While it’s not uncommon for young people to run for public office, they aren’t often elected, particularly in cities larger than several thousand residents. Someone forgot to tell that to 19-year-old Chris Brown who was just elected (with 84% of the vote) to the city council of Bedford, Texas — population, 48,000.

“If you’re dedicated to something and you work hard, it doesn’t guarantee you anything,” says Chris, “but without it you don’t stand a chance.” That’s why this teenager attended every single city council meeting for a year. “I wanted to run for council last year, but I didn’t think I had the knowledge, and so I took the past year to make myself ready.” For Chris, doing hard things paid off.

Teen takes his seat on Bedford City Council
Marice Richter / The Dallas Morning News - Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Last week was especially busy for Chris Brown: He had to juggle the final days of a political campaign with final exams.

The Bedford teenager successfully completed both, winning a contested race for the Bedford City Council by an overwhelming margin and passing finals so that he could advance to his sophomore year at the University of North Texas.

Such a feat might be daunting to most 19-year-olds, but not for Mr. Brown, who contemplated running last year as a high school senior but decided to wait and fully prepare.

“Running for the council is something I thought about for a long time and really wanted to do,” the political science major said. “This wasn’t just a spur-of-the-moment quirk.”

To run for the council, Mr. Brown turned down offers from several colleges, including Baylor University, to stay close to home. Although he lived in a dorm on campus in Denton, he commuted constantly to regularly attend meetings of the council and other city boards and commissions, including the Charter Review Commission, on which he served.

Despite his determination and dedication, Mr. Brown still had to overcome a lot of skepticism because of his age.

After all, he hasn’t yet voted for president, held a full-time job or bought himself a beer. And he still lives in his childhood home with his mom, dad and 15-year-old sister, Katie.

Read the entire article »

Once you’ve read the rest of the article (make sure you watch the video too!) come back here and let us know what you think about Chris’s accomplishment. You can also check out all the rest of our Teens In The News coverage.

• Have you ever attended a city council meeting?
• Have you ever considered running for public office?
• Have you ever run for office at school or in another context? If so, tell your story and share what you’ve learned.

A new study conducted by The Associated Press and MTV shows that family, friends, and religion make teens more happy and that (surprise, surprise) money and sex make them less happy. Family ties were the overwhelming winner and “mom” and “dad” were the most frequent responses when teens were asked to name their heroes.

It makes you wonder whether MTV will make the connection that they constantly bash the values and heroes of their target demographic while simultaneously promoting the very things that are shown to make teens unhappy. It makes you wonder whether us teens will make that connection as well.

Poll: Family Ties Key to Youth Happiness
WashingtonPost.com - Jocelyn Noveck and Trevor Tompson - 08/20/07

So you’re between the ages of 13 and 24. What makes you happy? A worried, weary parent might imagine the answer to sound something like this: Sex, drugs, a little rock ‘n’ roll. Maybe some cash, or at least the car keys.

Turns out the real answer is quite different. Spending time with family was the top answer to that open-ended question, according to an extensive survey — more than 100 questions asked of 1,280 people ages 13-24 — conducted by The Associated Press and MTV on the nature of happiness among America’s young people.

Next was spending time with friends, followed by time with a significant other. And even better for parents: Nearly three-quarters of young people say their relationship with their parents makes them happy.

“They’re my foundation,” says Kristiana St. John, 17, a high-school student from Queens in New York. “My mom tells me that even if I do something stupid, she’s still going to love me no matter what. Just knowing that makes me feel very happy and blessed.”

Read the entire article »

Once you’ve read the rest of the article come back here and join the discussion. For further reading on the topic of happiness you can check out one of our early articles called, A New Attitude Towards Happiness. Thanks for reading! Do Hard Things.

On a side note, thank you everyone who has been signing up for our Prayer Updates. We have the deadline for our book coming up at the end of this month. We are worn down from frequent traveling but need to make quick progress to finish on time. Please remember us in your prayers. It makes all the difference.

• What aspect of the survey was most surprising to you?
• What makes you happy? Try to come up with your Top Five things.
• Who are your heroes? Try to come up with your Top Five heroes.
• Why do you think there is a disconnect between what makes teens happy and what corporations like MTV sell them? Why do you think teens (including yourself) pursue things that we know will make us unhappy?

