For some reason Alex and I have a certain penchant for stories about twins doing hard things — so we were very excited this past week when we heard the story of Megan and Mandy Chapman, twin sisters from Russel County, Kentucky. They provide a wonderful example of what it looks like to “take a stand” for Christ.

A Federal Lawsuit Filed by the ACLU

Megan and Mandy were graduating high school on Friday. Megan had been selected to conduct a prayer during the ceremony. Friday morning a federal judge issued an order barring Russell County High School and Megan (she was cited in the order by name) from conducting prayer during commencement.

With graduation just around the corner and her entire life ahead of her, Megan faced a difficult choice. Can you imagine how it would feel to read your name in a federal lawsuit filed by the ACLU? As Megan wrestled with her decision, Mandy began to formulate a plan of her own.

Liberty Counsel and The Lord’s Prayer

At 4:00 PM, only three hours before the graduation ceremony, Megan received a phone call from Liberty Counsel, an organization devoted to protecting religious freedom. Liberty Counsel founder and chairman, Mat Staver, told Megan they’d be behind her every step of the way and counseled her that God can turn apparent adversity into great opportunity when we’re willing to trust and obey Him.

Only a few hours later more than 3,000 people packed into the Russell County High gymnasium to watch 200 seniors graduate. As the principal finished his opening remarks the senior class suddenly stood as one body and began to recite The Lord’s Prayer! Before they could finish the audience erupted into thunderous applause. Some students were too overcome with emotion to finish. But the statement had been made. They would not bow down to the ACLU.

A Secular Poem or Her Testimony?

Then, Megan came to the podium prepared to deliver a secular poem, The Road Less Traveled. But when she looked out at the large audience, and at the hundreds of seniors who had just completed The Lord’s Prayer, she asked God to give her a message. You did not put me here to recite a poem, Lord.

Putting aside what she prepared, Megan spoke from her heart. She shared how God had led her since she was a child. She spoke of the peace that comes from giving your life to Jesus. And she wished her classmates the same peace through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Again and again the speech was interrupted with applause and punctuated by several standing ovations.The Louisville Courier-Journal reporter covering the event described the evening as having a “revival-like atmosphere,” to the complete dismay of the ACLU! In trying to silence a prayer they had sparked a revival!

Fox News and Liberty University

The following morning, Megan received a call from Fox News, and that night shared the story of her personal salvation through Jesus Christ — with millions of viewers!

That same afternoon, Mat Staver spoke with Dr. Jerry Falwell, Founder and then Chancellor of Liberty University, and was authorized to offer Megan full scholarship to join the 2006 freshman class. Upon hearing the good news, Megan was overcome with tearful amazement.

“Are you kidding?” she asked. “I’ve been praying for several years to be able to attend Liberty University, but I simply could not afford it.” But to Mr. Staver’s bewilderment, Megan did not immediately accept the offer. He was puzzled.

Mr. Staver called her a few days later and voice that sounded just like Megan answered the phone. “Megan?” he asked. “No, this is Mandy, her twin sister,” the voice replied. Mandy, he found out, was the one who orchestrated the recitation of The Lord’s Prayer — distributing bookmarks with a copy of the prayer on it in case anyone forgot the words (see the bookmarks in this post’s header).

Mr. Staver immediately called Dr. Falwell. “Guess what,” he said. “Megan has a twin sister!” Dr. Falwell paused briefly, and offered Mandy a full scholarship as well! The twin sisters, who had been planning to attend University of the Cumberlands together, now had an open door to their first choice — Liberty University!

From Liberty Counsel’s May 2008 Newsletter

“Almost two years later, Megan and Mandy have completed their sophomore year. Since arriving at Liberty, Megan has been volunteering in the Liberty Counsel office. She now wants to enter law school and eventually work with Liberty Counsel defending our religious freedoms against the ACLU bullies!

But there’s even more to the story. When CNN Headline News called wanting to feature Liberty Counsel in their series “God’s Warriors,” we introduced CNN correspondent Christiane Amenpour to the twins. The story of Megan and Mandy and their faith has now been shown several times around the world in the two hour documentary called “God’s Christian Warriors.” Megan and Mandy have received emails and notes of appreciation from all over the world!

God loves irony. Megan had a choice — buckle to the pressure of the ACLU or stand up for Christ. Had she buckled, her graduation would have been silent and her life would have taken a different direction. But she stood for Christ, and her witness was heard around the world. She is now at Liberty University and may soon go head-to-head in court with the ACLU as a practicing attorney. She did the right thing, and God honored her.”

