Our friends over at Boundless have a published a great article by Lindsay Talsness encouraging students to be purposeful about their three months of freedom. Whether you’re in college or not, you’ll appreciate Lindsay’s advice on making this summer a time of spiritual growth, accountability, goal-setting, personal outreach, and growing closer to family and friends. Don’t waste your summer!

Intentional Summer Break
Boundless.org - Lindsay Talsness - 05/12/09

I’m sure that nearly all college students would agree they are relieved when finals have ended and the spring semester is over.

No more nights spent staring bleary-eyed at a computer screen until 3 a.m. No more cramming facts into every last square inch of your brain, and no more IM-ing with friends about the virtues of leg warmers the night before a 10-page paper is due, simply because you can’t write another academic word.

Thank goodness for three months of class-free bliss!

It’s a time to go home, spend time with your family, play with your dog/cat/tarantula, and catch up with old friends. To be honest, though, I’ve found that summer break can be a very difficult time as well.

Read the entire article »

Once you have read the article come back here and join the conversation. The discussion questions below are intended to be helpful whether or not you attend college. Choose a few to respond to and let us know what you think.

Some questions for discussion:

• Do you have a harder time growing spiritually over the summer? Why or why not?
• What are your plans for this summer? What would it look like for you to glorify God with those plans?
• Is your summer crazier than you wanted it to be? What lessons might God be teaching you through that?
• Is your summer quieter than you wanted it to be? What lessons might God be teaching you through that?

Need to talk to your parents about attending the conference tour this year? Our father has written a letter for you to share with them. Download the printable PDF version and respectfully ask your parents to read it. Don’t forget to draw their attention our “Pay-What-You-Can” policy mentioned at the end of the letter.

Read the Letter :: Download Printable Version

Malcolm Gladwell is one of Brett’s and my favorite modern authors. Reading his book The Tipping Point was part of what inspired us to start the Rebelution back in 2005. It remains on our short list of favorites — along with his latest book, Outliers.

So imagine our excitement when we read his latest article in The New Yorker. In it he uses our favorite sport — basketball — to show that underdogs win by being willing to break from what is expected and, basically, do hard things.

“David can beat Goliath by substituting effort for ability,” Gladwell writes. He tells the story of a seventh-grade girls basketball team that chose to make up for a lack of skill with hard work — instituting a real full-court press every time down the court.

“[Their] philosophy was based on a willingness to try harder than anyone else,” he observes. And it worked! Despite playing against teams with bigger, stronger, more talented players — who had played together for several years — they kept winning.

Take the time to understand and appreciate what Gladwell says next:

It is easier to retreat and compose yourself after every score than swarm about, arms flailing [in a full-court press]. We tell ourselves that skill is the precious resource and effort is the commodity. It’s the other way around. Effort can trump ability . . . because relentless effort is in fact something rarer than the ability to engage in some finely tuned act of motor coordination.

The truth that Gladwell gets at in his article is at the very heart of what it means to be rebelutionaries. For the Rebelution to succeed we must be willing to think about what nobody expects us to think about, to care about what nobody expects us to care about, to do what nobody expects us to do — and to never give up.

That is what it means to rebel against low expectations. That is what it means to do hard things. It won’t be easy. We’re underdogs in this battle, like David going up against Goliath. But like David, we have a God who calls us to try. And as we are faithful to give Him our all, He will give us the strength to win the fight.

+ Read the Gladwell Article +