“One girl’s work at a local farm makes her stand out — fewer and fewer have jobs at all.” Thus begins an intriguing profile of 16-year-old Patty Bochsler of Lonely Lane Farm. As other teens bake on the beach this August, she stands in steel-toed boots packing freshly butchered beef, pork and lamb in a 40-degee plant.

The article goes on to report that the number of working teens has reached a 60-year low and that 80 percent of young workers lack basic communication skills and 70 percent lack a work ethic. Scary numbers. What do you think?

Teens and jobs are fields apart
OregonLive.com - Julie Sullivan - 08/20/07

The proportion of working teens in Oregon has shrunk from 6 in every 10 in 2000 to just 4 in every 10 last year, according to the Census Bureau. That’s true across the country this summer, where the employment rate for teens has fallen even further, said Andrew Sum, who directs the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston.

The repercussions will play out for decades. Students with jobs are more likely to stay in school. And for 10 years, they earn more for every year they worked.

“Kids are working at a lower rate today than at anytime since just after World War II — a 60-year low,” says Sum, who studied teen employment for 30 years. “I consider this disastrous.”

Why aren’t more teens working?

Economists say they are squeezed out by immigrants, workers older than 55 and recent college graduates unable to find jobs. Big-box retailers, which have proliferated in the past seven years, don’t hire anyone younger than 18. And some ambitious kids — or their ambitious parents — choose academic camps or classes instead of job hunting.

But it turns out that nonworking teens might be hurting themselves. Employers reported 80 percent of their young workers lack basic communication skills and 70 percent lack a work ethic.

Read the entire article »

Once you have read the entire article come back here and join the conversation. At the bottom of this post you will find some discussion questions to get you started. Choose one or all of them and share your stories.

We would also encourage you to ask your parents about their job history. You’ll be surprised to hear about some the interesting places they’ve worked. As I was writing this post I decided to go and ask my father to share his job history with me and most of them caught me by surprise.

The Job History of Gregg Harris (Our Father)

His first job was at Burger Chef in Miamisburg, Ohio, at the age of 14. I didn’t know this. He told me that they were allowed to make whatever kind of burgers they wanted for their own meals. He would create monster cheeseburgers with 4-5 patties and cheese between each one.

His next job was at Union Concession Stands in Dayton, Ohio. After that he worked at the Paul Harris (no relation) clothing store back in Miamisburg. At the age of 16 he was a runaway in Clear Water Beach, Florida, working at a concession stand.

A few months later, at the age of 17, he was in southern California working as a restaurant and coffee house musician. At the age of eighteen was a member of professional band in Indianapolis, Indiana.

From that point on he has worked at Countryside Nursery in Centerville, Ohio, at an auto parts stripping factory, owned the Custom Terrarium & Houseplant Shop, served as a youth pastor for a year, pastored a missionary church in Harlingen, Texas, and was the senior pastor at Grace Fellowship in Dayton, Ohio.

Most of what I knew didn’t start until after all that, when he started Christian Life Workshops, founded Noble Institute for Leadership Development, founded and sold Noble Publishing Associates, and now pastors at Household of Faith Community Church in Gresham, Oregon.

Go Now, And Do Likewise

Maybe that was only interesting to me, but I have a feeling that you will find your own parent’s job histories immensely intriguing as well. So ask them! If you learn of anything particularly incredible go ahead and share it (with their permission, of course) in the comment section. Also, don’t forget the discussion questions directly below. May God bless you all. Do Hard Things.

• Did you have a job this summer? Why or why not?
• Tell us about the best (or worst) job you’ve ever had. What did you learn from the experience?
• Hypothetical Situation: If (God forbid) one of your parents was injured and unable to work and you were forced to help provide for your family, what skills do you have that could help generate an income?

MuchMusic teams up with MasterCard to launch a new payment card aimed at teenagers as young as 13. Andrea Gordon, family issues reporter for The Toronto Star, wonders whether prepaid cards and credit cards aimed at the youth market are really about conditioning kids to accumulate debt.

This article raises many important issues in the area of teens and financial responsibility and gives a glimpse into some of the traps our society has set for teens who don’t know how to manage money. There are big companies making big bucks off of a culture that encourages instant-gratification and self-indulgence in its young people — whether they can afford it or not.

