Sleeping With Lights On!

Do you remember the show Dark Shadows?  It was a show from the late 1960s that was on in the afternoons as re-runs when I was growing up.  My mother never let me watch that show because it dealt with vampires, coffins and other “scary” and weird things that a seven-year-old child should not watch. 

One summer afternoon I was playing with the neighbor girl and we snuck into her house and watched Dark Shadows.  I remember the thrill of being able to watch a “forbidden” show.  It was exhilarating at first!  Then, that night, I found myself afraid of the dark and I had to sleep with the lights on.  I was convinced that Barnabas Collins, the vampire, was going to come in through the window and bite me on the neck that night. 

The realization that my mother was indeed right, that I should not have watched that show, became evident to me that night as I huddled underneath the covers clinging to my stuffed dog Rufus for protection that night.  I never watched that show again until many years later.  There was a reason that my mom didn’t want me to watch that television show, but I watched it anyway.  My mind could not remove the impact that my eyes experienced while watching Dark Shadows.

This past weekend, Pastor John talked about training our eyes to see what is good and the dangers when we stray from that.  What we look at does affect us.  God wants us to look at things that bring “light” into our lives, not things that lead your heart to darkness, despair and fear.  In this media-saturated culture that we live in, how can we guard what we see?  How can we focus our eyes in directions that bring light to ourselves, our families and to the world? 

Over the next week, especially as we remember 9-11 this week, I would challenge each of us to take notice of all the negative and dark images we face each day in our world and find ways to replace and refocus our thoughts and our eyes on things that bring “light” to us and the world. 

Here’s a great song by Selah called “One Thing I Know.”   Jesus changes lives and he opens eyes to see.  May our eyes be opened to things that bring light to our souls this week!

Soli Deo Gloria!

Pastor Carol