Every summer we send the RAs home with a book to read over the summer, not something terribly heavy, but something that we trust will be useful as they anticipate ministering to a new group of men or women in the residence halls.
This year we sent them home with Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations written by teenage twins Alex and Brett Harris. Now I can just imagine the low expectations you might have for this book, but let me warn you, it doesn't matter how old you are, this book is worth the read. And in case you think I am saying that because it might help you work with teenagers, you are mistaken.
This book will challenge you to consider just how high your own expectations are for your life...and then it will demand that you think about what are you doing about those expectations. There is a real challenge too, for those of us who say, I am doing my best, so God is happy.
I always struggled with that expression, but I wasn't sure why. I think it might be because we settle. We settle for a pretty low "best," and we do little to make our "best" any better. It becomes an excuse for stunted growth, for failure to thrive. If I'm doing my best, and God should be satisfied with that, then why should I try to do any better, learn anything more, develop further in any way?
So, right now, I want to buy this book for my grandchildren as well as the RAs, and I would love to sit in a circle of my peers who have read it. It would be a challenge to work through these chapters and enter into some accountability for rising up out of the mud of the status quo where I find it too comfortable.
Hebrews 10:24 admonishes us to spur one another on to love and good deeds. This book felt like that an old friend, one who wants to spur me on to greater things for His glory.
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