The Time Malcolm Gladwell Reminded Me to Put Faith in Action
After rereading Talking to Strangers, I couldn't help to see one of the principles laid out in his book everywhere I looked...including my faith!
My 2025 Word of the Year is KNOWLEDGE. I have several goals attached to this word, but the biggest is reading more books. As I write this, I’ve completed nine books in 2025, and I’m actively reading four more. I am mixing fiction and non-fiction1 because I can learn from both forms of writing.2
This month, the theme will be what I’m gleaning from these books, leading us into April and Easter. Today and next week, I’ll share two thoughts from Malcolm Gladwell’s Talking to Strangers.3
Talking to Strangers
I’ve been a fan of Malcolm Gladwell for a while. I’ve read most of his books and listened to each season of his Revisionist History podcast. His curiosity and willingness to dig into overlooked and misunderstood concepts is inspiring. I am constantly challenged in my thinking on subjects after reading and listening to his research and opinions, which he will often change from beginning to end (no matter how unbiased anyone tries to be, there is always a bias at work).
I received Talking to Strangers as a Christmas gift and thought it looked familiar as I cracked it open. Indeed, I read it several years ago, near its initial release in 2019. I don’t often reread books, but I found having a basic grasp of the information helpful as I reread it.
I could write about multiple takeaways.4 I will share more next week, but this week, I will focus on the theory of coupling.
Coupling
Coupling is the concept that behaviors are tied to specific contexts. In Talking to Strangers, Gladwell cites a 33% drop in Great Britain's suicide rate between 1960 and 1975. During that timeframe, Great Britain made a nationwide switch from town gas to natural gas as an energy source for heating and cooking. As it pertains to suicide, town gas is lethal when inhaled for just a short time, while natural gas is not.
Based on the data, Gladwell claims that the desire for someone to end their life was more uncomplicated when town gas was the standard form of energy, but when that option was removed, so was the ability to quickly and cleanly end your own life.
He goes on to pair effective aggressive policing policies with small sectors of neighborhoods with high crime rates. These same policing techniques, coupled with areas of lower crime rates, end with poorer results. Both factors need to be in place to see success in lowering overall crime rates.
The point is that behaviors that perplex us are often tied to a specific context we frequently miss. If we can remove one part of the context, the behavior will usually stop or recede.
Hard Work and Self-Control
Let me leave the book to consider coupling as applied to life principles in general.
As I considered Gladwell’s theory of coupling, I read a few notes I had taken from a couple of e-newsletters I received. Both came within the last week, so they were fresh in my mind.
1. Hard Work
Let me begin with hard work. I grew up in a single-family home with my mom and sister. My grandfather lived ten minutes away on a few acres of land. One of his priorities was to teach me about hard work, which I hated. However, looking back at those early Saturday mornings of cutting thistles and mending fences, I see a value instilled in my life: hard work matters.
However, I didn’t learn something just as important — what I couple hard work with matters just as much as the hard work. In his latest newsletter, Jon Acuff shared his favorite Simon Sinek quote, which answers this vital second part valuing hard work:
"Working hard for something we don't care about is called stress;
working hard for something we love is called passion.”
-Simon Sinek
I imagine we can all raise our hands and agree with this statement. We’ve all worked hard for something we didn’t care about (beyond a paycheck), which led to stress. But we also know the feeling of hard work coupled with something we love. In those moments, we found passion.
The value of hard work increases exponentially when it is coupled with love.
2. Self-Control
The same is valid with self-control. We typically view self-control as an internal force to manipulate our harmful desires—a correct but incomplete perspective. Self-control is most successful when the internal is coupled with the external. I was reminded of this in James Clear’s weekly newsletter.
"Think about self-control less as the quality of a person and more as the quality of a place. There are some places and situations that lean toward lower self-control and others that lean toward higher self-control.
Self-control is about your context as much as your character.
Put yourself in good positions."
-James Clear
If you are recovering alcoholic (or most any vice), coupling self-control with the Strip of Las Vegas will lower your success rate. Yes, it will be a test of character to live dry on the strip of Las Vegas, but mostly it is a failure to couple your self-control with the best location to stay sober.
When you think about the theory of coupling, you will see it everywhere, including your spiritual life.
Coupling Faith With Action
Let me connect this concept of coupling with the main point. To do so, I will turn to a story from the Old Testament (2 Chronicles 20).
At this point, Judah had long separated from the rest of the tribes of Israel. It became a minor nation under consistent pressure from the larger and more powerful surrounding nations. Jehoshaphat was king and discovered a massive enemy army on the march toward Jerusalem.
It is here we see the power of coupling in our spiritual walks.
Jehoshaphat begins with an act of faith. He gathers the entire country to cry out to God for mercy and help. God answers by telling the king to stand back and watch how He will come through for this tiny nation. However, there is one command God gives the people — march out to battle, take up your positions, and stand firm.
Based on their initial faith, God responds with a call to couple faith with action. He promises to do the hard work of fighting their enemies, but that faith needs to be coupled with the action of bravely marching out to battle.
This is a fundamental principle of the Christian walk: faith coupled with action creates salvation power.
Coupling Faith and Action in the New Testament
James, the brother of Jesus, makes this clear when he wrote:
What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? -James 2:14 NLT
James goes on to use Abraham as an example of this salvation power:
Don’t you remember that our ancestor Abraham was shown to be right with God by his actions when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see, his faith and his actions worked together. His actions made his faith complete. And so it happened just as the Scriptures say: “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” He was even called the friend of God. So you see, we are shown to be right with God by what we do, not by faith alone.
-James 2:21-24 NLT
The principle of coupling faith with action is a vital part of your Christian life.
If you are desperate for God to move in your life — job, marriage, finances, family, education — pair your faith with action. Expect God to fight the battle for you, but show up and stand firm. Do something, but make space for God to act on your behalf.
But this shouldn’t just be your perspective in moments of desperation. Coupling faith with action should be a way of life. James is making the point of caring for the poor. We can extend this to speaking out against injustice, sharing the Gospel locally and abroad, or being actively involved in our local church. These are examples of coupling action with faith.
Consider this:
Have you coupled your faith with action?
Is this a way of life?
It is a challenge for all of us because the challenge never ends.
This week, determine where you can couple your faith with action.
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I’ve completed two fiction and seven non-fiction books.
One of the most valuable insights to gain from fiction is a mindset or worldview from the author — especially if they are from a different culture than mine.
If you are interested in how I capture the thoughts and ideas I gain from these books, I encourage you to return to my post a few weeks ago about my journaling system.
Maybe the most fascinating insight Gladwell shares is a study done on an episode of Friends, which measured the facial expressions of several of the main characters. Gladwell determines we could watch most Friends episodes without sound and understand what is happening in the show. This isn’t real life, however. We cannot read most people by facial expression alone.
Thanks, Andy. This letter is a treasure. The Sinek quote is gold. Good job. I appreciate the diversity of your topics.