Sometimes we have to live in the shadows before we are able to recognize the light. In The Light in Dark Places, poet Matt Anderson leans on the Holy Spirit to pull him up out of his spiritual darkness. He allows faith to become his lantern-his beacon in the blackness. But he doesn't ever discount these struggles as times to be left behind and forgotten. He knows that they have their place in spiritual growth. "It's the pressure in the sand that creates the diamonds," the poet says. The poems gathered here are a memorial to those grains of sand bearing the weight of the world, one that serves as a landmark on the path to God. They remind us that His luminous love shines brightly in the heart of every diamond, every unclouded stone.