Life can be excruciating at the worst of times, and unhappy at the best. To live without God in the world, without hopes or expectations, without spiritual balm or religious faith, is trying. To live a life of discipleship and then feel hopes dashed and expectations unfulfilled, the balm ineffective and the faith devoid of fruit, is to compound the pain with devastating disappointment and heartache. False hope seems worse than none; better to know one is alone in the sea than to wait for the rescue that never comes.
