Keep Moving Forward

Keep Moving Forward


As we finish up the second week of 2008, many of us are still setting goals for the upcoming year. This post (possibly a series of posts) is intended to encourage and challenge you to take the next step. God bless you all!

Thomas Huxley was wrong about a lot of things, but he was right when he wrote, “The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man’s foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher.”

Theodore Roosevelt’s life is an amazing example of a man who lived every day as if it were his last, worked every job as if he’d never have another, and in the end found himself as President of the United States. He neither despised the day of small things nor got stuck before he’d reached the peak of his potential.

Solomon wrote in the book of Proverbs, “Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve before kings. He will not serve before obscure men.” That certainly was the case with Teddy Roosevelt who gave everything he had to everything he did. Obscurity cannot succeed in hiding a man like Roosevelt — and it never will.

Most of us, however, are not so passionate, tending to get comfortable just living life and getting by — neither giving our current activities the energy they deserve nor dreaming of anything better than what we already have. We stop exerting ourselves and get comfortable halfway up the ladder. Or, to use a different analogy, it is as if we are sitting on a stepping-stone in the middle of a stream. We’re comfortable, yes, but we were never intended to get cozy on a stepping-stone. Our ultimate goal is to cross over to the other side.

Jason, a twentysomething from Florida, wrote us to share how that lately he’d grown complacent with his life, just working his job and getting by. “Not that a steady working life isn’t God’s plan for some,” Jason wrote, “but I was feeling empty and knew that God had more abundant plans for me. I knew He had some hard things for me to do.” Jason concluded by sharing that he was now planning to switch gears and attend law school, with the goal of advocating for pro-life groups. He realized that he was getting stuck far below the potential God had given him. He knew it was time to step up to the next rung of life’s ladder.

Over 100 years ago a young woman named Mary from the town of Dundee, Scotland, lay in bed pondering the brave adventures of the great explorer, David Livingstone, who had just been buried in Westminster Abbey. Then she remember his famous words, “I don’t care where we go as long as we go forward.”

Go forward, thought Mary to herself. I’m not going forward. I’m not going anywhere. I’m twenty-seven years old, I work in a cotton mill twelve hours a day, six days a week, and the little spare time I have I spend helping out at church. But that’s not enough. There has to be more to life for me. She rolled over and prayed, “God, I want to go forward like David Livingstone. Send me somewhere, anywhere. Just send me out to be a missionary.”

This praying girl’s full name was Mary Slessor and she went on to spend thirty-nine years among the unreached tribes of Africa’s Calabar region. Braving sickness, danger, and death on all sides, Mary never stopped moving forward in her quest to reach the lost souls of Africa with the life-giving gospel of Christ — becoming the cherished “White Ma” to entire tribes and an inspiration to thousands of missionaries to come. She choice to move forward radically altered the course of her life and the souls of countless people.

In the words of C.S. Lewis, “further up and further in.”

WDHT: Living the Greatest Adventure

WDHT: Living the Greatest Adventure



History tells us that our best life is not our easiest life. Those men and women who were of the greatest service to God and to mankind were those who gave the most of themselves; those who endeavored, not to avoid difficulties, but to overcome them; not to seek comfort, but to do what was necessary, no matter how hard.

These are the men and women who made decisions, not on the basis of expediency, but on the basis of what they believed was most pleasing to God. These are the men and women who stuck to their convictions despite the cost.


Your Risks Will Be High

Amy Carmichael, who spent decades as a missionary to India, wrote, “It does not seem to me honoring to our Master, this missionary habit of going by the easier rather than the harder way, when He chose the harder. It is as if we put ourselves a little above Him.”

Theodore Roosevelt, the great American president who went from a weak and sickly child to a powerful and energetic man, later wrote that the highest form of success would go only to the man who “does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil.”

It reminds us of a movie we once watched, where the rich, pampered young man pleads with his father to let him go to war. “I deserve to know dirt and sweat and courage and honor,” he cried. “I deserve to know.” He recognized that he was wasting his life idleness and he longed for something greater. Despite his access to comfort and ease he realized that his best life would be one spent daring greatly for a cause bigger than himself.

Nowhere is the more true than in our relationship with God. The life of a true follower of Christ is the greatest adventure we could ever hope to embark on, but it’s also very hard. John Piper writes, “your life will be hard, your risks will be high, and your joy will be full.” This is a beautiful paradox in which our best life is one spent daring and risking greatly for the cause of Christ.


Joyfully Embracing Hard Things

If you can take only one thing from this series, take this: Our greatest joy and satisfaction comes not from avoiding hard things but from joyfully embracing them. This is how the same Jesus who said, “If anyone would come after me let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me,” could also say, “for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Following in Christ’s footsteps is hard, but it’s good — and He is the ultimate example to us of an extraordinary life spent doing hard things for the glory of God.

Our big, crazy idea is that this is the life God has called us to live now — not ten or twenty years from now, but right now, as teenagers. This is your best life, not your easiest life; the only way to avoid wasting your teen years and ultimately your life.

God’s Word tells us to contend for the faith (Jude 1:3), to build ourselves up (Jude 1:20), and to be diligent (2 Peter 3:14). We are told to be sober-minded and watchful, to resist the devil (1 Peter 5:8-9) and to hold fast our confession of faith (Hebrews 4:14). More than that we are commanded to strive to enter God’s rest (Hebrews 4:11), to flee youthful passions and to pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace (2 Timothy 2:22). We are described as good soldiers, trained athletes, and hard-working farmers (2 Timothy 2:1-6). We train, toil, serve, practice, watch, persist, flee, pursue, fight, take hold, run, and stand firm.


Something to Give Your Life To

If you want something that you can give your life to, this is it. This will ask for all of you and give you back more than you could ever imagine.

This is what Jim Elliot was speaking of when he said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

This is what Christ promised when he said, ““He who would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.”

This is what G.K. Chesterton was talking about when he wrote, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting, it has been found difficult and left untried.”


God’s Very Best, For You

Our dream is that our generation would be made up of those who find the Christian ideal difficult and yet still try—knowing that the loving God who would never leave us as we are and who desires our growth, will also delight with the first feeble, stumbling effort you make tomorrow to do the simplest hard thing for His glory.

George MacDonald, a great Christian writer, pointed out that every father is pleased at the baby’s first attempt to walk, but no father would be satisfied with anything less than a firm, free, manly walk in a grown-up son. In the same way, he said, “God is easy to please, but hard to satisfy.” And why would we ever want God to be satisfied with anything less than the very best for us?

WDHT: Don't Waste Your Life

WDHT: Don't Waste Your Life

This world would have you think that your best life would be a life in which you were able to completely avoid responsibility and effort. But such a life would be as pale and flabby as the body of a man who had never moved and never seen the sun. It could be compared to the strange fish that live in the complete darkness of the deepest parts of the ocean, who never come in contact with a hard object their entire lives, and whose flesh has become completely translucent. That is a picture of what we’re asking for when we desire a life of ease.

John Piper, in his book Don’t Waste Your Life, shares this story:

I will tell you what a tragedy is. I will show you how to waste your life. Consider a story from the February 1998 edition of Reader’s Digest, which tells about a couple who “took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51.

Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30 foot trawler, play softball and collect shells.” At first, when I read it I thought it might be a joke. A spoof on the American Dream. But it wasn’t.

Tragically, this was the dream: Come to the end of your life—your one and only precious, God-given life—and let the last great work of your life, before you give an account to your Creator, be this: playing softball and collecting shells. Picture them before Christ at the great Day of Judgment: “Look, Lord. See my shells.” That is a tragedy. And people today are spending billions of dollars to persuade you to embrace that tragic dream. Over and against that, I put my protest: Don’t buy it. Don’t waste your life.

We don’t want to waste our lives. That’s why we do hard things, and why we challenge you to do hard things as well.

Theodore Roosevelt said it best when he said, “a mere life of ease is not in the end a satisfactory life, and, above all, it is a life which ultimately unfits those who follow it for serious work in the world.” Such a life is a tragedy — a wasted life.

When we fail to do hard things, we not only disobey God, but we set ourselves up to fall short of our true, God-given potential. Even worse, we act as if God is not worthy of our effort — or as if He is unable to accomplish through us what He has called us to do. These are strong words, but we say them because there is something we want you to avoid.

We want you to avoid being like Moses, who when God called him to lead the people of Israel said, “Oh, my Lord, I’m no speaker” and kindled God’s anger.

We want you to avoid being like Jeremiah, who when God called him to be prophet said, “Ah, Lord God! I’m just a kid” and God rebuked him to his face.

We want you to avoid being like the lazy servant in the Parable of the Talents, who failed to invest his Master’s gifts and was thrown out into the street.

