The greatest lesson I learned in that time is that suffering binds us closer to Jesus and opens us to the tangible presence of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, more than anything else. Perhaps that is why one of our first acts after becoming Christians is baptism, symbolizing our willingness to die to this world. Although many Christians see it as a symbolic death, none should assume the symbol is meaningless. To follow Jesus is to die that we might live.