Alex and I are planning to get credit cards soon, but we’re going to use them sparingly and strategically, paying them off in full every month, with the goal of building our credit rating. Hopefully the following article will help spark your thinking as you develop similar strategies of money management.

Giving teens credit
TheStar.com - Andrea Gordon - 08/28/07

Meet Danny, a typical teen. Except when he first flashes across the TV screen, he’s kneeling in a playpen. A caption introduces him as “Recovering Momma’s Boy.” Seconds later, Danny is in a highchair, protesting, “I’m not a baby, mom!”

Switch to voiceover and Danny sums up his problem: “I really wasn’t in control of my life.” Enter the MuchMusic Prepaid MasterCard. The baby equipment disappears. Danny, now a big boy, tells us his new card means freedom. Money matters are “as easy as loading it and spending it.”

MuchMusic, which joined forces with MasterCard this spring to launch the new payment card aimed at teenagers as young as 13, sure knows its target market. The last thing adolescents want is to be treated like children. They are struggling to exert their independence. And they’re also bigger spenders than ever before, online and in malls. Both companies are hoping to cash in on that combination.

Not long ago, financial institutions didn’t much care about the under-18 set. But younger teens, now acknowledged as the driving force behind family spending decisions on items ranging from cars to fast food, have become a sought-after group in a card-saturated marketplace.

As well as being big consumers, today’s kids have been raised in an era when debt at a young age is considered inevitable rather than something to be avoided, especially for post-secondary students. So it’s not a surprise that lenders want to build brand loyalty early with these future borrowers.

Read the entire article »

Once you have read the entire article come back here and join the conversation. Below you will find some discussion questions to get you started.

We would also encourage you to have a discussion with your family about this issue. Ask your parents what they wished they’d known about money at your age and discuss what the Bible has to say about all this.

It is never too early to develop a biblical view towards money — especially in a culture that is coming after us early. If you have never really thought or read about this issue before, now would be a good time to start.

• What is your financial situation? Do you have a steady income? Do you spend much? Do you save much? Have you ever invested your money?
• Do you have a credit, debit, or prepaid card? If so, how have you used it? What do you think about teens using them?
• How do you manage your money? Have you ever created a budget?
• What do you think about going into debt?

Two 16-year-old teens have been recruited as police community support officers in Thames Valley, New Zealand [ Correction: United Kingdom], with the power to detain and question suspects, stop and search under terror laws, issue penalty notices for disorder and stop vehicles the Herald Sun reported on Tuesday.

Read the condensed article below and then share your thoughts in the comment section. Which side do you agree with, the police department or the concerned officials? What could be the consequences of this decision?

Teens hired as police
Herald Sun - August 14, 2007

Two 16-year-olds have been recruited as police community support officers with the power to detain and question suspects. Just out of school, they will join foot patrols at a busy police station.

The teenagers are two years too young to join the regular police force or be tried in adult courts. Yet they will have the right to detain suspects, stop and search under terror laws, issue penalty notices for disorder and stop vehicles.

Police Federation chairman Jan Berry said 16-year-olds did not have the skills for the frontline. “To expect someone so young to put on a police uniform and patrol the streets is a few steps too far,” she said.

“It puts pressure on them as they have neither the maturity or experience to deal with situations they are likely to confront. This means they are more likely to let down their colleagues and the public.”

Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said: “Recruiting 16-year-olds to frontline policing puts them and those around them at risk.”

But Thames Valley Police said the youths had “the skills that we need. They bring experience of being able to interact with the public — especially young people.”

“If you are good enough, you are old enough.”

Read the entire article »

Most people have never heard about Cameron Peters, a 16-year-old from Henderson, Nevada. The only article we could find about him was a short half-time piece from NBA.com, but here’s what reporter Dennis Roberts had to say:

Last April, 16-year old Liberty High School Junior, Cameron Peters, was driving down a residential street in Henderson, NV to pick up a friend to go to a basketball game, when he noticed smoke and fire coming from a residence.

Seeing no fire trucks or people around, Cameron stopped his car, ran to the home, and realized that there were people inside. Cameron called 911 and then fearlessly risked his own life and entered the burning home, now engulfed in flames, where he found eight young children sleeping, along with two adults.

Cameron, by himself, gathered up all of the children and carried them to safety going back in to the burning home multiple times to make sure all the occupants had been rescued and accounted for.

