The curse resonates.

I'm part of a bible study/discussion group, focused around the content of a workbook on sexuality & emotions, which has participants from across the spectrum.  We have folks who are vague theists; men and women who are married and who are single; people who are living together; folks who are committed believers; representatives spanning 4 decades (20s to 50s), from Asian, African, and Caucasian descent, and with a PhD, Master's degrees, college, some college, and no college.
It's a really unusual group.

Last Tuesday evening we read through Genesis 3, and the strangest thing happened.  The curse:  "her desire shall be for her husband and he shall rule over her" resonated with everyone.

It was so bizarre.  Without necessarily seeing scripture as authoritative or as divine revelation, each person--regardless of background--seemed to have had some experience of women operating enslaved to their consuming desire for connection with a man (or spending inordinate amounts of time, mental energy, and even money to get free of that desire).  Likewise, both the men and the women seemed to have experienced men whose m.o. is to rule over (and we're not talking servant-leadership)--by exerting control or by detaching into a "whatever," passive untouchability--the women, or a woman, in their sphere.

Well, so what?

It was an ah-ha for me.  I know this will seem obvious, but honestly it flipped a switch deep down inside of me:  the bible is not only true but it also reflects reality.  Of course that statement is redundant.  How could it be true without reflecting reality?  But sometimes my inheritance around scripture has meant that "truth" is fundamentally an idea to debate or prove:  may the person with the greatest historical knowledge, the most logical brain, and the best argument win.  How strange to suddenly recognize:  whoa, maybe even I--who have moderate historical knowledge, a narrative & organic brain, and a lame ability to debate--can trust that the scriptures themselves will connect with honest people, apart from my ability to prove anything.

But again, so what?

It's just this:  I've lived a lot of life far too timid to invite people who are not believers to look at the scriptures with me.  I've never been able to remember evidence that demands a verdict, and I can't make a very good case for Christ off the top of my head.  So i've been hesitant to invite open interaction between those words and my friends.  But that night I received a new spark of confidence--of faith.

Maybe the divine revelation of scripture reflects real human experience.   Maybe all I have to do is create space for people to dialogue with it.  Maybe, if people feel safe enough to be honest (which I think is true of this group), the bible might just resonate.  And if these words of God--which I do believe they are--can resonate in a few folks' experience, perhaps these friends will want to hear a bit more, and a bit more still (about curses and blessings, about death and life).  And perhaps, like sound waves, these resonating words of God might do their own work, flowing into and through people's lives in a way that I could never envision or argue into being.

So, realizing that the curse really resonates, I'm far more eager to risk discovering if there really could be more to come.