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


+ Find a Local Station +

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.