Do Hard Things

There’s a book on the Religion Bestseller’s List called DO HARD THINGS by teenage brothers Alex and Brett Harris. The subtitle is 'A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations' and the gist of their tome is that society expects little of teenagers as compared to what it did in the past and that today’s teenagers default to this lowest position to meet those expectations by having fun, spending their money on themselves, and generally looking out for number one.

Hard things include discipline, doing more than you’re asked, going outside your comfort zone to accomplish something you didn’t think you could, making a difference. The sad truth is we adults need the message to do hard things just as badly as the teens, if not more so.

American society in general expects little of its citizens anymore. And people are happy to oblige. Mostly the government wants us to be steady, reliable consumers and to stay out of its way as it grows bigger and more unwieldy and steals more of our money through taxes which it then gives to people who haven’t earned it. (Has anyone seen Obama’s latest bill to send billions of our dollars overseas to help the poor in Africa? It’s all well and good to help the poor, but according to the Bible it should be voluntary -- this, along with welfare and other similar programs, is legalized, systematic theft). Our entertainment industry has sunk to depicting every immorality known to mankind, all in the name of pushing the envelope and providing the shock value needed for our sadly jaded sensibilities. Most people don’t care enough to protest by voting with their pocketbooks as evidenced by the profits generated by these endeavors.

The good news is that we Christians are not supposed to be just anybody. We’re called to be salt and light to the culture the way William Wilberforce was, or Clara Barton who started the Red Cross or George Washington who was doing a man’s job as a surveyor at the age of 16 and who, as our first president, led our fledgling nation with integrity and honor.

The bad news is we Christians have abdicated from influencing much of anything and are now hiding behind our church walls with Christian books, movies, and TV. We’re not doing hard things like evangelizing or holding our political leaders accountable or trying to take back the culture. We’re not shining our lights for Christ. We’ve allowed sacrifice and selflessness to become foreign concepts. We’ve grown complacent because we've let ourselves.

I know I’m as guilty as anyone. It’s part of why I started this blog. We have so much opportunity to make a difference. We’re free to take up any challenge. It can be anything from starting a home Bible study to running for the school board. All it takes is the first step.

It’s time for all of us to do hard things.