meaning, on the other side

This terror of looking directly into the void and finding only experiences that seem meaningless and devouring is worse than any sickness. Yet the darkness is there. The need is not to escape it but to go through it and find meaning on the other side. There is still no better description of the darkness than the words of St John of the Cross, spanish mystic in Dark Night of the Soul.

The idea sometimes heard today that darkness can be avoided and we should find God only in joy and celebration, in peace and comfort, is a grave delusion that perhaps reveals our present lack of experience. We are apt either to begin this way in some darkness and depression or else be caught up by it somewhere along the way.

Celebration is fine and comes after deliverance. Beforehand, celebration is often shallow, false and naive."

morton kelsey: transcend- a guide to the spiritual quest (1981)