\u2019t help but long for the presence of my dearest friends, my loving family or \u2014 in all honesty \u2014 anyone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As people, we are meant to be in relationship with others. And as God\u2019s people, we are called to be in relationship with others. Yet over and over again in the midst of the pandemic, I found myself asking, \u201cHow can I show love to the people I can\u2019t see?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I turned to others my age to find the answer. My Instagram feeds were filled with friends on group FaceTime calls or having socially distanced picnics. Many told me to love others by wearing my mask and staying away. I remember participating in a drive-thru birthday celebration and being so close to my friends, yet feeling farther than ever from them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of this advice \u2014 keep your distance, wear your mask, don\u2019t leave the house unless absolutely necessary \u2014 led to a culmination of fear. The thought of being around people gave me great anxiety, and the very beings I was called to love suddenly seemed like the enemy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the midst of my own trials, I saw a similar issue reflected on a national level. People were stripped of their humanity and transformed into walking infections. Those who chose not to wear masks were selfish and ignorant, and the leaders enforcing mask mandates were destroyers of our nation\u2019s freedom. In a time of national crisis, people turned against each other instead of joining together to fight the thing attacking us all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently, I have been on a Star Wars kick (I know I\u2019m a little late to the party, but at least I finally got here). A quote from Master Yoda struck me as the perfect descriptor of what has occurred amidst the pandemic: \u201cFear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.\u201d Our fear of the coronavirus led to an anger so deep that we began to hate our fellow people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I, too, am guilty of this. I have given rude looks to people in the grocery store or made negative assumptions about them. But this is not what we were called to do. We were called to love. In his book \u201cEverybody Always,\u201d Bob Goff tells readers to love 30 seconds at a time. This quote has helped me grow: When I am quick to judge a stranger, I remember that they are a child of God and deserving of the same love that he showed me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pandemic has caused overwhelming anxiety for many people. I would argue that fear is a good thing; it protects us from things that might cause us harm. But it can also become an impediment to daily life. As we reenter the world, let us remember what we are told in 1 John 4:18: \u201cPerfect love casts out fear.\u201d Be kind to the stranger at the store, show mercy to those around <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Rachel Beckham. I am not an extrovert. I love people, and I want to help them in any way I can, but at the end of the day,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15068,"featured_media":16035,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15961","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\/15068"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15961"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15962,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15961\/revisions\/15962"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}