John  Ruskin was considered the brightest mind of the 19th century, and what a joy it is to read his thoughts on just about anything! And he wrote on almost everything!

In this quote he considers that life's confusion, suffering, and seeming lack of purpose are not meaningless. 

Rather, they serve a deeper purpose in shaping the soul.

THE UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER

So much of life,

in spite of its glimpses of joy and light, 

seems so aimless, so perplexed, 

so unaccountable, with its mysterious satisfactions, 

its disproportionate sorrows. 

But the best and noblest of men have seemed to see in it 

a chance of having something done for our spirits which can be done in no other way. 

It is a discipline, when all is said and done. 

But there is something deeper than that. 

"Depend upon it," said old Carlyle, 

"the brave man has some how or other to give his life away."

We are called upon to make an unconditional surrender. 

It is a surrender to a great and awful Will, 

of whose workings we know little, 

but which means to triumph, 

whatever we may do to hinder or delay its purpose.

But sooner or later we must yield our wills up, 

and not simply out of tame and fearful submission, 

but because we see at last that His Will behind all things is 

greater, 

purer, 

more beautiful, 

more holy than anything we can imagine or express. 

There is no peace without that surrender, 

though it cannot be made at once;

there is in most of us a fibre of self-will, 

of hardness, of stubbornness which we cannot break, 

but which God may be trusted to break for us, 

if we desire it to be broken. 

If the light is clouded, and the joy is blotted out, and the energy burns low, it is a sign not that we have failed, 

but that the mind of God is bent still more urgently upon us. 

What we may pray for and desire is courage, 

to live eagerly in joy and not less eagerly in sorrow; 

to be temperate in happiness 

and courageous in trouble.

John Ruskin, A Study in Personality.