Hi friends,
I’ve been sitting with something this week that I didn’t expect to surface the way it did.
Earlier this week, I posted a short reflection about law and grace—specifically that in Scripture, grace comes before law. Rescue first. Instruction second.
What followed was… a lot.
Hundreds of comments. Strong reactions. Certainty. Defensiveness. People talking past each other rather than to each other.
I didn’t read most of them. But I recognized the posture immediately.
And it reminded me of a skill it took me years to learn—and one I now see as essential for a healthy faith.
The skill I didn’t know I was learning
When I was working on my master’s in biblical studies, something surprising happened.
I wasn’t part of the school’s denomination. I didn’t even really know what their denominational identity was. And that turned out to be a gift.
We read scholars from everywhere—Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, across traditions and centuries. The question was never who wrote it, but whether it helped us understand the text more clearly.
What changed me wasn’t agreement.
It was respect.
I watched professors and fellow students who held very different conclusions from mine live out a sincere, thoughtful faith. I could see how they arrived where they did—even when I didn’t land there myself.
And slowly, something in me loosened.
I stopped needing to resolve everything.
Negative capability (and why it matters)
There’s a term for this skill: negative capability.
It’s the ability to hold multiple—even conflicting—interpretations as potentially valid
without anxiety,
without defensiveness,
without the need to force resolution.
It’s the freedom to say:
- “I see how that reading works.”
- “I’m not convinced—but I’m not threatened.”
- “Some things may remain unresolved, and that’s okay.”
This isn’t indecision.
It’s maturity.
And Scripture itself models it.
Proverbs 26 places two instructions side by side:
Do not answer a fool according to his folly…
Answer a fool according to his folly…
Both are there.
Neither cancels the other.
Wisdom is knowing when—not flattening tension.
Why this matters right now
What I saw in the comment section wasn’t really about law or grace.
It was about discomfort with tension.
Many of us were formed in systems where faith meant having the answer—and defending it at all costs. Where unresolved questions felt dangerous.
But the problem isn’t disagreement.
It’s what happens inside us when disagreement feels like a threat.
Negative capability lowers the nervous system.
It creates space for listening.
It allows curiosity to replace reflex.
And ironically, it produces more confidence, not less.
A quiet practice for this week
The next time you feel that internal pressure to correct, defend, or shut down—pause.
Ask yourself:
- What am I afraid would happen if I let this question remain open?
- Can I name two plausible readings without deciding between them?
- What would it look like to stay present instead of needing closure?
Sometimes wisdom isn’t answering or not answering.
Sometimes wisdom is knowing when to scroll past the comment section entirely.
(Proverbs might add a third option today.)
This skill—learning to hold tension without fear—is foundational to what I’m building with Confident Reader.
Not to make you uncertain.
But to help you become unshakeable.
I’ll share more soon.
Have a blessed week,
—Ryan