Firefighters concluded that the home was completely destroyed by the fire and had Cameron not stopped and risked his own life, eight young children’s lives may have been tragically lost.

The NBA Summer League honored Cameron July 12th at halftime of the Knicks/Kings game. Cameron received awards from the Clark County Commissioner and the NBA for his heroism.

Praise God for Cameron’s bravery and selflessness. We’re sure he felt fear at times as he rushed once again into the blazing building, but he didn’t allow his fear to control his actions, which is the true definition of courage.

Interestingly enough, though you won’t find anything about Cameron on Google News, a quick search for the word “teens” (07/14/07) will bring up stories of high school shooting plots, botched robbery attempts, as well as the headline “Teens to face charges in house fire.” What do you think about that?

Share Your Thoughts In The Comment Section

Eva Vertes isn’t a normal young person. At least, that’s what our culture would tell us. Her discovery of a compound that inhibits brain cell death was regarded as a step toward curing Alzheimer’s and won her Best in Medicine at the International Science Fair at age 17. Quickly labeled a microbiology prodigy, Eva now aims to find better ways to treat — and avoid — cancer.

It All Started With A Book

“I had never been a reader when I was young,” admits Eva laughingly, “My dad had tried me with the Hardy Boys, I had tried Nancy Drew, and I just didn’t like reading books!” That all changed when her mother bought her The Hot Zone, a medical thriller about an outbreak of the Ebola virus. “As I was reading that book I knew that I wanted a life in medicine,” says Eva. She was nine years old.

From that moment on Eva read every medical book she could get her hands on. For the next five years she was what she calls a “passive observer” of the medical world. “It wasn’t until I entered high school,” recalls Eva, “that I thought, Maybe now as a big high school kid I can become an active part of this big medical world.“

“May I Use Your Laboratory, Professor?”

Dr. Michael Rathbone, head neurologist at Henderson Hospital and a professor in McMaster University’s department of medicine, was probably surprised to receive an email from a 14-year-old girl asking to work in his laboratory. But instead of dismissing the email, as several other professors had done, Dr. Rathbone was impressed enough to give Eva permission to work on her projects in his lab.

Over the next year Eva bounced between the classroom and the laboratory. On top of her high school workload, she had to rush periodically to the university to check on her experiments — often during school hours. Her grades did drop slightly, but she wasn’t worried. “I was learning so much outside of school,” she says.

Finding A Cure For Alzheimer’s

Eva’s experiments and research soon brought her to Alzheimer’s. “I’ve always been interested in neurological science, and Alzheimer’s is a very important and relevant disease to work on,” explains Eva. “So many people in our aging population are being affected by it — not only the sufferers, but their families and caregivers.”

Eva threw herself into the study of Alzheimer’s, reading everything she could to familiarize herself with the current research. One day, while reading in the medical library, she came across an article on something called purine derivatives that seemed to have cell-growth promoting properties.

“Being naive about the whole field,” says Eva, “I kind of thought, Oh, you have cell death in Alzheimer’s, which is causing the memory deficit, and then you have this compound — purine derivatives — that is promoting cell growth. And so I thought, Maybe if it can promote cell growth it can inhibit cell death too.“

Best in the World in Medicine

Eva may have felt naive, but she was asking the right questions. Over the next year her research and experiments identified a particular purine derivative that inhibited brain cell death in fruit flies by over 60%. She presented her findings at the International Science Fair and was awarded Best in Medicine, at age 17.

This accomplishment opened many doors for Eva. That summer she was invited to England to study with other talented young scientists from around the world and her last year of high school was spent in Italy, where she continued her research at the Universita de Annunzio in Chieti, outside of Rome. She didn’t slack off on her school, though. She completed high school and took her SAT’s via correspondence.

Finding A Cure For Cancer

Even as her Alzheimer’s research continued Eva was drawn to cancer — the second leading cause of death in the United States and the disease that claimed her own grandmother and namesake years before. As with Alzheimer’s she began reading everything she could in order to get familiar with the field.

“I read in a textbook that cancer in skeletal muscle is extremely rare,” says Eva, obviously excited, “it was just a fact, it was just a given. So, no one really questioned it. But I guess that there’s an advantage to not knowing a lot because I said, Well, why doesn’t it go there? Why has no one looked into this?“

For the last several years that’s exactly what Eva has been doing. “There’s a lot of tedious stuff you have to go through,” she admits, “but I just love it. I really do. I’m not getting paid for this. I’m just doing the research on my own. I hope we will see a cure for cancer in our lifetime.”

