In Elie Wiesel's The Town Beyond the Wall, there is a rebellious character who has profoundly experienced the lonely place of human suffering and who chooses not to bear this in silence. He loudly laments, crying angrily to God that his fate is unjust, indeed, that God is unjust. It would seem that he had fallen into the snare of temptation, but he confesses: "I want to blaspheme, and I can't quite manage it. I go up against Him, I shake my fist, I froth with rage, but it's still a way of telling Him that He's there ... that denial itself is an offering to His grandeur. The shout becomes a prayer in spite of me."

Sometimes, when the lonely place is a place of great disturbance, it evokes our rage against God, clarifies how seriously we take God's power and presence and, thereby, brings us even closer to God. "The shout becomes a prayer in spite of me."