Finding the Path to Light When Darkness Surrounded Me

You don’t have to walk alone through darkness.

There was a time in my life when the darkness wasn’t just around me—it felt like it had settled inside me. I’m not talking about a power outage or a gloomy day. I’m talking about that soul-deep kind of darkness, the one that sneaks in quietly and stays longer than you ever imagined.

It started slowly, as it often does. One small compromise, one missed prayer, one hidden struggle. Before I knew it, I was buried under shame, addiction, and the silent weight of pretending everything was fine. I smiled in public and suffered in private. I knew all the right words, the right verses, the right masks to wear—but inside, I was crumbling.

And in that darkness, I started to believe a lie: this is who I am now. That I was too far gone. That the light I used to feel had moved on without me.

But here’s the truth I didn’t expect to find: light never leaves. I had just stop looking for it.

For me, the journey back to the light wasn’t a sudden miracle—it was a long walk through the night. It looked like showing up to prayer when I didn’t feel anything. It meant confessing secrets I swore I’d take to the grave. It meant asking for help, letting myself be seen, and trusting that God’s grace really is as deep as He says it is.

And it meant learning to look up—literally. Keeping my head down in shame was not an option. I have to lean into that even more so when I encounter old friends unexpectedly, the anxiety can be crippling but I always try to imagine Jesus next to me in those moments with his hand on my shoulder.

I restarted photographing the night sky during this season, not as an artist, but as someone desperate to see something beautiful when everything felt broken. With every star I captured, I felt a little more seen. The same God who breathed out galaxies hadn’t forgotten about me. He hadn’t moved an inch.

The truth is, darkness still comes around. But now I know where to look. I’ve learned that the path to light isn’t about escaping the night—it’s about walking through it, holding onto the One who lights the way.

So if you’re in that place right now—if the silence is deafening and the shame is heavy—please hear this: you are not alone. The light is still there. And it’s not waiting for you to have it all together. It’s waiting for you to look up.

You don’t have to fix yourself first. You just have to start walking.

And I’ll walk with you, just as Jesus walks with me He will with you too.

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