Closing Thoughts and Application

Of course, taking a stand for Christ doesn’t always involved the ACLU — and it doesn’t often result in CNN documentaries, and full scholarships to your favorite college. The audience won’t always give you a standing ovation.

So what can we learn from Megan and Mandy? Well, I see a God who is in complete control. He brought Megan and Mandy an unwelcome test (via the ACLU), rewarded their obedience almost immediately (via Liberty University), and gave them a platform to spread the Gospel (via Fox News and CNN).

We can look at that story and say, “Wow, God is amazing! We obey Him and He gives us scholarships and fame!” But what if Megan had been booed? What if the ACLU had won? What if Megan and Mandy were made “media-martyrs” for standing up for Christ? Would God be less amazing?

I love stories like Megan and Mandy’s because I can see what God was up to. And at those times when it’s not so easy to see, I can say, “God, I know that you are in complete control. And even though I don’t understand what you are doing, I trust you, because I’ve seen you work before.”

I hope that Megan and Mandy’s story will inspire you to take radical stands for Christ, trusting firmly in God’s goodness, whatever the outcome might be. My prayer is that our generation would count the cost and stand anyway. That we would be able to stand firm and say with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego:

“If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and He will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if He does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” (Daniel 3:17-18)

Brett and I have always said that “do hard things” isn’t new. We’re not out to invent truth, we just want to help our generation rediscover what has always been true. Because of that, we’re always thrilled to stumble across quotes from great men and women of the past, who say, in their own words: Do Hard Things.

A few days ago we received an email from fellow rebelutionary Brian Jones with this entry from Oswald Chamber’s classic devotional My Utmost for His Highest:

ALL NOBLE THINGS ARE DIFFICULT — JULY 7

“Enter ye in at the straight gate…
because straight is the gate,
and narrow is the way…”
~ Matthew 7:13-14

If we are going to live as disciples of Jesus, we have to remember that all noble things are difficult. The Christian life is gloriously difficult, but the difficulty of it does not make us faint and cave in, it rouses us up to overcome. Do we appreciate the marvelous salvation of Jesus Christ that we are our utmost for His highest?

God saves men by His sovereign grace through the Atonement of Jesus. He works in us to will and to do His good pleasure; but we have to work out that salvation in practical living. If once we start on the basis of His Redemption to do what He commands, we find that we can do it. If we fail, it is because we have not practiced. The crisis will reveal whether we have been practicing or not. If we obey the spirit of God and practice in our physical life what God has put in us by His Spirit, then when the crisis comes, we shall find that our own nature as well as the grace of God will stand by us.

Thank God He does give us difficult things to do! His salvation is a glad thing, but it is also a heroic, holy thing. It tests us for all we are worth. Jesus is bringing many “sons” unto glory, and God will not shield us from the requirements of a son. God’s grace turns out men and women with a strong family likeness to Jesus Christ, not milksops. It takes a tremendous amount of discipline to live the noble life of a disciple of Jesus in actual things. It is always necessary to make an effort to be noble.

Updated language editions render “our utmost for His highest” as “our best for His glory” — and replace the word “milksops” in the final paragraph with “pampered, spoiled weaklings.” Both editions proclaim: “Thank God that He does give us difficult things to do!” Thank God that He calls us to “do hard things” for His glory!

Give us your reaction to Chamber’s words in the comments section — and share your favorite non-Rebelution “do hard things” quote. We’d love to hear it.

+ Daily Readings from Oswald Chambers +

Like many 14-year-old guys, Austin Gutwein loves basketball. Unlike most, however, Austin has used his love for hoops to raise over $450,000 for AIDS orphans in the nation of Zambia. Hoops of Hope began in 2004, when Austin was 9 years old.

“I wasn’t as good as other players, and I’m still not,” Austin told CBS Sports. “But I’m really passionate about helping kids, especially kids who are less fortunate than me. What really moves me is when I hear about kids who have been orphaned.”

“A World Outside My Own Backyard…”

In the spring of 2004 Austin saw a video by the Christian humanitarian organization World Vision about children who had lost their parents to HIV/AIDS. Recalling Jesus’ words in Matthew 25, he decided that he had to do something.

“What really hit me hard was just thinking about how I’d be if I lost my parents,” the young Arizonan explained to MSNBC during a trip to Africa. “I’d be devastated, and yet there are 15 million children in the world that have.”

A Simple Idea = Hoops for Hope

After begging his dad to let him do something, Austin was put in touch with World Vision. The next thing he knew they were having a conference call. And after taking stock of his talents and interests, they came up with a simple idea: free throws.