We say all this because we want you to glorify God. And God isn’t glorified when His children limit themselves to what comes easily for them. He isn’t glorified when His children aren’t willing to do hard things. The Christian calling is hard, but it is also the only calling worthy of such extraordinary effort. It’s the life you were made for.

WDHT: Meet the Enemy Within

WDHT: Meet the Enemy Within

When we sign on to God’s plan for our growth, we’re declaring war on our sin nature and it fights the idea of do hard things with everything its got. The reason it’s so hard to do hard things is because our sinful flesh wants us to do easy things.

Jonathan Edwards, a great American theologian, once wrote: “The way to Heaven is ascending; we must be content to travel uphill, though it be hard and tiresome, and contrary to the natural bias of our flesh.”

Doing hard things is a fight with our own sin nature, our own natural tendency to take it easy and just get by, our inherent disposition to go with the flow and to take the path of least resistance. That’s why it’s hard.

In the Romans 7:21-25 the Apostle Paul talks about this nature that wages war against his desire to obey God:

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

The Bible alone gives us the real explanation about our tendency to take the path of least resistance, even though doing hard things is in our best interest.


Good Creator, Fallen Creatures

Imagine for a moment a country where the laws are designed to reward hard work and where almost anyone can advance in society or career if they only care to apply themselves. You could only conclude that there must be a wise and good ruler. Now, if the inhabitants of that country refused to apply themselves, would you say the problem was with the ruler? Of course not. In the same way, the fact that we are so eager to avoid doing hard things — even when effort is the way God designed us to grow — means that there is a good Creator and fallen creatures.

God’s design is good, but it has been corrupted by our sin. We were made to grow through effort. The corruption of our nature is laziness. What better way to undermine God’s plan for us than to make us avoid His means for growth?


Platinum or Bronze?

Of course, it might sound more appealing to sign-up for a less “extreme” version of the Christian life. Instead of the Platinum “Do Hard Things” Membership, our sin nature offers us something more along the lines of the Bronze “Go to Church Every Week” Membership. Lesser benefits for lesser effort. Sounds good, right? But Scripture doesn’t leave that option open to us.

Writes C.S. Lewis: “It is hard; but the sort of compromise we’re hankering after is harder—in fact, it is impossible… We are like eggs at present. And we cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.”

In other words, we can’t just go on being ordinary, decent Christians, giving God part of our lives while holding back the rest. Either we are hatched and learn to fly or we are a dud that will soon start to stink. The ironic thing here is that although the hardest thing — the almost impossible thing — is to hand over our whole selves to Christ, it is far easier than what we are trying to do instead.


Hard Things or Harder Things?

What happens when we follow our sinful tendency to avoid hard things? The answer is that hard things come to us. It’s like the guy who won’t go in to the gas station to put some air in slightly deflated tire, only to have it blow out on him on the freeway when he’s late for an important meeting. Maybe it’s even happened before, and he’s already used his spare. Tough luck.

We can’t really avoid doing hard things. We can only decide when to do them and how prepared we will be to handle the hard things life brings our way. You either do the hard thing of getting prepared, or you deal with the harder thing of being unprepared. We either “do it” now, or we end up having to “deal with it” later.

This about a lot more than flat tires and missed meetings. Resisting temptation is a hard thing, but not as hard as dealing with an addiction. Finding and keeping a job is a hard thing, but not as hard as dealing with unemployment and struggling to make ends meet.


Time to Persevere

Of course, our sin nature doesn’t want us to understand this. It wants us to keep on believing the lie that our lives will be easier when we avoid doing hard things. It knows that it’s in trouble once we realize that we’ll always be better off when we choose to say no to sin and choose to do hard things for God.

But like Paul says, our sin nature doesn’t sleep. It’s not a matter of some one-time victory. It’s a constant battle. You see, our sin nature knows what’s ultimately at stake. It’s not your test for school or the tires on your car, it’s your whole life.

Starting in Part Three, we’ll take a look at the glorious life God wants you to live.

Why Do Hard Things?

Why Do Hard Things?

We’ve really missed blogging, so we’re excited to embark on a new four-part (for now) series on Why Do Hard Things? — an important question that we’ve thought about a lot lately. Let us know your thoughts!

We’ve all heard people say that God wants us “on fire” for Him. Maybe your youth pastor has talked about being “sold out” for Jesus or a conference speaker has challenged you to serve God with “total abandon.”

We’re used to that kind of talk. It’s almost cliché.

But has anyone ever told you that God commands you to do hard things? For some reason that sounds more extreme. Being “on fire” or “sold out” for God sound like positive emotional states where nothing can really get to us. Even serving God with “total abandon” doesn’t make us feel uncomfortable as long as we leave it general and vague. But “do hard things” sounds so — well, hard.

We don’t like hard things in our society, especially as teens under the influence of the Myth of Adolescence. We avoid hard things as much as possible. Unfortunately (or should we say, fortunately), there’s no avoiding them in the Bible.


Hard Things in the Bible

All of God’s commands in Scripture are hard. Of course, our tendency is to just say that God’s commands aren’t “easy” or that it’s only by His grace that we can obey any of them — and both of those statements are 100 percent true — but why can’t we ever come out and say that God’s commands are hard? When Christ commands us to love our enemies, why can’t we just call it what it is?

Everything God commands is hard. Repenting is hard. Forgiving is hard. Turning the other cheek is hard. Overcoming sin in our lives is hard. Honoring our parents is hard. Sharing the gospel is hard. Reading our Bibles is hard. We could go on.

Part of our hesitation to call things hard can be that we’re afraid to come across as unspiritual. After all, if we’re truly “on fire” for Jesus, shouldn’t it be easy for us to read our Bibles every day, say no to sin, and share the gospel with others?

But when we think that way we’re missing something huge that God wants to teach us about personal growth — and that’s what we want to talk about in this post.


The Way We Grow

In James 1:2, we’re told to consider it “pure joy” when we’re faced with challenges, trials, and obstacles, because they test our faith and makes us stronger. Think about that. The God who created you and loves you cares about your growth — and the way He has designed you to grow is through challenges.

It’s just like the way your muscles grow stronger when you work out and the way your brain grows new neurons when it is challenged. You grow stronger, in both character and competence, when you do hard things.

In order to do hard things we need to get over the idea that God’s love means He wants us to go through life with as little effort or discomfort as possible. This is similar to the mistaken notion that we don’t need to change because God loves us just the way we are. God does love us just the way we are, but He also loves us too much to leave us the way we are. He wants us to grow.

Of course, none of this is to say that God wants us to live joyless and pain-filled lives, but it’s a joy that’s rooted in more than our temporary circumstances, and at times pain is necessary in order to gain something of greater value.


A Radical Argument

The Rebelution makes what sounds like a radical argument. It’s not just saying that hard things happen and that you can benefit from them. It’s not even just saying that you have the ability to do hard things. It’s telling you that you should do hard things because it’s the best and only way to experience true growth in your life.

Can you think of any period of growth in your life (as a Christian, student, athlete, musician, etc…) that didn’t involve effort and even some level of discomfort? The truth is that all growth involves discomfort. Think of growing pains.

These are not a new ideas. We’re don’t want to reinvent truth. But we do want our generation rediscover what has always been true — and one thing that has always been true is that in order to grow we must do hard things. We must challenge and stretch ourselves, step outside our comfort zones and do something difficult. It’s how we’ve grown before, and it’s the only way we’ll grow for the rest of our lives.


Coming Up…

So why is it so hard to do hard things? If God commands us to do hard things and tells us that it’s how we grow, how can we refuse? The answer is that there is another player in this battle over our lives. We’ll look at that in Part Two.

Do Hard Things according to Kyleigh

Do Hard Things According To Kyleigh

Teens in today’s world tend to give up too easily, and just do things that come easily. But who am I to be talking about this? Just today I was giving up, and then I was reminded of the motto of The Rebelution.

I call myself a Rebelutionary, yet today I was meeting all my low expectations and being who I don’t want to be. I was reminded as I got online this evening, that we’re supposed to Do Hard Things.

After all, we can do all things through Christ, right? So what’s the big deal? Why do we give up so easily? All we need to do is ask God for help, then try again. 1 Timothy 4:12 says, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young.” We’re supposed to set an example for everyone. We, as youth, can encourage people with our faith, both people younger than us and older.


Living Do Hard Things

This afternoon, I pulled out my guitar and practiced. I struggled with a song, did it again, and it got a bit easier. Then I realized that over the past year nothing in my playing had changed. I hadn’t gotten any better, if anything, I was worse. Why? Because I didn’t want to do hard things and keep going through the books myself. So now I’m going to have to start again at the beginning. Well, Grade 2 anyway.

Then I played the piano. I gave up on a song that had been annoying me to no end for almost a week now. Then this evening I sat down, determined to play it, and played it through. It’s funny, how when we’re so determined to do something, we often end up doing it. It’s all a matter of really trying.

