The Wanderer

Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations by Alex & Brett Harris

Multnomah, 2008 (241 pp, hbk)

Who should read a book warmly recommended by Chuck Norris?  If your range of cultural reference doesn’t include the erstwhile star of the Delta Force films and Walker, Texas Ranger, then the obvious comic responses to that question won’t make you snigger.  Nevertheless, you should read this book.

It is written by Alex & Brett Harris, twin brothers who are teenagers at the time of writing, and who are the originators and instigators of what they call The Rebelution, a rebellion against low expectations.  This book is an articulate and coherent call to their fellows to shake off the myth of adolescence, with the low expectations attached to it, and – having broken those shackles – to do hard things: to take risks to grow, to pursue excellence, to dream and dare big, to be faithful and choose integrity, and to take a stand for what is right.  They challenge their readers to be salt and light by erecting in their lives the three pillars of Christlike character, God-honouring competence, and potentially world-spanning collaboration.  Although much of the language is Christian, for the bulk of the book the gospel is implied rather than stated.  Indeed, the authors acknowledge that in some sense the desire and intention to do hard things is a worthy model for all.  However, at the end of the book there is a chapter which makes very plain that they see this Rebelution in gospel terms, tying the aims and desires of this movement to the realities of salvation through Jesus and life in the kingdom of God.  Along the way there are various fascinating, impressive, and inspiring testimonies, together with practical counsels as to how one might go about pursuing any element of the framework laid out.

The book is afire with the enthusiasm and exuberance of youth: while you might smile once or twice at the effects of this in the writing, it is no bad thing.  It is enthusiasm and exuberance that is clearly having an effect in practice: these are not dreamers only, but doers also.  There are things in the background with which I would take some issue (certain assumptions about particular doctrines or practices in Christ’s church), but they are in the background for the most part.  It would be easy to sneer at these gentlemen, and to make sniffy comments about how you could probably get a book published if you were related to Josh Harris of I Kissed Dating Goodbye fame.  But I would suggest that that they are not just Josh Harris’s kid brothers, and should not be dismissed as such.  They have something worthwhile to say, and they say it well, and it seems to be striking a chord with others dissatisfied with the dissolution of most teenage years.

The church as much as society at large has often dismissed or undervalued its young people, expecting little of them, investing little in them, and ultimately breeding a casual, careless, and often carnal generation.  The tendency to ghettoise different ages in the church – would we ever do the same with different racial groups? – feeds into the problem rather than addressing it.  A serious reading of this book would, it might be hoped, act not as a wake-up call for teenagers only, but also a sobering jolt for those who parent, pastor, teach, train, minister to and live with teenagers.  By all means, buy this book for your teenage children, friends, and church members.  Make sure they read it.  But, before you give it to them, make sure you read it first.

Order it at Monergism Books.