'Walk it out, friend. Walk it out beautifully, with Jesus by your side.'
Walk It Out by Tricia Goyer is a non-fiction Christian book encouraging us to live out God's word, not only reading the word, but truly living it. In amongst looking at God's direction to us, we see Tricia's personal story and how by following God's word, she had changed. The chapters covered: obeying God, dealing with personal emotional baggage, priorities, remembering Heaven, sharing the word & testimony, mission trips, giving to the poor/needy, adoption, family, careers, equality/unity/diversity...ect.
I'm conflicted by this book.
On the one hand, this book is very readable unlike some other Christian books I have read, I felt like Tricia was there with us throughout, pouring out her heart. It also contains gospel truths and encourages you to live out God's word. Tricia's story and those of others that she mentioned are inspiring. Also the cover of the book is beautiful.
On the other hand, I feel as though Tricia lacked balance in this book, instead of being a book about encouraging us to 'walk it out', it became Tricia's walk, it became very autobiographical - "in my heart it became all about me". In the third chapter, Tricia says how she felt driven to prove herself, yet I feel like this book was her again trying to unconsciously prove herself; telling us what she has learned, how she became better, how she is a great example to her kids, how a verse in the bible confirms what she has lived out (e.g. in the conclusion "Proverbs 2:1-9 confirms what I've lived out.")...ect. I felt like it was a guilt-trip book, like 'I adopted kids, here's a verse in the bible about kids, you should adopt kids too, if you're not then you're not walking it out' (not her words, but to me that's what each chapter read like). I dont think it clicked with me that 'the radical result' on the subtitle of the book was about Tricia's results, her victories. Yet despite it being almost all about herself, she constantly says something along the lines of 'its not about me, but about God'. She has the audacity to claim that "God shows off" in reference to her writing. Also she constantly changes bible translation to suit her points and purposes. Don't get me wrong, the lessons she learned and thus teaches us aren't wrong, they are generally biblically sound, but my problem lies in the fact she appears to be placing herself on a pedalstool and looking down on those who aren't like her - "I will admit that the lack of Christians obeying God's directives in this area angers me." (the "area" she was referring to was again adoption).
This was my first book by Tricia Goyer. I have to admit, I was a little underwhelmed by it, having has high hopes for it when I asked for it for Christmas. I will take one of Tricia's earlier lines in the first chapter, "There is a difference, you see, between knowing what God's word says and actually doing it.", I feel like in that one line alone,she got across the purpose of the book. I will like to read more by Tricia, but I just hope that her focus is somewhere other than herself.