I tried to draw a person today. And yesterday. A person with their arms somewhere but down. I guess I just need more practice. So tomorrow, or the next time I sit down and draw, I’m going to just practice arms. Prayer and practice make perfect.

Then I gave up on my writing. I didn’t hit writer’s block, just a little rut. I’m out of it now, I just had to shut off my music — which usually helps me write — and think a little harder. I’ve thought much harder before. Sometimes we think that pushing ourselves will make us explode. Haha! Aren’t we funny?


Closing Thoughts

A couple things I want to pull out from a Rebelution article: “If you always do what you’ve always done, then you’ll always get what you’ve always had.”

Isn’t that true? If I keep up with just playing the guitar stuff I have now, I’ll keep getting disappointment. I’m not going to get where I want to go unless I start going there. You reap what you sow.

Well, I’ve got to run. But remember, don’t give up so easily. Do Hard Things. We can do anything through Christ. Now go out there and… and… and build a spaceship!

About The Authoress: My name is Kyleigh. I’m thirteen-years-old. Some would call me short, others vertically challenged. I am wonderfully made. I’ve been called nerdy, freaky, dorky, and weird — I can’t help that God’s given me a desire to learn. Other than learning, I love history, dance, fencing, music (I play guitar and piano), animals, and God and the love He’s given us

How to Spoil Do Hard Things

How To Spoil Do Hard Things

At the Dallas Conference this past weekend our father made the following challenge to the parents in attendance. We think it’s so good that we want to share it with everyone here on the blog as well. Read it together as a family if you can and let us know what you think. It’s an encouragement from our parents to your parents.

Parents, the first thing I want to tell you this evening is what not to do — and that is to hijack The Rebelution or the phrase Do Hard Things and use it as a way to nag, or ridicule your young adult as they are living and working with you. I share this because I know how easily this can be done.

As a pastor, I often have to deal in marriage counseling with a couple where the wife or the husband will say things like: “Yeah, love and honor till death do us part. Oh yeah, tell me about it!” And what are we doing? We’re taking sacred wedding vows and using them as a way of slapping our spouse in the face. That doesn’t do a very good job of enhancing the marriage.

In the same way, as parents you are going to be severely tempted, when you walk into your son or daughters bedroom and you see the ordinary chaos that ensues in that place, to say “Oh yeah, do hard things.” And what you’ve just done is you have, in a way, taken the wind out of the sails of that phrase.

So I encourage you to protect it. Use it in a way that does not use it in vain, or in a way that demeans it or makes others despise it. With that understanding, pray for your young people. Ask God to bless them, don’t just pray about them; pray for them. Ask God to work in their hearts and in their minds what is pleasing to Him.

And if you realize that you have already been using the phrase in a negative way, I want you to “do hard things” and apologize to your children. Let them know that Do Hard Things is more than just cleaning their room or taking out the trash. It is a mindset that prepares them to expect big things from God as they attempt great things for God.

Tell your children that you are here to support and advise them as they set big goals and strive to attain them. Then, sit down together and brainstorm some “hard things” that they can do, things that will stretch them and cause them to grow, things that will turn our culture’s expectations of teenagers upside down, for the glory of God.

Let them know that you’re the manager and they’re the artist, you’re the coach and they’re the athlete. You help provide the contacts, the finances, and the know-how to get their dreams off the ground—they provide the passion and the energy. If they fail you’ll be right there to pick them up, dust them off, and get them going again. This is the opportunity and the responsibility that comes with being the parent of a rebelutionary.

What do you think? How has the phrase Do Hard Things been used in your home? Has it become merely another reason to bring down the laundry every day? Though Do Hard Things certainly includes everyday small things, is it wise to limit it to that? What kind of big hard things should teens be doing?

Do Hard Things according to Ruth

Do Hard Things According To Ruth





“Demanding toddlers, demanding teenagers — they’re not much different, really.” This was part of an illustration in a sermon I heard recently, and while everyone around me laughed, I just thought, once again, how weird it is that such an illustration can be used in a Christian setting and no one seems to care.

Why, why, why do teenagers just sit back and allow this image of themselves to develop? Worse still, why is there a sense that we actually like it? I think that teenagers like the image of a teenager because, in some way, we feel that it relieves us of any responsibility. If we make a mistake we can put it down to not being experienced enough. If we are grumpy we can put it down to our changing moods — “It’s not our fault we’re like this. You were too when you were my age.”


We Expect More of Toddlers Than of Teens

We can get away with awful behaviour simply because we are teenagers. It is really bizarre. If a four year old displayed the same sort of rebellion, they would, in any decent family, be sorted out rather quickly. But teenagers can ‘rebel’ against their parents and it is overlooked by their family.

Parents even end up making excuses for their teenager’s bad behaviour — “Oh sorry she doesn’t talk much — she’s not a people person,” or “He’s just going through THAT stage.” If a young child decided that they weren’t going to learn to tie their shoes their parents wouldn’t say, “Oh sorry, I just have to tie her shoes for her — she not a laces person.” They would teach them to tie their shoes because it’s an important part of their development. How much more important, then, is the ability to speak to people in a polite and engaged way? Or to learn how to talk to your parents with respect?


We Need To Do Hard Things

Instead of just sitting down and letting ourselves drift into the culture of “I’m a teenager, I do nothing,” Christian teenagers really need to set themselves aside from the world. If we never push ourselves then we will never get anywhere.

If I can already run a mile a day but I want to get stronger, just continuing to run a mile a day isn’t going to do much. I need to push myself to do a bit more, then a bit more, and then I will achieve my goal. If I think about getting fit on the sofa while reading a book and eating crisps, it isn’t going to happen. If I want to be a different than the world’s teenagers then I need to start practicing the things that will make me different, even though doing those things is hard.

Honour God. Live for others. Be different from the world. Do Hard Things.

About The Authoress: Ruth is an 18-year-old rebelutionary from across the pond (i.e. the Atlantic Ocean). She makes her home in jolly old England and spells “honor” as “honour,” “behavior” as “behaviour,” and says “crisps” instead of “chips.” We also assume that she has an incredible English accent which doesn’t quite come across in her writing. Too bad.


Go Visit Ruth’s Blog

Do Hard Things according to Ryan

Do Hard Things According To Ryan




While musing on the subject of Hard Things recently, I thought of a practical reason to do them. What’s the opposite of Do Hard Things? That’s right: do easy things.

Doing easy things feeds the flesh. Playing computer games in free time when I could write to missionaries, tinkering on the guitar instead of cleaning my room, even building a web site instead of following up on that business lead I got — all of these feed the base desires of the flesh for pleasure and self-satisfaction.


Are We Feeding or Starving Our Flesh?

Regular election to do easy things builds a habit of feeding the fleshly pleasures, therefore it hinders my fellowship with God throughout the day. It’s analogous to desiring good health and nutrition. Eat a fruit at breakfast or be sure to include a few carrot sticks in lunch, but otherwise eat sugary, frosted, refined-grain, and deep-fried foods. You still wish to be healthy, but by choosing all the foods that “taste good,” you are actually choosing not to have good health.

Do Hard Things, on the other hand, is choosing to eat healthful foods. It builds habits of starving the flesh, suppressing that hindrance to a closer walk with God.

Paul wrote about this saying, “But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified” (1 Cor. 9:27).

Why Do Hard Things? To keep the flesh in subjection and to avoid fleshly habits so that you can have a more effective relationship with God. Doing hard things in mundane aspects of life also builds discipline for doing hard things like sharing the gospel with strangers.

Galatians 6:8 “For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”

About The Author: Ryan is a 23-year-old rebelutionary and follower of Jesus Christ from Seymour, Connecticut. His heroes are Jim Elliot, Peter Fleming, and Ed McCully, three of the missionaries killed in Ecuador on January 8, 1956, because each of them lived a life of denial of self with their faith placed wholly in God. On a less sublime note, Ryan thinks and learns visually.


Go Visit Ryan’s Blog

Alex and Brett on Focus on the Family

Alex and Brett on Focus on the Family
August 12th, 2009




Dear Rebelutionaries,

At the end of June we were invited to Colorado to be interviewed on the Daily Focus on the Family Broadcast radio program—guest hosted that week by one of our good friends and mentors, Frank Pastore of KKLA.

The interview covered the story of the Rebelution’s founding, ways our parents helped us do hard things growing up, recent Rebelution success stories, next steps for the movement, and much more. The three-day series will be broadcast next week, August 17th-19th— or Monday through Wednesday.

The daily broadcast is aired in more than a dozen languages on over 9,000 stations worldwide, heard by more than 220 million people a day in 164 countries. We are excited to see how God will use it to introduce teens and families to the message of the Rebelution—and inspire them to do hard things.

