For 10 miserable years, Lorenz was addicted to drugs. It started innocently—a few puffs of marijuana with friends during parties. But the urge to have more never left him. He got hooked.
On year eight, he was into cocaine and lost everything he ever owned—his job, his home, his cars, his integrity, and his family (a wife and two children).
In a seedy, dark apartment unit one night, he knelt in prayer, “God, I surrender. Do what you will with me.” Grace rushed in as a blinding light and illumined the phone before him. He picked up the phone to call his brother-in-law to come and get him.
The next thing he knew, he was in a hospital room with his wife watching over him. That was the beginning of his painful journey to recovery—from detoxification to rehabilitation.
In just over a year, he was welcomed back home. “The craving for drugs never left me,” he confessed, but in his struggle, he rediscovered his love for the arts and started painting.
Lorenz hawked his works in tiangges (flea markets) and was surprised that young people were drawn to them. They asked him questions on how he did them.
He’d reply by citing his past darkness and how he saw the light. Then he’d quote the verse written by prophet Isaiah (chapter 9, verse 2) during a dark period of Israel’s history, “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine.”
His young market could relate to Lorenz’s art because the images mirrored their own feelings and struggles.
Amidst the darkness, may we see the light in our lives as Lorenz did, and reflect this light to others.
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