Book Review: Walk it Out by Tricia Goyer

Have you ever wondered what it looks like to practically put your faith into action? What does it entail and how can you learn how to actively live out your faith in the world? In Tricia Goyer’s book Walk it Out: The Radical Result of Living God’s Word One Step at a Time, she gives us a look inside of her life and the steps she has taken to fulfill the call to walk in step with God.

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“Following Him has led me to do things I never expected, and along the way I’ve experienced a deep sense of purpose. What is that purpose? It isn’t just one thing. Instead it is a fluid mixture of callings that God reveals as I see Him at work in this world and dare to step into the good work He’s designed for me. It wasn’t that I needed to do good things to earn love or salvation, but instead I do them because I’m committed to giving all of myself to God.” –Tricia Goyer, Walk it Out

This quote is in the beginning chapters of Goyer’s book, and it challenged me and made me deeply think about the ways I’m living out my faith in my everyday experiences. It has long been a struggle for me, as I’m sure it has with many of you, to figure out just what my purpose and calling is (or should be). When I read the following quote, it just hit me that I need to change the way I’m thinking and praying in order to figure this out:

“Rather than trying to determine what study we should join, book we should read, or ministry we should get involved with , we should instead ask God to break our hearts with the things that break His. Rather than just reading God’s Word for personal and group study, we should actually do what it says–even the really hard things. This is where we find our joy, our purpose.”

That quote gives me a big “a-ha” moment. It doesn’t say anything I haven’t heard before, but what is new is Goyer’s delivery. Instead of just telling readers to pray to discover what God would have us do, she provides details of how this has manifested in her own life. That transparency is what inspired me, and will inspire readers to actually take those difficult steps. Each chapter ends with Reflection questions to get you to think about your life in the context of that chapter’s message. Then come the challenging Action Steps, which are designed to get readers to specifically think about putting the lessons from the chapter into action.

Walk it Out contains many examples of how Tricia Goyer walks out her own faith–from big to small. From starting a pregnancy center to going on a short term mission trip to foster care and adoption, her life is rich with experiences that can serve as inspiration. What does it mean when God asks us to care for widows and orphans? What does it mean when God asks us to use our pain and experiences to help others? The author even goes deep into practically how we are to make the space in our lives to do these things. What does it look like to cut out activities and commitments in order to do what God has called you to do?

While reading this book, I highlighted, I took notes, I answered questions. Then I set it aside and picked it up a couple of weeks later and went through it again. This is the type of book that begs you to ponder, pray, and be still enough to listen to what God is telling you to do–and then take the step of faith to actually do it. Walk it Out is filled with Bible verses that will help with direction. There’s also an exercise that has you take your different life-changing events and look at the themes that come from them. Just because you have experienced one specific thing in your life doesn’t mean that you have to work with people who have experienced the same (although that could be true). You can also take the bigger themes and apply them to many different areas. For example, one of Tricia Goyer’s Life-changing events was a teen pregnancy, which led to her mentoring teen moms. Yet the themes of loneliness, longing, embarrassment, and looking to Jesus to fill empty hearts can be applicable to so many other situations. The various questions can lead you on a path of discovery in order to determine what you should be doing in your life.