You can tune in next week on your local station (find it here, just plug in the nearest big city). But more importantly, we encourage you to use this unique opportunity to introduce family (whether parents, siblings, or relatives) and friends around the world to the “do hard things” message.

Invite them to listen in and talk to you about it later. It’s a great way to share what the Rebelution is all about, and hopefully get them excited!

Finally, join us in praying that God would cause the right individuals to hear the interview, and that His will would be done as this movement spreads.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Alex and Brett


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Do Hard Things and the Gospel

Do Hard Things and the Gospel





In the comments section of a previous post, readers Jon and Sarah both asked the question: How does the ‘do hard things’ motto relate to or derive from the gospel?

This post is our humble attempt to answer that question.

Brett and I know we have touched on aspects of this question in various posts and comments in the past, but we realize that we have never fully addressed it in a single place. That’s part of our motivation in writing Do Hard Things. Many of the core ideas behind the Rebelution are significantly more developed in our minds than they are on the blog. Some of them have only briefly been touched on here.

There are so many ways we see ‘do hard things’ relating to and deriving from the gospel. Not only is Christ’s atoning life, death and resurrection the ultimate hard thing, but it is also the means of our rebellion against low expectations and the motivation behind our commitment to do hard things in our daily lives. And it is His grace that enables us to do them for His glory. (1 Corinthians 15:10)

Another primary aspect of ‘do hard things’ is its role in the practical outworking of the gospel in a believer’s life and in the Great Commission given to us by Christ. One of the innumerable beauties of the gospel is that it is Truth for all of life. Character and competence matter for Christians, because we are called to be salt and light to a lost and dying world. The integrity and quality of everything we do matters. (Matthew 5:16) And doing hard things is not only a testimony to a watching world, it’s also the way we grow in character and in competence.

Finally, although it can only be fully understood within the framework of a biblical worldview, ‘do hard things’ doesn’t apply exclusively to Christians. Our God is the Creator and Lord — recognized or not — of the whole earth and He pours out His common grace on the godly and the ungodly alike.

This means that unbelievers can and do grow in competence, and in a more limited sense, character, by doing hard things — just like they benefit from eating healthy food, and get stronger by working out. This is a testimony to the significance of ‘do hard things’ for Christians, that it is woven into the very fabric of how we were created by God to grow, mature, and succeed — and that faithfulness to ‘do hard things’ in each season of life prepares us for the next.

One of our favorite quotes is this one, by G.K. Chesterton:

“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found lacking; it has been found difficult and left untried.” — G.K. Chesterton

Our vision for the Rebelution and Do Hard Things is that ours will be a generation that finds it difficult and yet still tries. But we don’t want to stop here, we want to hear from you. How do you see ‘do hard things’ relating to and deriving from the gospel? What are your thoughts on what we have shared above?

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
-Jesus

Understanding Doing Hard Things

Understanding Doing Hard Things

The motto of The Rebelution is - Do Hard Things. I understand it now.

The first time I went to the site and read that, I didn’t really know what to think. It was a cool blog and all, but didn’t quite know what to do about ‘hard things’. I had a good life. God was changing me. I was learning. Sure, life wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t bad. I was pretty good with where I was. And I was confident that if God wanted me to do something hard, He would tell me in His time.

I didn’t understand the motto. I thought it was all just ‘nice.’ Pleasing to the ears. But then last week, I started understanding it. Finally.

I had gone to a youth conference down in Portland. I had to struggle with being judgmental there, as I saw girls and guys interacting with each other in ways I considered inappropriate—girls from youth groups primping in the bathroom for the teenage boys who would invade my personal space and flirt with all the pretty girls.

Oh yes, my first thoughts were not humble. Arrogance spun around in my mind as I “thanked God” that the people in my youth group would not ever act like this.

In the midst of that, I started to see a glimmer of something. “Wait a second!” I thought. “This must be what the Rebelution talks about when they say to rebel against low expectations!” Nobody in my youth group had these kind of low standards. We must be at the top! We must have finished! Success was in sight!

God suddenly spoke to my heart: “But that’s not all.”
“What? We’re doing pretty good!”

“Just because you may have higher standards than the youth groups
standing next to you doesn’t mean that there’s not more.”

“There’s more?”

“Don’t be satisfied with where you are at. Keep going further.”

In reality, it does no good to compare ourselves to our peers, Christian or no. If we try to compare ourselves to other people, all that will happen is that our standards will sink lower and lower, and our pride will rise higher and higher. Comparing ourselves to others is worthless. We will become discouraged or arrogant.

Poncho Lowder once said that “you can’t leave here [from an experience with God] and go back living the same [lifestyle] expecting a different result. You have to live different.” C.S. Lewis wrote, “We’re like eggs at present, and you can’t go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.”

Quit comparing yourself to others. Go after God. And Do Hard Things.

About The Authoress: Elisabeth is a sixteen-year-old artist, God Chaser, and musician. She is currently involved in driver’s ed, youth group leadership, and sings on the worship team at her church. She is taking British Literature, Algebra 1 & 2, Rosetta Stone Russian, and teaching her siblings science. On the side, she blogs, paints, draws, makes tapioca pudding, practices violin, piano, and whatever else needs practicing.


Elisabeth’s Blog / Elisabeth’s Artwork

When You Fail At Hard Things

When You Fail At Hard Things



What’s harder than doing hard things? Doing hard things and failing. In response to my article, My First Shower Nearly Killed Me, a reader named Gracie commented, “The hardest part is when you keep pushing yourself harder and harder, and you still fail. I put so much of myself into this one thing and I still failed.”

Maybe you can relate. Like Gracie you’re not really inept, but it can be really hard for you to get good at something. Maybe you have tried to Do Hard Things, and it hasn’t worked. You have failed too many times. So you have given up. You have lost your enthusiasm for pursuing excellence. This post is for you.


Competence Has An Enemy Called Discouragement

This last Saturday I was standing in line to take my SAT World History Subject Test, when a guy behind me started saying, “Yeah, World History is so easy. I didn’t even study for it and I scored 780.”

I wanted to strangle him. In the past two weeks I had watched 15 hours of world history video lectures, read through three different textbooks, and taken multiple practice tests. While he’s ranting about how easy it is I’m still studying my notes and dreaming about breaking 700!

For many of us the biggest enemy to our competence is discouragment—the idea that we were born into the wrong family, in the wrong school district, with the wrong Intelligence Quotient. We understand that not everyone can be Albert Einstein, but we would have settled for average!

To make matters worse, we look around and see people who, because of their natural abilities, can do well at things without even trying. These are the kinds of people who seem to ace tests without studying and then sit down at the piano and sight read Khatchaturian — and we’ll never be like that.


A Lesson From Our Sixteenth President

I remember reading biographies of our 16th President, Abraham Lincoln, and thinking that he must have had more failures than successes. He had repeated business set-backs and numerous political defeats. By 1856 Lincoln had lost eight elections. At this point most of us would decide to give up and go home. Lincoln decided to run for President — and he won in 1860.

So here’s the encouragement: most often success is not a matter of giftedness or natural ability. Most often it doesn’t come easily — just ask Abraham Lincoln. But the mindset that says, “Do Hard Things” should encourage us that if we keep exerting ourselves, we will build muscle. And we’ll be able to look back at our lives someday and say, “I’m glad I didn’t give up. I’m glad I kept on trying.” Do you think Lincoln was glad he didn’t give up after eight defeats?


Prepared For The Hardest Things

We might think that Lincoln deserved an easy presidency after all that hardship — the reality is that his life of struggles uniquely prepared him for one of the most difficult presidencies in American history: the Civil War presidency. God could have put a fair-weather politician in office during the Civil War, but instead He chose a proven overcomer — and it’s not hard to see why.

In our lives, it might be hard to see why we can’t ace a World History test without dozens of hours of study. Or why we have to work twice as hard to get half the results that other people get.

But you know what? We will have an advantage over all the people who because of their natural abilities can do a lot of things without even trying. Why? Because we will have learned to keep exerting ourselves, keep growing, keep trying — even when it’s really hard.

And the gifted people? They will often get stuck at the level of their gifting. They do what comes easily, but for us everything is a workout — so we will be stronger.


Do Hard Things: Building Faith and Fortitude

So am I saying that we’re all destined to be President? No, that’s not it. Am I letting us all off the hook by saying that it’s OK to be bad at everything? No, that’s not it either. What I am saying is that God’s promise is true when He says that everything works together for good for those who love Him and are called by Him — even repeated failure.

Failure is never wasted if we learn to do the following: (1) turn to God and become more reliant on Him, (2) learn from our mistakes, and (3) get back up and try again. We should pity those who never fail. Their faith and their fortitude must be very weak.

I didn’t share Gracie’s full comment with you at the beginning. She went on to say that what she hadn’t done before was to give things up to God. “Funny how we forget that sometimes,” she wrote, “I guess I’ll just wait until my next math test, study harder, and first and formost, give it to God.”

