MID YEAR CHECK-IN: READING AS A CHRISTIAN
What’s up, reader friends?
I’m taking a little detour from my regularly scheduled programming because there’s something that’s been weighing heavily on my heart lately, and I wanted to share it with you. I want to talk about what it has looked like for me to navigate reading as a Christian in 2026.
If you’ve been around here for a while, you know I fell in love with reading back in 2023. I was desperately searching for a hobby that would help me disconnect from my workaholic tendencies, and books quickly became that outlet.
I've always loved the arts and good storytelling.
Whether it's movies, television, theater, music, or literature. I love the beauty and nuance that stories give us. They invite us into the human experience. They stir emotion, broaden our perspective, cultivate empathy for lives we'll never personally live, and remind us that every person has a story worth understanding. I'm also a sucker for the craftsmanship behind a brilliantly told story—the details, the pacing, the structure, the characters that bring a narrative full circle.
Throughout my reading journey, I've always filtered books through the lens of my Christian faith. I've had personal boundaries around things like sexual content, excessive language, graphic violence, demonic themes, and other material that I simply wasn't comfortable consuming. But over the course of this year, something began to shift.
The question slowly changed from "Is this too much for me?" to "Is this pleasing to the Lord?"
And that, my friends, became a much heavier question to tackle.
At the beginning of the year, I prayed a simple prayer: "Lord, deepen my convictions in everything I consume. Increase my discernment, and reveal the things I'm allowing into my heart and mind that aren't pleasing to You." And let me tell you—that is a dangerous prayer. Because God is faithful to answer it.
Over the past several months, He has steadily deepened my convictions, and one of the biggest ripple effects has been the way I approach reading.
If you had asked me a year ago, I would've said I was doing pretty well. Compared to the average mainstream reader, my standards already felt fairly tame. I wasn't reading books that I considered overtly inappropriate or intentionally seeking out content that conflicted with my faith. But when I invited the Lord to inspect this area of my life, I realized there was still so much room for Him to make me more like Christ.
And honestly... It's been hard.
I've picked up books this year that, just six months ago, I probably would've finished without a second thought. Romances with moderate spice but nothing outrageous. Thrillers with violence or suspense that wasn't especially graphic.
Yet after asking God to sharpen my discernment, I've found myself becoming increasingly sensitive to content that once felt perfectly acceptable. There have been books I've chosen to put down, not because I suddenly believe they're inherently "bad," but because my own convictions have changed.
It hasn't always been easy. But sanctification rarely is.
Following Jesus has always required surrender, and surrender almost always costs us something. Sometimes it's obvious. Sometimes it's subtle. Sometimes it's simply laying down something we genuinely enjoy because the Holy Spirit is inviting us into deeper obedience. And while that process can be uncomfortable—even painful at times—there's also incredible peace in knowing you're becoming more like Christ.
That's the beauty of sanctification.
It's the lifelong work of the Holy Spirit, slowly transforming our desires, our thoughts, and our affections to look more like Jesus. Sometimes that transformation means our appetites begin to change too.
So what does this actually look like for me as a reader?
The truth is, I still love storytelling. The tough part? Stories reflect the human experience, and the human experience isn't exclusively Christian. Because of that, I've wrestled with the question:
Should Christians only read Christian books?
I've spent months thinking, praying, reading Scripture, and having conversations around this question, and I don't believe the answer is as black and white as we sometimes want it to be. I do believe Scripture gives us clear wisdom that guides us towards the kinds of things we should allow to influence our minds and hearts. At the same time, sincere believers can arrive at different convictions about where those boundaries should be. This post isn't meant to condemn anyone or suggest that every Christian should have the exact same convictions I do.
Ultimately, that's between you and the Lord.
I'm simply sharing what God has been doing in my own heart because I know I can't be the only one wrestling with these questions. In fact, it was conversations with friends and a few Christian content creators that first planted seeds in my own heart—seeds that led me to examine my reading life more honestly before God.
My hope is that maybe this post can simply plant a seed for someone else.
Whether you're feeling a gentle nudge from the Holy Spirit or a much stronger conviction, I want to leave you with the verse I've returned to again and again whenever I'm unsure whether to continue reading a book or quietly close it.
"Finally, believers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable and worthy of respect, whatever is right and confirmed by God's word, whatever is pure and wholesome, whatever is lovely and brings peace, whatever is admirable and of good repute; if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think continually on these things [center your mind on them, and implant them in your heart]."
— Philippians 4:8 (AMP)
This verse hasn't given me a checklist, but it has given me a compass. One that continually points me back toward Christ whenever I'm unsure.
I'm not perfect, and neither will you be.
We're all learning what it looks like to faithfully follow Jesus in a messy, broken world. My prayer is simply that we would continue to pursue Him with open hands, allowing Him to shape every area of our lives—even something as ordinary as the books we choose to read.
Because in the end, becoming more like Jesus will always be worth whatever He asks us to lay down.
