Suffering brings me so close to God.
What you meet in another being is the projection of your own level of evolution.
Each of us finds his unique vehicle for sharing with others his bit of wisdom.
Suffering is part of our training program for becoming wise.
The dark night of the soul is when you have lost the flavor of life but have not yet gained the fullness of divinity. So it is that we must weather that dark time, the period of transformation when what is familiar has been taken away and the new richness is not yet ours.
And then the witness, if you go down into the witness, that has the spiritual being. Down there, in your soul, you'll get far more love than you ever got out there.