“We decided that I would shoot free throws in honor of the kids who were orphaned due to HIV/AIDS,” Austin explains. 2,057 free throws, to be exact — one for each child that would be orphaned that school day by HIV/AIDS.

On December 1st, 2004 — World AIDS Day — 10-year-old Austin shot his 2,057 free throws. Individuals in his community had agreed to sponsor him, raising over $3,000 for World Vision, enough to help eight orphans. But Austin wasn’t satisfied.

“1,000 of My Friends to Join Me…”

“The second year I went up to my dad and told him, Hey Dad, I want to shoot free throws again, but this time I want to get 1,000 of my friends to join me.” Austin says, laughing. “He kind of gave me that look.”

That year Austin and his dad went around to dozens of churches and schools and told them about Hoops for Hope. Austin reached his goal: 1,000 friends shooting free throws for orphans. And he wasn’t ready to stop yet.

The third year, in 2006, Austin decided that he wanted to do a specific projects. That year they raised enough funds to build a school in Twachiyanda, Zambia. Last year they raised over $200,000 for a medical testing center in Sinazongwe.

And this year their goal is to raise $290,000 for a second medical center, along with 1,000 caregiver kits and 1,000 bicycles for caregivers in Zambia.

Austin Gutwein: A Real Rebelutionary

Austin has built a school and a medical center. He has been featured nationally by major TV networks. He has even traveled over 10,000 miles to Twachiyanda for the opening of the school he helped to build — arriving as the guest of honor.

All those things, by themselves, don’t make him a rebelutionary. What makes Austin a rebelutionary is that, despite all that he has accomplished, he doesn’t view himself as anything special. He is a wonderful example of how and why we do hard things.

“What I’ve learned from doing Hoops of Hope is that it can take just one kid to make a difference,” he explains. “One kid just has to have a passion. And also, I’ve learned that God can use anybody. You don’t have to be out-of-the-ordinary, you can just be a normal kid. You don’t have to wait to be an adult to make a difference. You can make a difference in the lives of anybody, just by wanting to do something.”

Closing Thoughts

Austin, we want to commend you for your example and testimony. Your heart for orphans and desire to move your generation to action is an inspiration. May God bless and strengthen you as you continue to “do hard things” for Him.

Everyone else, we want to encourage you to learn more about what Austin is doing and get involved. But more than that, we want you to catch a vision for how God could use you — normal, ordinary you — to make a real difference for His glory.

Take Action - Get Involved

• Watch and Learn: Watch coverage of Hoops for Hope and see Austin share about his passion for orphans and the urgent need in Zambia.
• Shoot Hoops: Join thousands of other kids and teens in a basketball shoot-a-thon this December. Start practicing your free throws!
• Host an Event: No Hoops for Hope shoot-a-thon scheduled in your area? You can host one! Get your friends together to make a difference.
• Become a Sponsor: Don’t care for free throws? Sponsor those who do!

Two questions we’ve been asked a lot recently: What role does the family play in doing hard things? How do families do hard things together?

We can think of no one better qualified to answer those questions than our father, Gregg Harris — and he did, in a message presented at Bethlehem Baptist Church last month, and now available online for download.

The sermon, fully titled As for Me and My House, We Will Serve the Lord, is the final piece of a five-part series at Bethlehem called A Vision for the Next Generation. We posted the opening message by John Piper in April.

We encourage all of you to share this sermon with your parents — and listen to it with them! Catch a vision for families devoted to ministry serving as the launching pad for rebelutionaries. Then come back here and discuss.

+ Go Here to Download +

Recent Comment: What I would like to know is your view of 1 John 5:3 which states: “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.” You say that following Christ is hard, but worth it, and yet here we read it isn’t hard. What is your response?

First, let’s read the next sentence. After John writes, “His commandments are not burdensome,” he follows-up on that statement by saying, “for (or because) everyone born of God overcomes the world.” In other words, God’s commands are not burdensome because we have Christ dwelling in us.

In my opinion 1 John 5:3-4 is confirming Luke 1:37, where the angel of the Lord tells Mary, “For nothing is impossible with God.” This doesn’t mean that God’s commands are not hard, it means that (with Christ) they are not impossible.

God’s commands definitely aren’t burdensome or oppressive like the legalistic code the Jews were living under at the time. They aren’t commanded as our means of eternal life — which is a huge burden lifted — but instead as a joyful expression of our love and appreciation for being saved. 1 John 5:3 says: “This is love for God: to obey his commands.” It does not say: “This is how we are saved: by obeying God’s commandments.”

