Life's minors
Mayhap my posted quote of the other day has morbid tones to it, and mayhap I'm a melancholy romantic ... but I think that the minors of which the writer of that poem speaks are not at all faithless minors. It is the acknowledging that the circumstances that we cannot understand come from God's hand, and the responding with patience and trust, that is the essential thing. Here's the chord that quote strikes with me (these are all quotes from the book God of my Father, by Larry Crabb):
Telling someone who wants protection from tragedy that tragedy will come but it's okay because God will be in it does not always promote rest. Yet my father claims that we know enough of God's character to rest ... Resting in the middle of tragedy because God is in it better fits what I know of the Bible and life than covering my fear of tomorrow by trusting God to supply the blessings I want.
Perhaps the promises God has made really are superior to the ones we wish he had made. Maybe things are working together for good in ways that only faith in a better land can grasp.
... I believe that tragedy is an undercurrent in everyone's life, with occasional erruptions that come with neither warning nor expectation. Life is more tragic than orderly. I must learn to quiet my soul, to hush, to learn the lesson of my grandfather's words ["Hush, God is in it"], particularly when bad things happen or when I fear they might ... I must quite myself and listen beneath the noise of my dread to the voice of someone whose goodness has not and will not waiver. God is in it. His plan is good. I must believe it. And that must be the basis of joy, a mature joy that has lost the innocence of Eden but gained the security of hope ...
... the sheer mystery of unequally distributed blessing can be enraging ... mystery points up to the sovereign wisdom of God who writes each of our stories so differently, but always with the intention of preparing us for our part in his story. The mystery of his plan, when seen as a reflection of inscrutable goodness, leaves us not only rejoicing with others more blessed, and confused by choices he never explains, but also awed by the love behind the plan that one day will have us all singing.