Eva Vertes: Prodigy or Passion?

Eva Vertes has done more in the first twenty-two years of her life than most people will do in a lifetime. It would be easy to label her, as many have already done, as a prodigy — someone who is so-smart-it’s-disgusting. But her accomplishments reflect so much more than just some genetic propensity for neurology.

They reflect five years of delighted study before high school, countless afternoons biking back and forth from Highland High to McMaster University, hours and hours spent in the lab, stacks and stacks of medical reports and journals, and night after night lying in bed thinking about cancer and Alzheimer’s. To us, Eva’s life sounds less like prodigy and more like passion.

The Problem With Prodigies

Alex and I don’t like the “prodigy” label. Mostly because it implies that the young person’s performance is super-human — beyond the ability of “normal people” to understand or replicate. Once we label someone as a “prodigy” we usually cease to feel the need to learn from them or to be challenged by their example.

Not surprisingly, our culture is quick to label young people like Eva as exceptional — possessing magical qualities beyond what we could ever hope to achieve. It’s as if we’re afraid to see ordinary people do extraordinary things because it would burden us with some sort of obligation to do hard things ourselves.

Can We Learn From Eva Vertes?

We can learn from Eva Vertes if she is normal. And we don’t mean that her accomplishments are normative for teens, but that she, personally, is normal. Is she an extra-ordinary person or does she just have an extra-ordinary passion? Or is it her uncommon passion that makes her an uncommon person?

Ultimately, the question becomes whether our generation truly lacks potential or whether we simply lack passion. If Eva is a prodigy then we can admire her but not emulate her. But if she is simply a passionate young person with a “do hard things” mentality, we can be convicted. We can learn from her. And we should.

From what we can gather, Eva is not a Christian. Yet we can still applaud her work ethic, the commonsense approach she brings to the field of medicine, and her compassion for the sick and dying. There is much to commend in Eva Vertes. She is a picture of God’s common grace. And we should pray that she would come to know the God who gave her life and who designed the intricate systems she studies.

Why We Do Hard Things

This is how rebelutionaries differ from the Eva Vertes’ (or the David Banhs’) of the world and why we pray they will be far less rare. As Christians, as rebelutionaries, we have far better reasons to passionately do hard things. Here are three of them:

      1.) A higher purpose: To glorify our Creator. It’s not about us.

      2.) A greater strength: The work of the Holy Spirit. Not our own strength.

      3.) A sweeter joy: Knowing Christ as Savior. Saved by grace alone.

Friends, these are priceless biblical truths. Stories like Eva’s turn our society’s expectations of teenagers upside down. They demonstrate how capable young people can be if they apply themselves. They prove the power of a young person dedicated to a dream. But friends, as Christians we have a calling that is higher than any earthly dream and a power beyond any human strength.

Let us then continue to earnestly challenge one another to “do hard things” for the glory of God, developing and using our gifts to their full potential wherever God has called us, never content to give up, coast, or “just get by.” And let us be willing to sacrifice anything that would distract us from that calling (Hebrews 12:1).

This is a call to the sold-out Christian life, or what G.K. Chesteron calls the ‘Christian ideal’. This quote by him is one of our favorites:

“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.” — G.K. Chesterton

For God’s glory and by His grace, may we be dedicated and passionate, not just like Eva, but like our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. May we be a generation of Christian young people who find it difficult and yet still try.

Watch Eva Vertes At TED 2005

Lila Rose, 18, is a sophomore at UCLA and the founder of Live Action, a pro-life organization on campus. In March, she visited a Planned Parenthood clinic in Los Angeles armed with a hidden camera, posing as a 15-year-old who had been impregnated by her 23-year-old boyfriend.

Though California law requires abortion providers to report all cases of statutory rape to the police, a staff member at Planned Parenthood instructed Lila to lie about her age so she could protect her boyfriend and go through with an abortion.

Planned Parenthood: If you’re 15, we have to report it. If you’re not, if you’re older than that, then we don’t need to… So we still have to call the police, and they still have to talk to you, but we aren’t going to force you do anything, basically.

