Prima Verba – Part 15

What’s your life verse?

This is a fairly common question among Protestants, especially Evangelicals.

A life verse is a verse or passage of the Bible that carries special meaning for you. Often, this is because of a particular way that it spoke to you in a time of joy or sorrow or struggle, or because it touches on a theme that is near and dear to your heart. So, it becomes a defining verse for your life, or for your trajectory in life. Thus, it becomes a life verse and is an anchor of sorts for your journey.

Personally, I never had one. Well, not until this crazy journey into the Catholic Church began, anyway.

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I wrote previously about how I read the Catechism of the Catholic Church in an effort to better understand my friend Keith and his newfound faith. Well, along the way, I didn’t just keep track of my agreements, disagreements, and partial agreements; I also made a list of questions about various terms and ideas I didn’t understand. There were more of these than I thought there would be! Then, whenever I had a batch of questions compiled, I’d get in touch with Father Aaron Junge, and we’d talk over them, and he’d fill in what was lacking in my understanding.

I met Father Aaron shortly after Keith and I started talking about Catholic stuff, when I had no intention whatsoever of becoming Catholic. In fact, in our first conversation, I told Fr. Aaron (and this is pretty much a direct quote), “I don’t think I could ever be Catholic, but I don’t want to fight with Catholics anymore.” I’m pretty sure God laughed at me.

Two things immediately endeared me to Fr. Aaron. First was his kindness. There I was, a Protestant pastor, talking with him in the basement of a Catholic Church, and he was nothing but warm and welcoming. Second, he is a Lord of the Rings fan.

No, that’s not fair to him. He’s a Lord of the Rings nerd.

I can give no higher praise than that when it comes to one’s disposition toward Tolkien’s magnum opus. We hit it off immediately as we talked about all things LOTR—from the obvious to the obscure. And I felt a certain degree of pride (sanctified Christian pride, mind you) when I told him that I am Aarongorn on social media and he exclaimed, “How did I never think of that?!?!”

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Anyway… As I made my way through the Catechism and encountered some concepts I didn’t quite understand, I knew I was going to need a resident expert in Catholic theology and practice. And Fr. Aaron graciously agreed to step into that role.

Along the way, we got to know each other better. In one of our conversations, I ended up confiding in him that I was burned out, that I was losing my internal sense of being called to pastoral ministry, and that I would not resist if God asked me to take the next exit.

Of course, this meant confiding in him that Cami was not at all where I was on the matter. I think we discussed this in two or three of our meetings, and in one of them, he said to me, “I’m reminded of what Moses said to Israel when they were caught between the Red Sea and Pharaoh’s army: ‘The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.’ If God is calling you out of pastoral ministry, he’ll show you the way, and he’ll lead Cami along with you. You just need to be still and trust in him to fight for you.”

That’s Exodus 14:14. Did I know this verse? Yes. I might not have been able to locate it by chapter and verse numbers at the time, but I knew it. But when he spoke it to me, it was like he spoke it into me. I felt it. I knew that, in that moment, that verse was just for me. From that point on, it became a linchpin of my prayers.

And over the next year and a half, that verse sustained me—not only in what it promised, but in how it kept popping up in my life. The number of times it showed up for me out of nowhere defied the odds. It would be like flipping a quarter and having it come up tails ninety times out of a hundred. It didn’t make sense. Yet it made perfect sense. God was with me, and he had everything well in hand. This was one of the ways he chose to remind me of that.

Out of all the times that Exodus 14:14 showed up in that year and a half, the most profound instance occurred when Cami went shopping at a little store that was going out of business. It was what I call a knick-knack shop, and everything was on clearance. When she came home, she showed me all of the treasures she’d found, saving the best for last—a metal wall hanging of a Bible verse. Guess which one…

Now, keep in mind the fact that Cami didn’t know about what Exodus 14:14 had come to mean for me. I hadn’t said anything to her, because, how in the world do you say, “You know, Cami… I know you don’t want me to resign, but God is going to fight for me, and then you’ll want me to resign too.” No, I kept it to myself.

Until she showed me that wall hanging…

In a classic case of undisciplined zeal, I took her purchase as an opportunity to say, “You know, Cami… I know you don’t want me to resign, but God is going to fight for me, and then you’ll want me to resign too!” Well, not in so many words. But that’s what she heard. We didn’t talk much the rest of the night.

Of course, by now you know we got through this, ended up on the same page, and came into the Catholic Church together. Along the way, this became a powerful verse for her as well. And I’d like to finish here by relating the most recent time it came to our rescue.

It was Monday, July 21 of 2025. So, just about half a year ago, as I write this. That weekend, I had been feeling very restless (and more than a little anxious) about the fact that after more than six months, I still didn’t know what the Lord was calling me to do for work. We had been waiting and trusting for an answer, but hadn’t discerned anything yet.

Sunday night and Monday morning, I prayed along these lines: “Lord, I don’t know if your silence is the answer, and I should just take a job and get to work doing something, or if I should continue to wait. So, please remember that I’m not very smart, and tell me like I’m a little child—what do you want me to do?”

That same Monday morning, we went to Daily Mass, as is our habit. At that time, I wasn’t looking at the daily readings beforehand, so I never knew what they would be. Once again, I’ll let you guess what the first reading was. That’s right… Exodus 14. As the lector began reading from verse 5, I thought to myself, “Oh, I know where this is… I know exactly where this is. I wonder how far the reading goes.” Sure enough, it included verse 14. My verse.

After Mass, Cami and I checked in with each other. “Did you catch the first reading?” I asked.

“I did,” she answered.

“And?” I asked.

She smiled and said, “We’re supposed to keep waiting on the Lord.”

And so we did. And so we are.

It hasn’t been easy. The feelings of restlessness (and anxiety) return from time to time, but we’re getting better at turning them over to the Lord. We know that he is fighting for us. We need only to be still.

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More time than I anticipated has passed since Part 14. I knew I’d be taking a two-week break during the holidays because I had so much going on. But after that, I found it difficult to get back into a writing rhythm. To get those muscles working again, I started publishing reflections on the daily readings. I take a small segment of one of the readings and write a few short paragraphs about it. It’s like a devotional, I guess.

I publish them as notes on Substack, but I also post them on X (@Aarongorn), Facebook (my name), Instagram (@aarongorn42), and LinkedIn (my name). If you’re not following me on any of these, consider this your invitation to do so!

And as always, thank you so much for your support. We appreciate you very much!

From here, I’ll begin filling in some of the gaps concerning how Cami and I went from being in polar opposite positions to being united in purpose and plan.

May the Lord bless and keep you all.

Gloria in excelsis Deo

Aaron