It’s a slow fade

By CHERYL CRUCE

The song by Casting Crowns flows through the room from my playlist as it has many times before. However, the words “It’s a slow fade” capture my thoughts, carrying me on a rabbit trail for the song’s meaning. What is the slow fade that tricks the spirit into the alluring entrapments of the darkness?
In a time of childhood innocence, I often found myself frightened to tears over the monkeys in the Wizard of Oz. Yet today, my grandchildren will laugh at my teary recounts of the movie when I hid behind the safety of my mama. Their world has become filled with true crime segments and gaming systems that carry them into a lifelike world of corruption and destruction. It has been a slow fade from the days of ruby-colored shoes that could take us home with three clicks of the heel. The slow fade has traveled a long way from the rural countryside of peaceful Kansas.
Where has the fade carried us? The art of eye contact is etching its way into the shadows of yesterday. Cash registers and bank tellers are replaced with automatic self-checkout and ATM systems. However, these stationary areas and cold machines are no substitute for the warm smile of an individual or the handshake of one who desires honesty.
I remember seeing my dad bind a deal with a promise of his word through an extended hand. My mother turned an enemy into a friend over a cup of coffee on a hot July afternoon. Isn’t it interesting that I have 1,147 friends listed on Facebook, yet I have never made eye contact with most of them, let alone shared a cup of coffee? Don’t get me wrong, I’ll take friendship any way I can, but a friend’s physical presence cannot be replaced through a social media window. There are times when I need a hug; hugs are healing.
Scripture teaches that we are not to forsake the gathering of our brothers, for their righteous prayers bring us the restoring grace of Heaven. We are called to do nothing in selfish ambition. Instead, we are to value others above ourselves (Philippians 2:3). The importance of others cannot fall into the abyss of the slow fade or the desire for social media. We must maintain the significance of each person in our hearts. Charles Shultz’s cartoon character, Snoopy, explains it best: “When my arms cannot reach the people close to my heart, I always hug them with my prayers.”
In 2020, we learned how precious a hug could be when a virus swept our land, and our prayer life increased as hugs decreased. Suddenly our doors were closed, our faces covered, and we were one step closer to being depersonalized.
 A slow fade pulls us from each other and the One who created us. Our relationship with God should always be personal and should carry over into our relationship with each other. He has called us to love one another, including our enemies. When we pray for those who spitefully use us, we become children of the Father in Heaven (Matthew 5:44-45).
Touchless media cannot replace the human contact we all yearn for. All too soon, our loved ones will disappear from our lives. It is time we put down our social media and hold the hand of the loved ones present with us. Let us pray for each other and build each other up in love before we slowly disappear into the empty, touchless void of the slow fade.
Encourage and build one another up. Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. Consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. (1 Thessalonians 5:11, Romans 12:15, Hebrews 10:24).

Cheryl Mixon-Cruce is Pastor of Ochlockonee Bay United Methodist Church and Sopchoppy United Methodist Church.