15-year-old: Okay, but if I just say I’m not 15, then it’s different? So I could just say…

Planned Parenthood: You could say 16.

15-year-old: I could say 16?

Planned Parenthood: Yes.

15-year-old: Okay, yeah. So I would just write 16?

Planned Parenthood: Well, just figure out a birth date that works. And I don’t know anything.

The spring quarter edition of Live Action’s student magazine The Advocate broke the story last Tuesday, including a link to access the hidden camera footage on YouTube. On Monday, Lila received a letter from Planned Parenthood threatening legal action if she didn’t stop her undercover investigations, remove her videos from YouTube, and turn the original tapes and all copies over to Planned Parenthood.

“If you do not agree to take these three steps, [Planned Parenthood] will seek all legal remedies with no further warning to you,” the letter warned.

Lila has been forced to take the clips off YouTube, but CNSNews.com offers two versions of the video that were obtained before YouTube clips were deleted. To download them, click here (clip) or here (extended).

UPDATE: Third parties have loaded the clips back on YouTube, now with improved subtitles and audio. See them and related videos below:

• Lila Rose (Video 1)
• Lila Rose (Video 2)
• Planned Parenthood Exposed
• “A Superhero for Choice”
• Lila Rose on O’Reilly [NEW!]

“Nothing changes the truth of what’s contained in those videotapes,” David French, Lila’s legal adviser, told CNS. “Planned Parenthood was advocating that a patient lie, advocating a way around mandatory reporting requirements for statutory rape, and … trying to bully her regarding the tapes themselves [cannot] change those facts.”

Meanwhile, Lila has been making a number of media appearances to continue to stand up and speak out for truth and the lives of the unborn. Tonight she will be appearing on the national news show The O’Reilly Factor at 5:00 PM (PST).

IMPORTANT UPDATE: The Advocate has just reported that Lila’s appearance on The O’Reilly Factor has been rescheduled for tomorrow evening. That’s Thursday at 5:00 PM (PST) and again at 8:00 PM (PST) on Fox News.

Lila is an old acquaintance of Brett’s and mine through NCFCA speech and debate and we applaud the work she is doing at UCLA to advance a culture of life. Please join us in supporting and praying for her in the days and weeks ahead.

+ Visit The Advocate Online for Updates +

Three years ago, Zach Hunter was confronted with the painful truth about modern day slavery: 27 million people are in slavery around the world today, half of them children. He’s been on a campaign to change that ever since.

“It was Black History Month,” 15-year-old Zach explains. “I had been learning about Frederick Douglas and Harriet Tubman, and I had thought, ‘Man, if I had lived back then, I would have done something to help them. I would have tried to end slavery and fight for equality.’ And then when I found out there was still something to do, I felt like I couldn’t just stand by like I agreed with it.” (Source: CNN)

When he was 12 years old, Zach launched Loose Change to Loosen Chains, raising more than $8,500 in his school and youth group to rescue victims of slavery and oppression. Today he is the youth spokesman for The Amazing Change, a social justice campaign inspired by the story of Christian abolitionist William Wilberforce and the motion picture Amazing Grace, arriving in theaters today.

He has also written a book, titled Be The Change, scheduled for release next month. In it he encourages his generation that they can make a difference in the world, even as teenagers. Zach doesn’t know it yet, but he’s a rebelutionary. And he makes it very clear why he’s doing what he’s doing.

“In Isaiah 1:17, God says to learn to do right, seek justice, rescue your oppressed, defend orphans, and plead for the widow,” Zach explains. “It’s a biblical mandate to go out there and help those who are in need and help those who are oppressed.”

“If you have a friend who enjoys golfing or snowboarding… even if you’re not good at golfing or snowboarding, you still go and have that shared experience with them because it’s what they like to do,” he continues. “God loves justice. So, if you go out and seek justice with Him you’re getting shared experience with Him and will get closer to Him as a result.” (Source: Florida Baptist Witness)

As Zach writes in his book, compassion is not a distortion of or a distraction from the gospel. Instead, we read in James 1:27, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, and the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”

Zach, Brett and I applaud you for your example and testimony. Your demonstration of the principles of the Rebelution—character, competence, and collaboration—is an inspiration to our generation. May God bless and strengthen you as you continue to “do hard things” in the fight against injustice. Our prayers are with you.

