In an essay written shortly before his death, Walker Percy imagined the following scenario. Suppose a group of top scientists are gathered together for a weeklong conference. They have come to share the latest research on everything from superstring theory to genetic engineering.

Now what would happen, Percy wondered, if in the middle of this meeting, a fire broke out in the convention hall, and a man rushed to the podium and said, “Follow me! I know the way out!” Percy concluded that the people in the room would quickly be able to distinguish this statement from all of the others that they had heard throughout the week.

In the first place, the statement “Follow me! I know the way out!” is not a scientific claim. It is a matter of life-or-death and it calls for immediate action. The conferees cannot mull this statement over or write it down for later testing in a lab. A response is required. And in the second place, the statement “Follow me! I know the way out!” must be received more on the basis of trust than on evidence. In other words, rather than asking the man at the podium first to prove that there is a fire before they follow him, the conferees will likely decide whether he is trustworthy, and then act accordingly.

Percy goes on to argue, “If the man commanded them to flap their arms and fly out through the skylight, they would hardly heed him. If he spoke like a crazy person with all manner of ranting and raving, they would hardly heed him. If they knew him to be a liar, they would hardly heed him. But if he spoke with authority, in perfect sobriety, and with every outward sign of good faith and regard for them, saying that he knew the way out and they only needed to follow him, they would surely heed him … and frankly, they would heed him with all dispatch!”

This hypothetical scenario got me to thinking that, for Christians, our walk is every bit as important as our talk. After all, we, too, have a life-or-death message to share. And like the man at the podium, our message will be received more on the basis of trust than on evidence. The truths of Christianity are not the kind that you can evaluate in a laboratory or prove with a mathematical equation.
Like it or not, people will determine the truth of our words chiefly on whether we appear to be trustworthy. And if we are not living out our message, then why would we expect anybody to heed it? The bottom line for Christians is that a faith, which is professed but only haphazardly practiced, is hardly a convincing witness. If we want people to follow Christ, we must do more than merely tell them about his life, we must start living it!