Gracie’s failure was invaluable because through it she learned to depend on God. Doing hard things has made her faith stronger and birthed in her the mindset of an overcomer, and that’s more important than all the success in the world.

My First Shower Nearly Killed Me

My First Shower Nearly Killed Me

I’m Just Not A Shower Person

I still remember my first shower. It was a horrible experience. I was eight years old and all I had ever known was baths. Baths were neat and tidy ordeals where the water flowed in from below my head and – provided I didn’t splash too much – stayed below my head.

I found showers to be an entirely different beast. The water, rather than flowing as a solid stream that was easily visible and avoidable, sprayed out as nearly invisible and unavoidable droplets that seemed to have a magnetic attraction to my eyes.

I did not ask to be promoted from Junior Bath Taker to Junior Shower Taker, but my parents had set the date for my graduation and protesting made little difference. It didn’t help that my twin brother Alex loved showers and had taken one earlier that week.

Before I could draft my formal petition, let alone get anyone to sign it, I found myself staring up at the dreadful shower head just as a brave soul stares down the barrel of his executioner’s gun.

However, once the trigger was pulled and the shower head began rumbling and hissing, my courage melted away, and I was screaming before the first drop hit me.

You see, in my mind there was no moral difference between making your child take a shower and stripping that same child naked and locking him out of the house during a thunderstorm. It was abandonment. I wasn’t a Water Nymph. I wasn’t a shower person. I was a bath person and I was happy that way.

The funny thing is that this morning, nearly ten years later, I took a shower and didn’t think twice about it. I even purposefully let the water spray on my face! It is incredible that what then seemed to be an impossible hurdle is now part of my everyday routines.


We’ve All Had “First Shower” Experiences

You probably can remember something in your own life that at the time seemed entirely beyond you. Maybe it was something as simple as tying your shoes or riding a bike without trainings wheels. Maybe it was learning to read or solving basic math problems in 2nd grade. These are things that are easy for you now, but were enormous challenges at the time.

My question for you is: What has changed? What is the difference between the enormous challenges of a child and the enormous challenges of a young adult?

What’s the difference between a difficult 2nd grade math problem for a seven-year-old and a difficult Algebra problem for a 15-year-old? Though an algebraic equation operates on a higher plateau than a double-digit multiplication problem that is compensated for by the fact that a teenager operates on a higher plateau than a child.

What’s the difference between my 12-year-old brother curling 15 pounds and me (at 17 years old) curling 35 pounds? Is it not likely that we would be equally challenged by our respective weights due to our different levels of strength?

Compare learning to dance with learning to walk. When you contrast the motor skills of baby with those of a young child you should conclude that though dancing is more complex, it is not necessarily more difficult.

As a musician I can attest to the fact that my difficult piano pieces in Level 9 were no more arduous than my difficult pieces in Level 3. The only variance was my level of skill and tolerance for practice. It is just as difficult for a seven-year-old beginner to practice “Chopsticks” for 30-minutes as it is for a music major in college to practice Lizst’s “Hungarian Rhapsody” for three hours.


If A Baby Can Do It, Why Can’t We?

With those examples in mind, I return to my question: What has changed? What is the difference between the enormous challenges of your childhood and the enormous challenges of your young adulthood?

And perhaps a more important question: What is the difference between the way you responded to those challenges as a child and how you respond to them now?

I constantly hear fellow young adults say things like, “You know, I did Algebra 1/2, but I’m just not a math person,” or “I’m a terrible speller, my brain just doesn’t work that way.” I’ve had other teens tell me, “I’m just a quiet person. I don’t like communicating much,” and “I’m such a compulsive shopper. If I see something I like I can’t help but buy it.” Or what about, “I’m just such a blonde!”

While I don’t doubt that many teens find math, spelling, communication, self-control and intelligence incredibly difficult, I find it very hard to accept that these difficulties should begin to define their personhood.

We would think it was crazy if a toddler said, “You know, I tried to get potty-trained, but I’m just not a toilet person.” But we sympathize with a fellow teenager who says that he’s “just not a people person.”

If a young child said, “I tried tying my own shoes, but my brain just doesn’t work that way,” we wouldn’t say, “That’s alright Johnny, we’ll just have someone else do it for you for the rest of your life.” But if we have trouble spelling we say, “It’s alright, I’ll just make sure I always use the spell checker.”


Low Expectations Strike Again

The fact is that as we get older we begin defining our limitations as what comes easily to us – and our rate of growth in competence and character slows and falters.

When we were children our limitations were not defined by difficulty. Our limitations were not defined by failure – even repeated failure. So what has changed? Why do babies, with inferior motor skills, reasoning ability, and general physical and mental strength, why do they have a nearly 100% success rate in overcoming their big challenges, while teenagers often falter and fail before theirs?


We Expect More of Babies Than We Do of Teens

The truth is that we are incredibly susceptible to cultural expectations and once we have satisfied our culture’s meager requirements we stop pushing ourselves.

Why does every healthy baby learn to walk while very few teenagers are sophisticated enough to have mastered the Waltz? One is expected, the other is not.

Why does every normal baby overcome communication barriers by learning to talk while very few teenagers overcome barriers between themselves and their parents by learning to communicate? One is expected, the other is not.

And why do we sympathize with the poor “non-math” teenager while we admonish the “non-toilet” six-year-old? Because using the toilet is a basic skill that is necessary for life, but unless they plan on becoming an engineer, most people never use Algebra.

We live in a culture that expects the basics, but nothing more. We live in a culture that expects for you to get by (i.e. be potty-trained), but not to thrive.

The Rebelution’s challenge to you is this: Have you really found your limits or have you merely reached a point where our culture’s expectations no longer demand that you succeed?


We Are Capable of Much More Than Is Expected

If you were abandoned in a foreign country with citizens who spoke no English, you would pick up the native dialect. And if your high school required everyone to complete Advanced Calculus in order to graduate you would find a way to do it.

Both necessity and expectations have incredible power to require much of us and make us strong, or to require little of us and make us weak. We live in a culture where few people do more than is required, yet that is the secret of effectiveness in the Lord’s service.

The application of this post goes far beyond math and language, dancing and speaking; those are simply a few helpful examples. The important question we must ask ourselves is: “Am I unable to do certain things, or am I simply unwilling to invest the time and effort necessary to succeed?”


This Is A Serious Issue

Classifying yourself as “this-kind-of-person” or “that-kind-of-person” is one of the quickest ways to greatly increase or majorly hamper your potential. Adults who at one time decided they “just weren’t computer people” are missing out on all the convenience and power of technology.

A person who decides early in life that he is “just not a public speaker,” and then stops striving for excellence in the area of public communication, has no doubt lost dozens of opportunities to impact the lives of hundreds, if not thousands of people.

History is jammed full of examples of “extremely shy people” who not only overcame their fear of people, but also became famous leaders and communicators. Calvin Coolidge, the United States’ 30th President, is just one such example.

One of the most devastating classifications that can be made is when a person classifies themselves spiritually as “not really one of those extreme Christians.”

Millions of young people, even Christian young people, live through years of spiritual weakness and build up loads of regret simply because they found their identity in being a rebel.


Closing Thoughts

I wasn’t a “shower person” when I was eight, and I’m not sure if I’m a “campaign person” at 17, but by God’s grace and through His strength I can do anything. And so can you.

Nearly a decade after my first shower, one of the great challenges of my childhood, I find myself working long hours on four statewide races for the Alabama Supreme Court. When I find myself thinking that this current challenge is going to kill me, I just remember that I thought the same thing about my first shower. Then I smile, and keep on pushing.



Questions for Discussion:

» Are there areas in your life that have been labeled as “just not me”?
» If so, have you stop striving for excellence in those areas as a result of that label?
» What would the impact be on your future if you chose to overcome your difficulties in those areas and mastered them?

You Can Still Have Fun

“Do Hard Things” Doesn’t Mean You Can’t Have Fun

When Alex and I were invited to speak to a church youth group while we were in Alabama. We were excited to have an opportunity to share some of the ideas we’d been developing here on the blog, including “The Myth of Adolescence” and “Ruining Our Lives With Fun.”

The day of the “event,” Alex and I worked a long day at the Supreme Court, hopped in the Davie’s car (i.e. Colton Davie’s family) and arrived at the youth group still wearing our court attire (i.e. suits and ties).

We proceeded to tell these public school teens (ages 12-17) that the whole idea of the “teen years” is a recently developed concept and that our culture is robbing them by telling them to “just have fun.” We told jokes, we told stories, we even had some audience participation — but we could tell that most of these young people had never heard anything like this before.

This became even more apparent during the Q&A time afterwards. Questions like, “Do you guys always dress this nice?” and “What do you do for fun?” and “Do you guys ever play video games?” etc. gave us the impression that some of them thought we were aliens from the planet of Boringwork located in the galaxy of Nofun.

