There is an important distinction between difficulty and peril. In the present peregrination, I've only felt genuine spiritual peril in two places: at a certain moment in a certain predominantly Muslim city, and a certain quarter of a city in German Transylvania. In neither case was there anything I could explain in the NYT, and there have been genuine difficulties, some rather intense, in other places. But those were the two instances of peril of which I was conscious. Conversely, the Muslim city was (and remains) the place of the most spiritual promise, and the other city has been useful to me for the theatre to be seen there.
One does take risks, but one is careful to always be ready for such moments. There are such things as souls, and if something exists, a fortiori, it can also not exist. But I've learned the most from the teachers who were trying to take everything from me (which made the more secular corruption of the state universities a bit easier to bear).
"Where the danger is, there the saving force grows."