Today is just a sleepy, no-energy day. I don't know if you're currently experiencing this, but it seems everyone in our office has the same feeling. I could easily have slept another hour this morning, but alas, responsibility calls. So thank God it's Friday. Which reminds me... did any of you watch TGIF shows on ABC on Friday nights as kids? Full House and Family Matters were big favorites in my house. Whatever happened to the guy who played Steve Urkel, anyway? I always liked him. Now those shows are relegated to Nick-at-Nite, and the Olsen Twins are gazillionaires. You never see any of the other people off those shows, though, except maybe Rebecca from Full House who is now on some UPN teen drama.

You know, I watch those shows today and are struck with how innocent and unsophisticated they seem. Kind of like I was when I was a kid-- very simplistic, very concrete. It really wasn't until college that things got abstract and confusing. Maybe that's the reason people of our generation love to watch "E! True Hollywood Story." We see all the shadows behind the idyllic little worlds created for our entertainment.

That's what is hard about college-- you finally wake up to all the shadows. Disillusionment runs rampant. I've never felt quite the same about the democratic rhetoric of my youth after finding out all about the ruthless dictators our government supported in Central America during the '80s. It isn't nearly as fun to go shopping when you think about what people are getting paid to make your clothes. And let's be honest-- eating a Super Size combo meal of chicken nuggets and fries doesn't taste so great when you know that the chickens were raised in horrible conditions and the fat might make you keel over in 20 years.

So what do we do? Should the idealistic little world we lived in when we were younger be relegated to the Nick-at-Nite of our minds, a tainted memory of a more innocent age? Should our lives become endless E! shows that seek only the voyeuristic pleasure of watching the world crumble in shadows? Do we bury our heads in the sand, or cynically accept the darkness in the world?

For me, this is where faith comes in. God challenges us to dispel the shadows with the light of God's grace and love, the light of a life of integrity. Led by the example of Christ, who could not be overcome even in death's darkness, we push forward to challenge and confront the shadows in all their forms. We expose darkness to the light-- in our world, in our local communities, in our families, in our own hearts. Our belief in this light and its power to transform allows us to acknowledge the existing injustices of the world without accepting them as immutable.

Remember this light as you go about your weekend. Bask in it during these dark, cold days of February. As the Sunday School teacher says (or Jesus Christ Superstar, your choice), let your light shine. For your light brings hope to the world.

"The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it." --John 1:5

Kelsey