Talk is Cheap

In all labor there is profit. But idle chatter leads only to poverty. – Proverbs 14:23

Do you remember daytime soap operas? They used to be a mainstay of network TV from about 1:00 – 4:00 pm every weekday. There are still a few around nowadays, but they’ve largely been replaced by talk shows which offer more salacious topics and cost less to produce. But if you’re a fan of the genre, you can still get your fix of stories about the most unrealistic people in the world doing the most unrealistic things imaginable.

Soaps often feature the lives of similar characters. Ridiculously wealthy people who run major corporations, providing them with mansions, jets, fancy clothes, and above all, LOTS of free time. Imagine if they tried to create a soap about real life. And not reality TV, which they also needed to jazz up in unrealistic ways to make it appealing to an audience. I mean the classic daytime drama featuring ordinary people living everyday lives. How could Samuel cheat on Deborah with Isabel while they’re on that whirlwind business trip to East Kookamunga if Samuel had to pull a double shift at the factory this weekend? It’s far more compelling to hear about Angela’s plans to overthrow Gary so she could run the corporation, only to lose the company jet in a poker game with Eduardo’s sketchy twin brother Fernando, than it would be to listen to Carol tell Randy about her visit to the 10-minute oil change.

Soaps need to create an aura of wealth and power for their audiences. I guess it attempts to sweep people away from the daily routine into another world filled with bold and beautiful people living the days of their lives. But they also must rely upon dialogue to do most of their work. The actors are filmed on a set, not on location in the real world. This means they must use their conversations to create and convey the drama and the tension. And boy, they can certainly talk. How else could the character be able to survive going from the country club to the coffee shop to the beach house to the five-star restaurant so you can talk to a new character at every stop about the same crazy issue that’s dominated the plot for the past three weeks. This, however, creates another highly unrealistic scenario. How many people do you know who do nothing but go around finding more and more people with whom they can chat, gossip, or shoot the breeze? A few? Next question – how many of them actually accomplish anything? My guess is even fewer.

Proverbs 14:23 offers a simple perspective when it comes to the balance needed between talk and work. “In all labor there is profit.” Work produces gains. Now some might argue that work doesn’t always guarantee success, and there is truth to that. You can work very hard at something, and it doesn’t achieve the goals you set for it. But realize that the work still profits you through everything that you learned about that task and the process you followed. Thomas Edison understood this concept and it drove him to keep inventing. Consider his words on failing. “Negative results are just what I want. They’re just as valuable to me as positive results. I can never find the things that does the job best until I find the ones that don’t.” These words exemplify the importance of putting in the work, and not just giving lip service.

That leads us to the second part of the proverb. “But idle chatter leads only to poverty.” My dad used to describe people who, “like to talk just to hear the sound of their own voice.” They were those people who had opinions about everything but never demonstrated any real ability to accomplish anything in their spoken areas of expertise. Now let me say that not too many people would typically compare the wisdom of Solomon and the ingenuity of Edison with something my dad said, but I must admit that his insight carries weight. People who talk a good game but can’t produce when it counts won’t find success. People who put in the work, who stay diligent, who don’t make excuses, or find ways to blame others for their own shortcomings place themselves on a path toward achieving goals and realizing dreams that for others are simply unattainable.

I see a great many things in modern life becoming more like a chatter-filled soap opera. People look to create idyllic moments and perfect experiences so that the pages of their social media accounts will speak to others of a life filled with the greatest of things. The only problem is that this isn’t real. Life is filled with disappointment, failures, setbacks, and heartbreak. Sin guarantees this reality. Unfortunately, another reality here is that when it comes to sin, there is nothing we can do about it. All the hard work we can muster doesn’t change the fact that we’re tainted and unable to save ourselves. Thankfully, we have an advocate who is more powerful than the greatest soap opera tycoon ever imagined. God’s love for us caused Him to send Jesus into the world to atone for our sins and give us what we couldn’t get and don’t deserve, forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life.

In response to this gift, may we work to provide others with the same opportunity to know Jesus. Let our words be impactful, filled with the gospel of truth shared with us by God and spoken through us by His Spirit. Then, our words will have the power to create something good and positive in building the Kingdom of God. May we exchange the idle, trivial pursuits that so often fill our lives for those which bring the greatest profits possible.

Devotion by Richard Schumacher

Senior Director of Operations