fighting alone

In this week's Torah portion Jacob was fighting with the unknown force, all alone at night.  Gen.32:25 "And Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until the break of dawn."  He did not know who the man was, what was his name, but he fought nevertheless and emerged from the fight with a limp.  One may say that Jacob fought the man in the closet.  Many forces surround an unconscious mind, but a developing human being fights them and gets up in the morning, with a limp but victorious.  How can one give in and proclaim that he identifies himself with the forces of chaos, that he no longer considers himself bound by the laws of nature and is willing to destroy the world for illusory dream? 
And yet, the man who fought him in the night gave him a blessing.  He made him who he became - Israel. There was a certain power, a mysterious life force that was injected into Jacob/Israel as a result of the fight. Something emerged from that fight that enabled timid quiet Jacob hold his own against Esau.  He refused to identify with Esau.  He gave Esau material things as a tribute, what was in his hand, sheep and goats, but he did not apologize, did not renounce Isaac's blessing that he took away from him. 
Sometimes the trials, nisayonos, are squeezing one so hard, it feels like there is no redemption possible, no way out, and everyone is telling you to give up.  Sometimes doing a moral thing, a chesed, to others leaves one empty and unfulfilled, wretched in misery.  But the alternative is chaos and destruction.