Do Hard Things is a book geared towards teenagers written by a set of teenage twins, Alex and Brett Harris, who believe that our culture has low expectations for the youth of today. They are on a mission to motivate teens across the nation and even the world to step up an do hard things for Christ.

The Harris twins begin the book by arguing that the term teenager is a relatively new concept where a teenager is physically grown but is not expected to have the responsibilities of an adult. However they argue that this was not the case 100 and more years ago. In most societies during most times, boys became men at an early age generally at some point shortly after puberty when they begin to gain adult strength. If they could do the work of an adult, then they were considered an adult. However, once a law was made that mandated that children be educated through high school, the expectations for teens to contribute to society diminished and thus we have the consumeristic teen culture of today.

But if Alex and Brett Harris have their way, teens all across the globe will no longer see themselves as adolescents that have no responsibility or expectations to benefit their society. Teens will become “rebolutionaries” or those who rebel against a culture of low expectations and begin to revolutionize what the world believes teens can accomplish.

The Harris twins break the book up into three parts, the first dealing with misconceptions of what the teen years are supposed to be about, the second listing the types of hard things that teens should do and strive for, and third the vision and stories of what it looks like to live a life doing hard things.

Overall, I found this to be an easy read with a convicting and hard message. I’m only 26 years old, but I already feel the gravity of the sense of urgency of the call to so something meaningful and impactful with my life. Reading this book has made me feel that I’ve already wasted 10+ years of usefulness to my community for the sake of the gospel. I was encouraged by the many examples of teens sometimes 11 or 12 years younger than myself accomplishing things that many 40 and 50 year olds are too afraid to do. The twins inspire hope. Hope that I, despite my failings and apathy, can awake from my slumber and serve God and my community with a new and infectious zeal that would carry forth with accomplishments and fruit that I would never have thought possible.

My only critique of the book would be that it is very heavily dominated by examples of hard things and words that would encourage the possibility of doing hard things. While these are necessary and good, I would have like to have seen a bit more substance behind why we choose to do the hard things. We obviously shouldn’t choose to do hard things just because they are difficult. But rather, there is something intrinsic about certain “hard things” that is rewarding, valuable, and worth doing. The Harris twins did a little bit of this, but could have added more depth by going into additional detail behind the nature of the intrinsic value of certain hard things.

That critique aside, I still believe that this is a very good book, not only for teens, but also for those post-teenagers that want more from there life than the current rut they feel their in. I know that I was definitely encouraged by the Harris twins and motivated to step out of my comfort zone in order to participate in the gospel more boldly.