人类生存中最悲惨的压力在于一个事实，即我们在这一生中发现的愉悦感，无论愉悦本身，无论是愉悦本身，总是从我们身上带走。男人几乎没有努力的事情就像他们预期的那样令人满意，在极少数情况下，迟早会抢走他们。...对于基督徒，所有这些部分，破碎和短暂的完美，他在他周围的世界上瞥见了他周围的世界，在他的抓地力和他抓住他的抓住和抓住了他的同时，他的绝对是完美的。
(The most tragic strain in human existence lies in the fact that the pleasure which we find in the things of this life, however good that pleasure may be in itself, is always taken away from us. The things for which men strive hardly ever turn out to be as satisfying as they expected, and in the rare cases in which they do, sooner or later they are snatched away.... For the Christians, all those partial, broken and fleeting perfections which he glimpses in the world around him, which wither in his grasp and he snatches away from him even while the wither, are found again, perfect, complete and lasting in the absolute beauty of God.)
人类苦难的本质可以追溯到源自世俗事物的愉悦的短暂性。尽管这种乐趣具有内在的价值，但它们通常是短暂的，最终被剥夺了我们。个人经常发现，他们对满足感的不懈追求很少会导致他们所期望的成就，即使取得成功，也经常是短暂的。渴望和损失的这一周期强调了人类经验的深刻方面。
对于基督徒来说，这些短暂的生活中的喜悦和美丽的瞥见使人想起了一个更深入的现实。一个迅速消失或溜走的世界上遇到的部分和不完美的乐趣反映了对只有在上帝中发现的完美的渴望。在这种信念中，神的最终和永恒的美丽提供了超越地上满足感的暂时性的希望和成就。