Do Hard Things

That's the title and theme of a book just out written by two 19-year-olds, Alex and Brett Harris. (Yes, they are twins.) The subtitle is, "A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations." Pretty strong stuff, eh?

I'm a third of the way through the book, and plenty of it is for whatever age we happen to be. This, for example:

Alyssa Chua, a seventeen-year-old ... from the Philippines, explained her pattern this way: 'My comfort zone was the place where everything was just the way I wanted it to be; a situation where I never had to make extra effort or do something difficult; a place I could sit back, relax and enjoy myself.'

The problem, she told us, was that she stayed inside her comfort zone, she was essentially refusing to surrender her life fully to God; she was avoiding the hard things He was calling her to do.

The authors go on to put their finger on the real issue:

What we're really saying is that we don't want to do things that come easily or naturally. We don't want to break through our fears. And by our actions, we're also saying that God isn't good and powerful enough to help us do what we can't comfortably do on our own.

Alex and Brett describe another young man who, unlike Alyssa, spent his life avoiding taking that first step out of his comfort zone. "The result? He's basically the same person he's always been."