Once we realized the impression we were making Alex and I quickly explained that we weren’t “freaks of nature” with a genetic disposition for work. We are a lot like “normal” teenagers. We like sports (we’re short, but we try really hard), we love music, we watch movies, we style our hair, and we even play video games from time to time. But, we have a different way of looking at fun. Here are two principles we try to follow:

1) First Things First

Being a “rebelutionary” does not mean you have erased “fun” from your life. It means that you have relegated it to its proper place. “Do Hard Things” does not eliminate fun, but it elevates, honors, and recognizes the superiority of the activities and pursuits that strengthen, stretch, and grow our character and competence for the glory of God.

We explained to the youth group that night that Alex and I view fun as a break from the “hard things” that we spend the majority of our time doing. Did you catch that? We view fun as a break from hard things. We have fun after we feel that we have accomplished something significant.

Our culture, on the other hand, tells us that we should have fun first and do hard things only “when we have to.” Do you see the difference? It’s all about priorities. We will always prioritize that which is most important to us. A rebelutionary will place “fun” in its proper place, understanding that responsibility to God and others comes first. Our culture spreads the lie that our pleasure, our enjoyment, and our fun is first priority.

Our culture acts like it’s giving us something by allowing and encouraging us to just have fun — but the truth is that when all we care about is “having fun” we’re being robbed. Robbed of contentment in the future, robbed of effectiveness for God, robbed of competence, robbed of character, maybe even robbed of the spouse we’ve always wanted, because we weren’t prepared for them and didn’t deserve them.

A rebelutionary recognizes that what is most valuable isn’t always the most fun. A rebelutionary puts first things first, and second things (like fun) second.

2) Hard Things Can Be Fun

You might (accurately) conclude that Alex and I do fewer “fun things” than the average teen, but you couldn’t say we have less fun. We might spend less time playing video games, going to parties, and just “hangin’ out,” but we also enjoy much of the work we do.

In other words, it is possible to enjoy doing the hard things that develop your character and your competence for the glory of God. Alex and I love delving into the biography of a great man or woman, we love writing, and we love speaking. Which is good because that is what we spend the majority of our time doing!

The topic of how we develop a liking for hard things will be the subject of a future post. For now, the point I want to leave you with is that hard things can be fun — not the way snowboarding is fun — but still in a fulfilling, exciting, and positive way.

3) Conclusion

“Do Hard Things” doesn’t mean you can’t have fun. It means that you put first things first and that you learn to have fun learning, growing, and developing yourself into the person God calls you to be.

You Can't Fake Hard Things

You Can't Fake Hard Things




We’ve all been asked the question, “Are you willing to lose your life for Christ?” Perhaps we’ve heard it from our youth pastor, our parents, asked ourselves while reading Voice of the Martyrs, or read or watched a Christian book or movie which revolves around the question.

As emotionally invasive and as spiritually relevant as that question is, I often find myself thinking that dying for Christ isn’t the question. Instead, my challenge to us is: “Are we willing to live for Christ?” This is not unconnected from the question of dying for Christ, but is the first question we must ask ourselves.

Whether I am able to bench 200 lbs. is a good question. But first I must be able to honestly say I can bench 100 lbs. Whether I am able to run a marathon is a good question. But first I must be able to honestly say I can run a mile.

Let me put it another way: I cannot trust God when my two-month-old niece passes away if I am not trusting Him when I stub my toe. I will not be able to trust God in the big storms if I have been trying to stand on my own through the small ones.

We must all be willing to die for Christ. But before that is possible we must be able to say with the Apostle Paul, “For to me to live is Christ, [therefore] to die is gain.”

Living for Christ is the prerequisite of dying for Christ. Obedience when no one is watching comes before obedience in public. And I’m talking about obedience that’s hard. Obedience that costs you something. That is why you can’t fake hard things, and that is why small hard things always come before big hard things.

Hard Things Come in Small Packages

Hard Things Come In Small Packages


Here on The Rebelution, our “trademark” slogan is the phrase Do Hard Things.

We really like it.

It’s the exact opposite of what our media-saturated culture — from public schools to church youth groups — tells its young people. It flies right in the face of the prevailing notion that the teen years are a vacation from responsibility.

And yet, it also holds the possibility of great misunderstanding. Short statements often require long disclaimers, but while we’ve devoted entire series to the ‘myth of adolescence’ and the ‘rise of the kidult’; the Rebelution’s slogan, ‘Do Hard Things’ has only one post to its name — primarily due to our hectic schedule since coming to Alabama.

Because of this, we were thrilled to receive the following guest post, written by fellow-rebelutionary Alex King of SmartHomeschool. He has done an absolutely excellent job, communicating many of the thoughts that we have been thinking, but which we have just not had time to write out. As it is, I think he put it better and more concisely than we would have ourselves. Please pay close attention to this very important article on Do Hard Things:

I think we’ve all spent a good deal of time pondering the Rebelution’s challenge to “Do Hard Things.” It’s a motto that any young person would be wise to adopt as his own. But as I’ve considered this concept, I’ve always had one significant question: what are these hard things?

The tasks that first come to mind for me have always been big things. Things like changing the world, making feature films, and rowing across large stretches of European ocean - great accomplishments that are inspiring and exciting. They’re examples that have been used by the Rebelution, and they’re great ones. A lot of times, however, I have caught myself thinking that Hard Things are limited to big things like these.

Take the illustration that the Rebelution originally used: the Vikings. These men would get in their boats and row for huge distances to far away places, have a battle, and then row back with their ships full of plunder. This initially looks like a very noble occupation, and it was. What we tend to forget, however, is that this huge accomplishment of rowing across the ocean was actually made up of thousands and thousands of small strokes with an oar.

The Vikings could have easily lost their enthusiasm with these little strokes, discounted their importance, and procrastinated. Needless to say, this would have slowed them down significantly. Instead, they were diligent to make each stroke, realizing that these small tasks were synonymous with their big goals.

Another example we can look at is that of makers of the film “League of Grateful Sons.” The movie was created by a single family, the Botkins, who did the filming, special effects, CGI, score, and other elements of the production. This is amazing in itself, but I particularly want to look at the example of their 16 year old son who wrote the music for the film.

From the Rebelution’s coverage of SAICFF:

Benjamin (16) played a major role in the composition of the score. Anna and Elizabeth have kindly remarked that their “little brother” has greater talent in the area of composition. Indeed, Benjamin was not only competent, but he was diligent. Every night at 2:00 A.M. he would get himself out of bed (Mr. Botkin says they never had to wake him up) and take a five-hour shift at the computer, arranging the score for the film and improving the sound quality of each note and instrument. At 7:00 A.M. he would be relieved by Anna or Elizabeth, who would take the day shifts in a long and hard cycle. Such sacrifice characterizes the Botkin’s approach to this film.

Hopefully this young man was somewhat of a morning person, but I don’t know anyone who could hear an alarm clock going off at that time of the night and feel like getting up 100% of the time. I imagine there were many times when, half asleep, he weighed the pain of getting up against the benefit of those extra hours composing.

Faced with that decision, most people would quickly decide to slam the alarm clock, go back to sleep, and remember to change it to 8:30 in the morning. Instead of giving in to what he must have felt like doing, however, he was able to look past the present: cheerfully investing in the future accomplishment of a finished film.

For a final example, let’s examine Hillsdale’s 18-year-old Mayor. Against all odds, precedent, and even sickness, he managed to become one of our country’s youngest civic leaders. Once again, however, we tend to forget how he accomplished this incredible hard thing: through many small hard things.

We forget the slice of time spent at a job, raising the $700 needed for campaign money. The knocking on an individual door, rallying the 670 votes he needed to win. The execution of each step, bringing the campaign to its final victory. Each was difficult and seemingly small, but without them, his bid for mayor would have remained where the bids of most other teens remain: as nothing more than a novel idea.

Unfortunately, the pull of an oar doesn’t tend to inspire us in the same way rowing across the ocean does. Getting up at 2:00am doesn’t have the same excitement as making a film. And being polite to our family just doesn’t have the same feeling as being a world leader. But this isn’t how it’s supposed to be. Instead of having an attitude like this, we should find the same inspiration and excitement in the small things, keeping our eyes on our destination.

This is important because doing hard things that are large consist of doing many hard things that are small. Without doing these small things, we can’t achieve those huge goals. Look at this line from the parable of the talents in Luke 19:17, “And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities.”

This isn’t simply a kingdom principle that Christ is talking about; it’s also a logistical principle. Yes, for our own good, God will hold back the cities until we can handle the little. But we should also realize that if we didn’t do the little, then we’d never accomplish the cities anyway.