I’m convinced that God’s commands can be hard — but not burdensome. They can be hard — but not oppressive. They can be hard — but we can joyfully do them through Christ. They can be hard — and God is glorified by the fact that it’s hard.

The Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:10, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was in me.”

Here you see a beautiful paradox. Paul’s hard work didn’t get him any glory, and God’s grace didn’t make it easy. But both of them together brought Paul to the end of his life where he was able to say, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7).

What do you think? Are God’s commands hard?

Update: Thank you all for your prayers! The interview went very well. While we didn’t actually talk about the book, they showed the cover and read the title at the beginning and end — which is great! Pray that God will use this to open more doors in the future and that the many people who came across Do Hard Things on their TV screens this morning will be led to engage with its message. Thanks again, everyone — soli Deo gloria!

Tomorrow (Friday) morning at 3:45 AM (PST), Brett and I will be picked up for an appearance on CNN’s morning show ‘American Morning’, which airs live weekdays from 6 to 9 AM (EST). We will be talking about the presidential election, and hopefully, the Rebelution and Do Hard Things.

We are scheduled for the 7:50-8:00 AM (EST) time slot. Pray that God would grant us wisdom. Pray that the Rebelution message might be spread. Pray for energy, as it will be very early to us and we go straight to the airport from there to fly out for the Minneapolis stop of the Do Hard Things Tour.

Thank you, friends! Soli Deo gloria!

In Christ,

Alex

Several of you have requested that we make a post explaining the difference between what we call “big” hard things and “small” hard things — which means that many of you weren’t around when we made that post back in February. This is our fault since we forgot to link to the post on the sidebar and it was quickly buried in the archives. To make full amends here it is again. Let us know what you think!

What “Bigger” Things Are We Talking About?

When we talk about “bigger things” that God promises to those who are faithful in “small things”, we are not necessarily talking about larger platforms and greater recognition and support. It can involve those things and often does — but it can also mean harder things done in the same obscurity as before.

It is a lot like the popular illustration in which a speaker will invite a member of the audience onto the stage, usually a guy who thinks he is Arnold Schwarzenegger, and ask him whether or not he can lift some small object, such as a canned food item. Once the participant confidently asserts his ability to do so the speaker requests that he hold the item straight out from his body and continue to do so until the speaker tells him to stop.

While the participant might initially feel confident he quickly begins to realize that it requires more and more effort with every passing second to keep the object in the air. The test of strength is not to ask him to lift some extraordinary amount of weight, but instead to hold a small amount of weight for an extended period of time.

This is the way it sometimes works with small things. As we are faithful in small things God will always ask more of us, but not always by giving us bigger things to do. Instead He might do so by asking us to remain faithful in the small things we are already doing.

As impressive as bigger (i.e. heavier) things may be, the greatest test of strength is to endure with whatever weight you’ve been given. God can be just as glorified by someone who endures to the end with five pounds than He can by someone who lifts 500 pounds once. That’s the kind of God we serve.

Working For The Lord, Not For Men

But this is where the idea of “working for the Lord and not for men” comes in. We should never be doing hard things for the recognition and admiration of men, but only for the glory of God. Despite the numerous earthly blessings that accompany doing hard things our ultimate reward is in Heaven when we stand before our Maker and hear Him speak the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Master.”

God knows better than we do what a great reward looks like. He knows those who have already been rewarded by the praise and adulation of men, as well as those who have served quietly — far away from the limelight.

The point, however, is not to seek recognition or obscurity, but rather to seek the glory of God. A heart that longs for the praise of men more than the praise of God — whether prideful in receiving it or resentful in lacking it — does not honor God.

Nevertheless, I think in Heaven we will be surprised by some of the people God honors most. We won’t recognize their faces or know their names. They will be the quiet faithful with whom God is well pleased.

Answer the following questions, then share your answers and other thoughts with your fellow rebelutionaries in the comments section below:

• Did this post change the way you view “big” and “small” hard things? If yes, share what you previously thought.
• Share about a person you know who is one of those “quiet faithful” that most people will never know about. How has their life impacted you or those around you?

There a many reasons why Alex and I haven’t been posting as much lately. Here are a few of them: (1) we’ve been traveling almost more than we’ve been home the past several months, (2) we’re in the middle of a national conference tour and a wild book release, and (3) we don’t always know what to post about.

Well, we’d like your help in resolving Reason Number Three. What topics would you like to see addressed on the blog? What questions or concerns do you have after reading the book? Are we missing anything? Leave us a comment and let us know.

Alex and Brett should post about . . .