Have you ever known someone who talked a big game, but all their bragging and boasting was nothing more than hot air? No matter who else is around and no matter how great their accomplishments, he always has a bigger and better story. If someone else caught a fish that was 20 lbs, the fish he caught was 30 lbs. If someone else received an award, the award he received was more prestigious. If someone else is an amateur in a sport, he was MVP on his team in that sport ‘back in his prime.’ And on and on it goes. Talk is cheap, so lots of people in the world talk the talk.

But how many will actually walk the walk? Even as Christians, we are tempted to talk a big game, perhaps from a sense of insecurity or from a desire to fit in with others we perceive to be more spiritual than we are, or from an arrogant self-absorption. There are many who talk the talk, but fewer who walk the walk. The apostle Paul was one of those people who fearlessly walked the walk. Because of his lifestyle and unquestionable devotion to the cause of Christ, when he talked the talk, people knew that his life backed up his words.

Early in his first missionary trip, Paul faced opposition from hostile unbelievers, but things took a turn for the worse when he was preaching in Lystra. While he was preaching in that city, “…Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. But when the disciples gathered around him, he rose up and entered the city, and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe” (Acts 14:19-20). If this was me, I probably would have decided to lay low for a while, at least till things settled down. And if this happened to you or me on a foreign mission trip, our supporting church would undoubtedly encourage us to return to the states for a while to rest and recover. They might even recommend that we not return to that area where we faced such grave danger. We’d be tempted to quit.

But not Paul. After surviving this vicious attempt of his life, Paul kept right on like nothing had happened. And not long after, he returned to the very city where they tried to kill him in order to encourage the young disciples there: “…they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:21—22). He stood before the church, probably still with visible wounds and possible disfigurement, a living testimony to the trials that we are called to endure. Paul didn’t just talk the talk. He walked the walk. Will you?