The Verses Holding Up Your Whole Faith (Whether You Admit It Or Not)
Hey friends,
One of the hardest parts of walking away from evangelicalism is figuring out what to do with the Bible itself. So many people I talk with (people right here reading this) have zero interest in opening scripture again. And I get it completely. The Bible got used on them like a weapon, and nobody wants to pick up the thing that hurt them.
But here’s what I’ve come to believe after years of sitting with this. The Bible was never supposed to be a weapon. It was supposed to be bread. Something that feeds you instead of something that cuts you.
And the way back to that starts with a framework that isn’t very common in evangelical spaces.
The reality is, not every verse in the Bible is doing the same amount of work. Some verses hold up the whole structure of what you believe. Others could disappear tomorrow and you’d barely notice. Jesus himself treated scripture this way, ranking it, quoting some passages as tiebreakers and quietly setting others aside.
I call this idea load bearing verses, and it’s become one of the most important frameworks in my own faith and in the book I’ve been writing.
Below, in the paid section, I'm sharing the actual excerpt from the chapter where I lay the whole thing out.
Write down the three or four verses currently holding up your faith. Not your favorites, but the ones that if removed would actually change what you believe.
I’ve been using the Lectio 365 app for months now and it has genuinely changed the rhythm of my days. It’s a free devotional from the 24-7 Prayer movement, built around morning, midday, and night prayers that walk you through scripture, silence, and the Lord’s Prayer. What I love most is that it doesn’t ask me to figure out what to read or how to pray on my own, it just gently hands me the next thing, whether that’s a psalm, a moment of stillness, or a question that sits with me longer than I expect. Some mornings I listen while I make coffee. Other mornings I actually sit still and read it. If you’re someone who wants a daily prayer practice but doesn’t know where to start, or if your old quiet time routines got tangled up with everything else you left behind, this one might be worth trying. It’s on the App Store and Google Play, and it costs nothing.
Our almost 14-year-old daughter was gone for two whole weeks this summer and came home this past weekend. What got me wasn’t just having her back in the house, it was watching her actually miss us. At almost 14 that is not something you can count on. Kids that age are supposed to be pulling away, and most days ours is too, that’s just how it works. But she came through the door and hugged us longer than she needed to and kept finding reasons to hang around the kitchen instead of disappearing into her room, and it hit me how special it is to know your kid genuinely missed you. Not needed you. Missed you. There’s a difference, and I felt all of it this weekend. So special.
I love you and there is nothing you can do about it.
The rest of this one is for paid subscribers. If you've been getting something out of these letters, this is a good place to jump in, and you'll get early looks at the book as it comes together.