Exploring the Works of Richard C. Harden
By Karen Mulder

In the first book of the ultimate Book, God promised us thorns, travails, and toil. Even though we lost our innocence in Eden, it is the mark of God’s creation within us that we retain a vestigial memory which expects immortality, completion, and balance. We naturally crave beauty over ugliness; we secretly yearn for complacency in the face of struggle; we often force agreeableness over discord like a tightly cinched whalebone corset. More often than not, Christians not only expect smooth going, we demand it.

So when life’s indignities erode our comfort zone, we wither and act surprised. But why? God did not mince words in Genesis when, no doubt with great grief, He announced the consequences of the curse.