You stare into the dark night.

A feeling of deep sadness creeps through your body numbing you straight to your heart. A hurricane of thoughts torment your mind. There is so much pain, injustice, hurt, anger, fear, and hopelessness. It seems like the night is closing in and you are powerless to stop it. The thoughts from the past haunt you daily. You have tried to keep them hidden deep down locked away inside of you in a place that no one knows how to touch; but the abuse from the past still torments you, kept alive in your nightmares. How could someone who was supposed to love you chose to abuse you so horrifically. The graphic images of the sexual abuse from the past still won’t leave your mind. You just want to be free, but as you stare into the darkness you feel like you will never be. Your thoughts roll in like the tide ripping part of the shore away with each current and dragging it back into the abyss of the sea slowly wearing at your heart. You shiver in the night staring out the window of your fourth foster home.  No one understands the hell you try to escape every day and you are only been alive five years.

You stare into the dark night.

Your window is open and you feel the sting of the cool winter breeze brush against your cheek, sending a chill down your spine. A tear runs down your cheek as you shiver in the cold darkness to numb to even notice the bitterness that has crept into your heart. You start to weep, alone in your room. Your sorrow consumes you as you stare out into the endless sea of darkness.  Everyone you love was taken from you in one night. Your husband and two sons were killed by a drunk driver, leaving you to deal with the pain and emptiness. You scream out loud in agony and fall to the floor balling, but the silence suffocates your voice. No one hears you, you are all alone. You look up and see the bottle of pills on your window sill, shakingly you grab the bottle of pills.

You stare into the dark night.

You have fled your war torn country and are living life as a refugee in a bordering country. You have nothing, but the clothes on your back when you arrive at the refugee camp. You lost your husband fleeing the country. You are left with your three kids to try to start a new life. Depression creeps in and fear for the safety and future of your children. You feel utterly lost and hopeless. You say a pray hoping that God still hears you.

Everyone stares into the darkness of night at some point in their life. If one turns on the news they are confronted with fear, anger, hate, hopelessness and pain. There is war, murder, rape, racism, and so much injustice from child labor to sex trafficking to terrorism. The darkness seems to be overtaking the world. It’s overwhelming and you wonder what one can do in the face of so much hurt, brokenness, and fear. All one has to do is look into the eyes of the people one comes in contact with daily from passing people on the street to work to church to friends to family. Life seems to be full of so much emptiness and pain. People mask it in different ways, but can never escape it. Some fall into routines or stay busy to avoid the cries of the world and their own hearts. What could just one person, one voice do? People go about their life working and staying busy to block out the thoughts, the feeling of hopelessness of purposelessness. They try to suffocate these emotions. However, the routine and the mediocrity and apathy surrounding the routine of life always seems to trap and suffocate them instead. One just  wants to get in a car and drive away, but the emptiness and cries of the hurting still follow . You see it on the people’s faces wherever you go. There is a cry for something more than what earth can offer and many never find that something that meets their heart’s cry. One can turn to the church or religion and never find that and one can turn to the world never find it. One feels like an outsider for no matter where they go and no matter where they wander the heartache and injustice stands out. People are hurting and the heart becomes branded with the pain.

Why does the darkness seem to prevail? Where is the hope in all this mess? I find myself asking these question often. Then I remember the stars. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. from his speech “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” stated in 1968, “The world is all messed up. The nation is sick. Trouble is in the land; confusion all around…But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.” This statement I have found most true. For yet in this darkness, their is beauty to be found for those who seek out. Great movements in history were birthed out of moments of great darkness. In times where people should have just excepted defeat, they instead chose to stand for justice and truth. They chose to make a difference. Where would the world be without people like Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Mother Teresa, and other great leaders. I believe one person can make a difference in our society. No matter how dark the night. The light will always prevail. The darker the night, the brighter the light will shine. We are that light. It is time to stand up and speak out. The darkness will merely become a backdrop for light to come piercing through.