Book Review: Start Here

Are you ready to run hard after what the Lord has called you to do?  I just finished reading Start Here: Doing Hard Things Right Where You Are by Alex and Brett Harris.  This is a follow up to their first book, Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations.  I posted a review of Do Hard Things here.  I have really enjoyed both of these books because they set students up to understand what God has in store for them and equips them to get started following His will.

If you are a parent, teacher, youth pastor, coach, or someone who influences students and wants big things for them as they grow up, both of these books would be great to pick up and put in their Easter basket, drop on their nightstand, or pack in a bag for the beach over Spring Break.  Whatever it takes, these books are tools that you need to get in the hands of your student.

Here are some of the things I underlined as I was reading this book:

  • Being a rebolutionary means committing to doing even ordinary things extraordinarily well.  As each of us is faithful in that, God will be faithful to prepare us for whatever calling He has for us.
  • When your heart and mind are alert, you can see opportunities to do hard things in everyday things.
  • Faithfulness in small hard things is always the fuel for bigger hard things.
  • The day will never come when we stop feeling afraid and our motivations are perfectly pure.  True courage is not the absence of fear; it is refusing to allow our fear to control our actions.
  • We will probably all be surprised when we get to heaven and see who has the biggest crowns to lay at Jesus’ feet.  It won’t be the famous but rather the quiet faithful — those who served, prayed, and labored in relative obscurity.
  • Being disciplined and organized in how we use our time is one of those important small hard things that allows us to do some of the bigger hard things God’s given us to do.
  • Keep in mind that the choice is never between doing hard things and our relationship with God, because God is the One who commands us to do hard things!  Instead, we serve and obey God by doing hard things — with Christ as the center, His glory our goal, and holding every hard thing we do with open hands.
  • What we once saw as disappointment, we now understand as God’s good, wise, and sovereign guidance.  His plan was far better than anything we could have imagined.
  • If we fail to prepare adequately as young adults, responsibility will be like a weight that is too heavy for our untrained arms.
  • Our first response to persecution should be gratitude.
  • Our response to accomplishing a hard thing will never be perfectly pure, but as we grow closer to God, our desire to see Him glorified, not us, will grow.
Are you ready to step over the line?  I believe that, now more than ever, God is calling us to do great things on His behalf so that people far from God can experience life in Christ!  Let’s DO HARD THINGS!

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