Miriam Medina – Street Psalms

Dwelling With Darkness

By Miriam Medina | December 16, 2025 |

“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it.” This line gets quoted often, usually quickly and with confidence. As if darkness is a problem to be solved, and light is here to win.

Admittedly, when I read this passage, I have to fight my initial instinct to villainize darkness. Throughout much of my Christian walk, “light equals good, dark equals bad” was a default moral framework. This binary was reinforced for me through preaching, art, everyday language, and colonial theology.

So when I read, “The light shines in the darkness,” my mind wants to subconsciously fill in the rest: darkness is sin, evil, and ignorance. Darkness is something to escape or defeat. Light is purity, truth, and righteousness. Light is the goal.

Living in Expectation

By Miriam Medina | August 3, 2025 |

“Do not be afraid,” Jesus says, and honestly, I pause. I pause because “Do not be afraid” is easier said than done. I pause because fear is real, especially for those that stand at the margins.

I work as a Family Advocate and Chaplain at a transitional housing program. We serve unhoused and migrant families journeying towards stability. In this setting—waiting on food stamps, a possibility for permanent housing, or an immigration court date—fear isn’t theoretical. It lives in the body, and it lingers in trauma responses. It sticks around and warns the families I work with that one wrong move could potentially mean starting all over again.