Book Review: Do Hard Things

This afternoon we had beautiful weather and I wanted to get outside on the deck and spend some time reading.  I decided to read Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris, 19 year old twin brothers.  I was interested in the book because I heard it was written by teenagers for teenagers challenging them to join in a teenage rebellion against low expectations.  I also knew a little of this family because of their older brother Joshua Harris and his books, I Kissed Dating Goodbye, Boys Meets Girl, and Stop Dating the Church.

This book is endorsed by a ton of leaders that I really respect…and the forward is written by none other than Chuck Norris himself.  That pretty much settled it for me.  This book did not disappoint, it is full of practical information that really meets teenagers where they are.  Rather than dumbing down the book to make it appealing, the Harris brothers intentionally raised the bar higher than many others that write for teenagers.

The purpose of the book is to encourage students to become a part of The Rebelution.  The three main pillars of The Rebelution are character, competence, and collaboration.  Alex and Brett did a great job developing this idea and challenging students to take the first steps towards making a difference in the world for Christ.  I especially appreciated their heart for the Lord and desire for others to know Him.  They took the last chapter of the book and very clearly shared the gospel.  This book has Scripture woven throughout, but I was pumped to see that they wanted to make sure they had been real clear about their priorities.

I did a ton of highlighting in this one.  I am posting my takeaways below straight from the pages of Do Hard Things.  If you know a student entering or already in their teenage years, you should pick this book up and offer to read and discuss it with them.  It will benefit adults just as much as it will students.

• “The teen years are not a vacation from responsibility.  They are the training ground of future leaders who dare to be responsible now.”
• “The term adolescence literally means to “grow up.”  This is true in a biological sense as well as in other aspects of maturity.  We have no problem with that, or even with the word itself — you’ll notice that we still use the word teenager a lot.  The problem we have is with the modern understanding of adolescence that allows, encourages, and even trains young people to remain childish for much longer than necessary.  It holds us back from what we could do, from what God made us to do, and even from what we would want to do if we got out from under society’s low expectations.”
• “The most our society expects from teens is really much closer to the least we should expect.”
• “The self-fulfilling power of expectations impacts teens in almost every area-often maddeningly so.  Take, for example, tech savvy and sexual activity.  These are two areas where teens are supposed to have high interest and high performance.  Just as you’d predict, the levels of activity, consumption, and even obsession in these areas are unprecedented.  We are meeting the expectations set before us.”
• “So whose expectations are we living by?  The Bible says, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world” (Romans 12:2, NIV).  When we let cultural expectations become our standard, we allow ourselves to be squeezed into a mold, with little room for Christlike character or competence.”
• “This is what we call the Rebelution: throwing off the shackles of lies and low expectations and returning our generation to a true and very exciting understanding of the teen years-not as a vacation from responsibility but as a launching pad for the rest of our lives.”
• “In his book Thoughts for Young Men, JC Ryle wrote, “Youth is the seed-time of full age, the molding season in the little space of human life, the turning-point in the history of man’s mind.”  In other words, what each of us will become later in life largely depends on what we become now.  Are we taking that seriously?”
• “God offers grace and redemption to those with wasted pasts.  But let us never presume upon God’s grace by wasting even a minute of what William Wilberforce called “the most valuable years of life.”
• “A historian once said that George Washington “became the man he strove to be.”  That statement is not only true of Washington; it’s also true about us.  We will all become the men and women we strive (or don’t strive) to be.”
• Five Kinds of Hard: 1.  Things that are outside your comfort zone (taking risks to grow) 2.  Things that go beyond what’s expected or required (pursuing excellence) 3.  Things that are too big to accomplish alone (dreaming and daring big) 4.  Things that don’t earn an immediate payoff (being faithful and choosing integrity) 5.  Things that go against the cultural norm (taking a stand for what is right).
• “We look especially at the step that makes important firsts possible-the one that takes you from the relative safety of your comfort zone to the scary territory outside it.”
• “The strange thing is that even when teens repeatedly experience the benefits of stepping outside our comfort zones, we tend to respond in exactly the same way to the next new task that comes along.  We resist, delay, fight, and scream-all to keep from leaving our cozy little routines.  But there’s a high cost for choosing comfort; without even realizing it, we build an invisible fence around ourselves.”
• “True courage is not the absence of fear.  It is refusing to allow fear to control your actions.”
• “Slavery to fear is much worse than the bruises and scars of a few falls.”
• “Anything worth doing is worth failing at and trying again.  The Bible says that the righteous man falls seven times and gets back up again (Proverbs 24:16).
• “Instead of worrying about future fears, we can, as Corrie ten Boom wrote, “Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”
• “What hard thing can I do today that will have an eternal impact for the sake of the gospel?”
• “Being considered a good teen only requires that we don’t do bad stuff like taking drugs, drinking, and partying.  But is it enough to be known for the negative things we don’t do, or should we also be known for the positive and difficult things that we do?”
• “They realized that God’s standard is not for us to be the godliest person in a youth group filled with halfhearted Christians, but to “be holy” because He is holy (I Peter 1:16).  God’s standard is not for us to be our teacher’s best helper, but to be a “servant of all” (Mark 9:35).
• “God set His standards this high so that we won’t make the mistake of aiming low.  He made them unreachable so that we would never have an excuse to stop growing.”
• “A commitment to growth kills complacency.”
• “We need to change the way we think about large projects and big ideas.  Instead of focusing on our individual limitations, what if we stepped back, looked around, and asked, “Who could be motivated to tackle this with me?””
• “There’s something inside a living being that rises to accomplish exponentially greater things when part of a team.”
• “Walking with the wise usually means spending time with those who are older, more experienced, and godlier than we are.  This is one reason why we find it so important to be plugged in to our local church-the number one source we’ve found for wise and godly companionship.”
• “When we let younger kids work alongside us, we’re doing for them what we ask of our older mentors.  When they walk with us, relatively speaking, they walk with the wise.  They get to be mentored in how and why to do hard things.  We get energetic and enthusiastic help.  Everybody wins.”
• “One of the common dangers we’ve come across is that pride often sabotages team efforts.  What to do?  We recommend dealing quickly and respectfully with hurt feelings.  We also recommend establishing a team code that says, “Credit is free around here, and we give it away.”  That helps individuals focus on the needs and accomplishments of others and of the group as a whole and makes for a much happier, healthier, and more effective team.”
• “If we’re willing to strive for excellence, even in the boring, repetitive tasks and responsibilities that others delegate or neglect, we will reap the powerful benefits that others miss.”
• “Embracing small things can make a radical difference.”
• “Don’t get a reputation for always being against everything: be for something.  Try not to point out problems without providing solutions.  Make it your goal to show people a better way-God’s way-not just that their current direction is wrong.”
• “Neither Wilberforce nor Luther could have stood against the evils and injustices of their times if they hadn’t first learned to stand against the evil in their own hearts and in the hearts of those around them.  We are no different.”
• “Doing what is right always matters-and it matters now.”
• “Could it be that our particular crop of young people has been placed on earth at this pivotal time in history for a reason?”
• “Where secular methods and philosophies hold sway in fields of business, education, the arts, or any other area of society and culture, we are called to bring biblical philosophies and methods founded on that “total Truth”-that’s what it means to be light.”
• “We’re too young to know certain things are impossible, so we will do them anyway.”