Take Action - Get Involved

• Sign the Petition: Add your name to the thousands upon thousands who have signed The Petition to End Modern Slavery.
• Watch Amazing Grace: A deeply impacting introduction to the life and work of William Wilberforce, a devout Christian and British abolitionist.
• Educate Yourself: Learn about the realities of modern slavery and trafficking and what you can do about it.
• Raise Funds: Follow Zach’s example by working with your family, friends, church, and community to raise money to fight slavery.
• Order Be The Change: Read Zach’s book and learn from his message and example. Scheduled to release March 28, 2007.

18-year-old David Banh saved himself three years of college and thousands of dollars in student-loan debt by taking on a grueling course load over two semesters and becoming the first student in school history to complete the University of Virginia’s four-year bachelor’s program in a single year. [HT: Boundless Line]

The “I’m Not A Genius” Syndrome

According to the Washington Post, almost two-thirds of freshmen students at four-year colleges in Virginia take six years to graduate. But just a year and a summer after graduating from high school, David Banh has a double major in math and physics. Now he’s starting graduate studies on a research grant, hoping to finish his master’s degree by the end of the academic year.

Pause.

At this point it would be oh-so-easy for all of us normal people to place David in the “so-smart-its-disgusting” category and move on. But his accomplishment represents far more than an above-average IQ. It represents hours and hours (and hours) of hard and disciplined work that started long before he stepped foot on campus.

Once we label someone as a “genius” we usually cease feel the need to learn from them or to be challenged by their example. I call it the “I’m Not A Genius” syndrome. It’s dangerous. There is much we can learn from people like David Banh, and not just academically. We should all be challenged by their example.

In the wise words of Thomas Edison: “Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.”

David’s “Do Hard Things” Mentality

David seems to have adopted Mr. Edison’s famous adage while still in high school, taking as many advanced placement exams as he could and amassing an incredible 72 credits. He wisely used the teen years as they were intended, as a training ground and launching pad for the rest of his life. With that hard work done, David was halfway to his bachelor’s degree before the start of his first college semester.

At that point he could have breezed through a normal college course load and still finished two years early. But he didn’t. Instead he chose to continue the approach he took in high school: Hard work. But after signing up for 23 credit hours the first semester—most students take around 15—he found himself still with more free time than he had in high school.

Knowing that he would have to take out student loans if he continued a second year, David decided it made a lot more sense to just finish in a single year. An unheard of 37-credit second semester completed his mathematics major, with a final summer class getting him the three additional credits he needed for a double major in physics. He graduated last month.

“From the very beginning, I was amazed,” David’s mathematics professor, Irena Lasiecka, told the Daily Progress. “He was definitely the best student in the class, and also the most mature even though he was younger.”

Why We Do Hard Things

From what I can gather from the articles available, David is not a Christian. Yet we can still commend his work ethic. The way he continually pushed himself in high school and college to “do hard things” is an excellent example to rebelutionaries.

With his brains and talent, David could have easily coasted through high school and college. Instead he diligently applied himself to a season of intense study; even when it kept him from other enjoyable activities; even when his friends thought he was slightly insane. What was his motivation? Saving time and money.

This is how rebelutionaries differ from the David Banhs’ and Michael Sessions’ of the world and why I pray they will be far less rare. As Christians, as rebelutionaries, we have far better reasons to do hard things. Here are three of them:

      1.) A higher purpose: To glorify our Creator. It’s not about us.

      2.) A greater strength: The work of the Holy Spirit. Not our own strength.

      3.) A sweeter joy: Knowing Christ as Savior. Saved by grace alone.

Friends, these are priceless biblical truths. Stories like David’s turn our society’s expectations of teenagers upside down. They demonstrates how capable young people can be if they apply themselves. They prove the power of a young man dedicated to a dream. But friends, as Christians we have a calling that is higher than any earthly dream and a power beyond any human strength.

Let us then continue to earnestly challenge one another to “do hard things” for the glory of God, developing and using our gifts to their full potential wherever God has called us, never content to give up, coast, or “just get by.” And let us be willing to sacrifice anything that would distract us from that calling (Hebrews 12:1).

This is a call to the sold-out Christian life, what G.K. Chesteron calls the “Christian ideal.” This quote by him is one of our favorites: “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.”

Oh, Lord—for your glory and by your grace—may we be a generation of Christians who find it difficult and yet still try.