Doing hard things means being diligent in the small. Getting across an ocean means many strokes of rowing. Scoring a film means many mornings of getting up early. Changing the world means changing our everyday actions. These are the hard things that we need to be doing if we really want to make a difference - the small, seemingly unexciting tasks that we so often procrastinate on, or ignore altogether.

So when you run into something small and unexciting, and you feel like procrastinating or ignoring it, don’t! Get up that extra hour earlier to work on that project. Reply to that email that could wait, but shouldn’t. Write that blog post that you’re simply not in the mood for, but need to do. Change the way you behave around your family for the better. Do those little things that don’t seem important, exciting, or enjoyable at first – but that can get you to your goals.

We all want to accomplish Hard Things, but we often forget to get excited about small ones. If we can do the small things, then we’ll be on our way to the large ones, and ready when we get to them.

A New Attitude Towards Happiness

WWW (Part 3): A New Attitude Towards Happiness


I often worry about young people today who place much of their hope for happiness in items, activities, and pursuits that are inherently short-lived. Whether it’s our physical appearance, our high school sports career, or our wild and carefree lifestyle, we tend to attach excessive importance to passing pleasures and then react negatively to the fact that they are unsustainable.

We end up being unhappy and discontent when our beauty begins to fade, when our football career meets an emphatic conclusion—either through injury or graduation—when marriage and family discontinue our party lifestyle, and when necessities start taking time and money away from our luxuries. By luxuries I mean movies, extra clothes, eating out, the new PSP™ (PlayStation®Portable), etc. and even expensive activities such as snowboarding or paintballing.

While none of these things are bad per se they all tend to play a disproportionate role in our continued happiness and contentment and must be addressed if for no other reason than that they are guaranteed to disappoint us.

You see, whenever we stake our happiness on a more-or-less ideal set of circumstances we are bound to get hurt because circumstances change. Friendships will change, your body will change, your popularity status will change, your income will fluctuate, and your lifestyle itself will be dramatically transformed by all these other changes.

If you are banking on a certain kind of lifestyle, a certain kind of job, a certain kind of marriage, or a certain kind of family to make your adult life a happy life, you need to reconsider your definition of happiness—because by defining happiness as circumstances, however wonderful they may be, you guarantee unhappiness and discontentment for yourself.

And here is my shocking statement: You should never have to be unhappy.

This does not mean you have an excuse to indulge yourself in the many temporary fixes mentioned above. Rather it is a call for a new attitude towards contentment—to place your hope for happiness in items, activities, and pursuits that are intrinsically stable and solid—unaffected by circumstances.

When my niece, Faith Felicity Harris, was life-flighted down to Loma Linda, California, to await a heart transplant, my older brother Joel and his wife Kimberly left behind all of the circumstances many of us depend on for happiness and contentment, in order to stay with Faith and comfort her.

Unsure of how long they would be in California they moved out of the duplex that had become their first home together, they left their rapidly growing music studio, which had taken years to build up and was their only means of income, and they left the comfort of their friends, family, and church.

By the world’s definition they should have been unhappy and discontent! But though there was discomfort, pain, and sorrow, they were not unhappy. And this was because, as Elisabeth Elliot said, “The answer is not to get rid of unhappiness, but to find a new definition for it.”

Joel and Kimberly were evidence of the fact that passing pleasures are unreliable and subject to change, but they were not unhappy because they had placed their happiness in things that are unaffected and even complemented by suffering. They had defined happiness with things like duty, honor, sacrifice, faithfulness, commitment and service. Their faith in a sovereign and wise God, even through suffering, was evident by actions that pleased Him.

My challenge to you is that as you look forward to your future, define happiness differently than the rest of the world does. If you are eager to marry understand that sacrifice, faithfulness, and commitment are the keys to a happy marriage—not two beautiful, popular, and/or rich people. If you are eager to pursue a career that satisfies and interests you all the way till retirement, develop an appetite for duty, honor, diligence, and service—not prestige, company cars, and triple-digit hourly wages.

This is not to say that you cannot have these things. It is 100% OK to marry a beautiful woman or a handsome man. It is good for us to aim high when it comes to our careers. We should not all become janitors merely to develop character. Aim for fire chief, aim for sheriff, aim for teacher, aim for professor, aim for CEO, aim for Representative, or aim for Senator. Aim for President for that matter! The wonderful thing about duty, sacrifice, faithfulness, commitment, and service is that they serve you equally well no matter who you marry or what job you get.

By adopting a new attitude towards contentment—by moving outside of circumstances—we can ensure our happiness despite circumstances.

So start revamping your values list. Pray that God would help you find joy in permanent pleasures. Steer away from books, movies, and music that tells you happiness is being young, beautiful, and successful. That’s as stupid as saying that happiness is summertime. You’ll be unhappy three of the four seasons.

Instead pursue friendships with people who share a solid value system. Read books, watch movies, and listen to music that celebrates character. The book “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee is not for younger children, but would be an excellent book for most of our readers. The 1962 movie adaptation, starring Gregory Peck, is a wonderful alternative to reading the book for those who are short on time.

The movie “Chariots of Fire,” a come-from-behind winner of the 1981 Oscar for best picture, shares the beautiful story of devout Christian Eric Liddell whose running makes him feel closer to God, and is appropriate for the whole family.

I have also heard that the recent film “Cinderella Man” starring Russel Crowe and Renée Zellweger, is an amazing picture of commitment and faithfulness in marriage, though I haven’t seen it myself. I would encourage you to make use of services such as Focus On The Family’s www.pluggedinonline.com to reach a decision on the appropriateness of this film.

Now, please don’t get the impression that this attitude switch is accomplished solely by watching movies. What I’m trying to do with these recommendations is to recognize and combat the cultures strategy of using books, movies, music, etc. to push their faulty value system. It is good to watch good movies. Watching not-so-good movies has shaped many of our subtle misconceptions regarding beauty, love, and success. Those lies must be combated with the truth and preferably using the same medium of film.

However, movies alone will not cut it. Watching men like Atticus, Eric Liddel, and Jim Braddock will do nothing for you unless you can begin copying their positive traits and learning from their weaknesses. The key to value system makeover is observing, appreciating, and copying duty, honor, sacrifice, faithfulness, commitment and service, whether it’s on the silver screen, in the ICU, behind the cash register, or in your own home or school.

In our pursuit of happiness we can make no wiser choice than to be different from an unhappy world that throws itself at passing pleasures.

Do New Things

Do New Things (Guest Post)

This post was written by Marshall Sherman of Advancing His Kingdom.

“If you always do what you’ve always done, then you’ll always get what you’ve always had.” That quote rings true not only throughout time, but throughout generations. It applies not only to adults, but to teens. A lot of times teens do the same thing and expect different results. It doesn’t work that way! You can’t plant an apple seed, and get a pear tree! Every time you put an apple seed in the ground, you’re going to get an apple tree! Every single time. I don’t care if you pray over it, coax it, or yell at it; it will always produce an apple.

Whatever you sow, that will you reap.

But another thing I think is often overlooked in applying this quote, is going with the flow. Not only is it true that you, personally, will not get different results from the same actions, but you will not get different results if you do the same things as other people. For instance, if you dress the same way as a non-Christian, talk the same way as a non-Christian, go to the same movies as a non-Christian, surf the same websites as a non-Christian, read the same books as a non-Christian, you can’t expect God to move in your life anymore than He does, or is allowed to, in a non-Christians life.

Alex and Brett’s excellent post, A Lesson From The Vikings: Do Hard Things, created an excellent point. However, in addition to making an excellent point, they also provide an example for mine. The Vikings did hard things, but what they did was also new. Alex and Brett gave the example of the Greeks and the Romans and how they had galley slaves, whereas the Vikings…well…I’m not going to give it away, check out the post. Nevertheless, the Vikings did a new thing, and in turn, it made them successful.

So here’s the challenge, and it follows right along the same lines as Alex and Brett’s: (Strange how God does that isn’t it? Tells more than one person the same thing…) Do hard things, but don’t do just hard things, do new things. If you are not getting satisfactory results, pray, and then change. God literally changed the world, and the course of history, with 12 men who were willing to do something hard, and something new. I wanna’ be a leader in the next wave…what about you?

A Lesson From the Vikings: Do Hard Things

A Lesson From The Vikings: Do Hard Things

The Vikings were fierce pirates and warriors who terrorized Europe from the late 700’s to about A.D. 1100. Brutal and fearsome they looted and burned parts of England, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Russia, and Spain. Other Europeans were so frightened of the Vikings that a special prayer for protection was offered in the churches: “God, deliver us from the fury of the Northmen.”

Most historians attribute the Vikings devastating effectiveness to their warships, which were swift and light and could be easily dragged ashore. This allowed them to strike suddenly and then quickly retreat to the safety of the sea. However, my wise father has identified another contributing factor—one that holds incredible significance for all of us: The Vikings rowed themselves to battle.

