Feb 22, 2018
By Tyler Chroniger
Most of us have heard the phrase “you can talk the talk, but you can’t walk the walk.” While the intention of telling someone this phrase is to motivate them into action, most of the time it results in anger towards the person speaking. We do not like the fact that someone thinks our talk does not match our walk. We do not like the fact that we are being judged to a degree. We do not like the fact that someone could possibly think he is better than us. The real fact of the matter is that those people are probably right.
Words are hard to hear, especially when those words are true about us. In reading this, you might be starting to get uneasy. The thought might be drifting in that your talk does not match your walk. You might have just glossed over this article simply because of the title. It may be hard to hear that we are not doing what we should be doing.
We sit in our church pews each week counting the minutes until it’s time to go home. We turn our brains off when the pastor is teaching because maybe we think it does not pertain to us. We rarely sit together as a body of believers, seeking God’s will for our churches. This is not to say everyone is like this, but to say that many of us are. Our talk doesn’t match our walk. Showing up to church is our talk, not our walk. Telling someone we will pray for him is our talk, not our walk. Half-heartedly reading the Bible is our talk, not our walk. We may do some things that make it appear our talk and our walk match up. Sometimes we think that if we do just enough, maybe no one will notice that our walk does not match our talk.
I am just as guilty of this. Most of you do not know my story and, quite frankly, most of you do not even know who I am. Here is the “Cliff Notes” version: I grew up in a Christian home. Both my dad and mom are pastors. I have one brother and two sisters. I met Jesus during a camp experience when I was fourteen. After that my life was not different. I did not have a strong desire to do more with that. I mean — I grew up in church and I had it all figured out! I graduated high school, went to a year of college (too expensive), got a job, and started down the party path (drugs, alcohol, and promiscuity). I was dating a girl at the age of twenty-two when God got a hold of me again. He clearly said, “What you are doing is toxic and you need to be done.” I immediately broke-up with the girl and the partying slowed to almost nothing. I met my now wife, whom I had grown up with in church. I got baptized at twenty-five and started to make a new commitment to Jesus. It was a slow process but He was working. I was given opportunities to preach at my home church and eventually preached at Conference. Was my talk matching my walk? It appeared to — I did just enough that you would think that my walk matched my talk.
In the last six months I’ve learned a valuable lesson about God. In His timing, as He wills, He has revealed His plans for my life. I am listening and being obedient. It took me thirty-four years to get to this point where my walk and talk are finally meshing. Why do I tell you all of this? I want to be an encouragement. I had to get to a place of listening and being obedient. I also understand that it is not easy — learning to surrender all.
The Bible tells us God speaks, therefore why don’t we listen and act? It does not matter whether or not you have grown up in church. It does not matter if you think you have it all together or if you do not. It does not matter if you are old or young. There is only one thing that matters. Start trusting God by listening and doing what He says. God is revealing himself through the movement of His spirit. God
is showing up in a big way through people in our churches. Listen to them and get on board with what God is doing. You believe? Act like it. You want God to move? Let Him. You want your talk (praise Jesus on Saturday, forget about Him Sunday) to match your walk (trusting Jesus to lead through the power of the Spirit)? Let God be God and follow His leading and prompting, whatever that means. I know that
God has spoken to you. You will find loving God becomes easier. You will find that doing and being the church is easier. You will find that loving people becomes easier.
Walk the walk that you are talking the talk about.