Unlike the Romans, who used galley slaves to row their great warships, the Vikings took full responsibility for this strenuous activity. This tells us two things: 1) the Vikings didn’t feel that rowing was beneath them—they pursued competence in every area pertaining to their success, and 2) they were seriously ripped. No wonder the people of Europe were afraid of these guys—their muscles were moving twenty-ton boats through the water!

Here’s The Rebelution’s challenge: Do hard things. Learn a lesson from the Vikings. Do hard things and you will carry the battle every time. If you are willing to take on responsibilities that others delegate or neglect you will gain the benefits of that exertion.

Too often we delegate the responsibility for our education, our character, our future, etc. to others who hold far less of a stake in how things turn out. And more often than not a failure to perform in the areas of character and competence are due to a lack of past exertion.

Look around you. Many American young people are doing little more than “making it”—and this in a culture of unbelievably low standards. Few shoulder the burden of doing more than is required—yet that was the key to the Viking’s success!

In subsequent posts we will examine how we can “do hard things” by educating ourselves, tackling and maintaining normal responsibilities, and attempting the “impossible.” For now, I want you to ask yourselves the following questions:

• Am I choosing to Do Hard Things in my personal life? In my education? In the goals I set?

• Am I exceeding expectations or just getting by?

• Am I robbing myself of greater achievements because I’m unwilling to take on certain responsibilities?

Laptops vs. Learning

Laptops vs. Learning

“Could you repeat the question?”

That has become the most common response to questions I pose to my law students at Georgetown University. It is usually asked while the student glances up from the laptop screen that otherwise occupies his or her field of vision. After I repeat the question, the student’s gaze as often as not returns to the computer screen as if the answer might magically appear… Who knows, with instant messaging, maybe it will.

- David Cole, Laptops vs. Learning, Washington Post, April 7th, 2007 -

Earlier this month, David Cole, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center, wrote an op-ed piece for the Washington Post about banning laptop computers from his college classroom. As rebelutionaries, his words give us much food for thought.

Brett and I have written a lot about our generation and technology, both here and elsewhere. Many of the themes we’ve highlighted are echoed by Professor Cole:

With the aid of Microsoft and Google, we have effectively put at every seat a library of magazines, a television and the opportunity for real-time side conversations and invited our students to check out whenever they find their attention wandering… As for multitasking, I don’t buy it. Attention diverted is attention diverted.

Another reason for the laptop ban? Note-taking on a laptop encourages students to go into “stenographic mode,” focusing on getting a word-for-word transcript instead of actually listening, thinking and prioritizing the most important themes.

The results of Professor Cole’s experiment were strikingly positive:

About 80 percent reported that they are more engaged in class discussion when they are laptop-free. Seventy percent said that, on balance, they liked the no-laptop policy. 95 percent admitted that they use their laptops in class for “purposes other than taking notes, such as surfing the Web, checking e-mail, instant messaging and the like.”

Brett and I won’t be attending college until Fall 2008, but our day-to-day experience confirms what Professor Cole has observed. We can say we’re “listening” as we work on our laptops, but we know we’re not really listening (or learning) as well as we would if we stopped, turned and gave our undivided attention. More often than not, we’re shooting ourselves in the foot.

This brings us to the question: As rebelutionaries, are we willing to shut down, turn off, and (as my mom always says) “pivot” for the sake of greater competence?

Professor Cole concludes his op-ed piece with these words:

I am sure that the Internet can be a useful pedagogical tool in some settings and for some subjects. But for most classes, it is little more than an attractive nuisance. Technology has outstripped us on this one, and we need to reassess its appropriate and inappropriate role in teaching. The personal computer has revolutionized our lives, in many ways for the better. But it also threatens to take over our lives. At least for some purposes, unplugging may still be the best response.

For our currently college-attending readers: How common are laptops in class at your school? Do you use one? On balance, do you find that a laptop helps you be more engaged in your classes? If not, are you willing to go without it?

Brett and I are interested in hearing everyone’s input on this. Just remember, convenience (by itself) is not an argument here. As young adults, our focus is on preparation. As rebelutionaries, our goal is to travel the path that leads to the greatest level of competence, and that usually means doing hard things.

Multitasking: Bringing It All Together

Multitasking: Bringing It All Together

At the risk of sounding sentimental, I cautiously venture to say that I’m going to miss our series on multitasking. In fact, some of you may have noticed that while this was originally booked as a four-part series, you are now reading the fifth installment.

The purpose of this post is to bring to your attention three points that encapsulate what I believe is an appropriate response to all that we have learned over the past several weeks.

Each of the last three installments have included examples from my own life of practical application. Today, I hope to define more clearly an appropriate mindset with which to approach the issue of multitasking. Here are three principles we need to remember:

1.) Christians Can’t Multitask

Of course I don’t mean that Christians should never multitask. Multitasking can often be useful and is truly a unique ability that God has given to man. But what I do mean is that Christians don’t have the option to do anything besides the one thing we have been called to do. Yes, we may do many different activities, but everything we do — what we watch, listen to, think about, etc. — falls under one all-encompassing activity: Representing Jesus Christ.

This means that the standard is not “Am I multitasking or not multitasking?” but rather, “How well am I representing Christ in His commitment to glorifying God?”

Christ lived His life with one purpose: to glorify His Father. And in 1 Corinthians the Apostle Paul issues us the same challenge when he says, “…whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31). That means that whether we’re multitasking or not multitasking, the purpose of everything we do is to bring God glory.

The purpose of this series was to give all of us a framework with which to evaluate this prevalent aspect of modern culture in light of the question: “Does it glorify God?” By recognizing the pitfalls of multitasking we are more prepared to answer that question.

The truth is that multitasking almost always hampers productivity, stifles thought, and harms relationships. For these reasons we can answer that, “no,” multitasking hardly ever helps us glorify God.

However, the danger is that the lazy part of us wants jump on that to say, “No multitasking, ever.” It’s much easier to make a legalistic declaration than to continue asking the right questions.

But many, including myself, would be quick to point out that certain forms of multitasking have the potential in some situations to improve efficiency, raise levels of thought, and even increase interaction. Because of that we must take the harder road of not rejecting multitasking entirely, but of carefully evaluating each situation on its own merits.

2.) Consider What You’re Not Doing

“The problem [with the electronic movement],” says Edward Hallowell, author of the book CrazyBusy, “is what you are not doing if [it] grows too large. You are not having family dinner, you are not having conversations . . . you are not going on a family ski trip or taking time just to veg. It’s not so much that the video game is going to rot your brain, it’s what you are not doing that’s going to rot your life.”

Whether it is focusing on our work, thinking hard thoughts, or loving others with our attention, it’s what we’re not doing that suffers most from our generation’s obsession with media and multitasking. And the reason that we often fail to glorify God is not because what we’re doing is necessarily sinful (it may be completely harmless), but because we’re not doing something else that we could/should be doing.

Because of that our first consideration should not be, “Am I giving all of my IM conversations adequate attention?” but rather, “Is there something better I could be doing with my time?”

While all the perfect people who are reading this might only need to keep all of the important things they do from fragmenting their focus, the rest of us will probably find that many of the activities that hamper our productivity, stifle our thought life, and hurt our relationships are purely extraneous. When that comes to our attention we must have the maturity and humility to limit or eliminate those distractions.

3.) Take Technology Back

A common theme throughout our series on multitasking — specifically, media multitasking — is that our work, our thoughts, and our relationships are being degraded, not by technology itself, but by our unbalanced use of it.

Technology is not our problem. Our problems are a lack of self-control and a lack of vision. We are severely overusing the distractions of media and technology, yet woefully underusing the countless opportunities they provide.

Though nearly all of us have abused one of technology’s latest offerings — namely, online video — few of us have even begun to explore our new ability to produce and distribute quality video and/or audio presentations on the web, using nothing more than a computer’s built-in camera and microphone and a high-speed Internet connection.

Because the ability to mindlessly consume and aggressively produce exist within the same object — a computer — we shouldn’t say that technology is bad and then live without it. Every gadget has the potential to be used as a tool or wasted as a toy. Technology has and will cause the greatest crises of our generation. But it also has and will provide the greatest opportunities that any generation has ever faced for communicating truth to the entire world.

If there ever was an area where Christian young people should lead, technology is it. As rebelutionaries we have an exciting task — to show the world what new technology can really do when fused with character, competence, and truth. But it’s also up to us to show the rest of our generation what it can’t do, and that there’s life beyond the screen.

We won’t be able to do that if we’re just as distracted as everyone else. For that reason we must stand with the Apostle Paul — following him as he followed Christ — and throw off the weight and the sin that so easily entangles, and run with endurance the race marked out for us.

It won’t be easy, but it will be good.

Read: Intro / Productivity / Thought Life / Relationships / Closing