FIRST Wild Card Tour: Start Here
It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!
You never know when I might play a wild card on you!
Today's Wild Card author is:
and the book:
ALEX AND BRETT HARRIS founded TheRebelution.com in August 2005 and today, at age 19, are among the most widely read teen writers on the Web. The twins are frequent contributors to Focus on the Family's webzine Boundless, serve as the main speakers for The Rebelution Tour conferences, and have been featured nationally on MSNBC, CNN, NPR, and The New York Times, as well as in publications like WORLD magazine, Breakaway, and Ignite Your Faith. Their first book, Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations, was released on April 15, 2008, by Multnomah Books.
Sons of homeschool pioneers Gregg and Sono Harris and younger brothers of best-selling author Joshua Harris (I Kissed Dating Goodbye), Alex and Brett have a passion for God and for their generation. Their personal interests include politics, filmmaking, music, basketball, and soccer. And food. They like food.
Alex and Brett are freshmen at Patirck Henry College in Purcellville, Virginia. When they're not at school or out doing conferences they live with their parents and three younger siblings near Portland, Oregon, where they attend Household of Faith Community Church.
Visit the author's website.
Product Details:
List Price: $12.99
Paperback: 176 pages
Publisher: Multnomah Books; 1 edition (March 16, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1601422709
ISBN-13: 978-1601422705
My Review
TEENAGERS CAN do hard things. Often they just don't know where to start.
And that's the point of this book. My daughter and I have also read "Do Hard Things", and Start Here is a great companion to that, to show how to go about accomplishing the hard things a young person would like to do.
Sometimes, when an opportunity arises -- especially if you're young, or something difficult arises while you're in the midst of trying to accomplish a goal, you tell yourself -- "I can't do that"... and you give up and quit. It's a hard thing
but it can be done --
When that young person feels tired, overwhelmed and ready to pack it in...
they can do hard things.
Doing hard things isn't glamorous (usually), they're called hard things, because well they're hard to do.
The point of this book is two young guys, (who do hard things) and a host of other stories from other teens across the world saying: YOUNG PEOPLE, YOU CAN DO HARD THINGS!
If you have a teen that needs encouragement to do hard things (well actually if you're an adult and you need encouragement to do hard things), I recommend you pick up "Start Here" and "Do Hard Things". The one who reads these will have a different outlook on life.
AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:
ISBN: 9781601422705
YOU ARE HERE
Opening the door to your own rebelution
Simple ideas and unbelievable dreams. First steps and great miracles. Ordinary teenagers and a God who still uses young people to accomplish His big plans.
That’s what our first book, Do Hard Things, is all about. Do Hard Things shows how young people can take hold of a more exciting option for their teen years than what society suggests. We wrote the book to counter the Myth of Adolescence, which says the teen years are a time to goof off and have fun before “real life” starts. We invited our peers to choose to do hard things for the glory of God and, in the process, turn the world’s idea of what teens are capable of upside down.
We were nineteen when we wrote Do Hard Things, twin brothers who wanted to follow God’s call and challenge our generation. We’re twenty-one now and sophomores in college. We still dream big dreams, still want to follow God completely, and still believe just as strongly that God wants to use our generation to change the world. (And, as you might have guessed, we’re still twin brothers.)
Whether or not you’ve read Do Hard Things (we’d recommend it—but, ofcourse, we’re a little biased), this companion book continues the Do Hard Things message and piles on stories, practical suggestions, and detailed how-tos. You can use it either on your own or in a group setting, depending on your situation.
In other words, Do Hard Things marked the beginning of a movement. Start Here is your personal field guide to jumping in and getting involved.
The Rebelution Movement
The concept of doing hard things actually started as a blog we created when we were sixteen. We called it The Rebelution—a combination of rebellion and revolution to create a whole new word with a whole new meaning. We defined rebelution as “ateenage rebellion against low expectations.” (By the way, the blog still exists. Check it out at TheRebelution.com.)
Since Do Hard Things came out, the Rebelution movement has exploded. In the past year, rebelutionary teens have raised tens of thousands of dollars to bring the gospel to and dig wells in Africa, won prestigious film festivals, fought human trafficking in the United States and around the world, and made it on the cover of ESPN The Magazine. Around the world, young people are moving out of their comfort zones—whether that means standing for Christ in a hostile classroom, raising money to build a dormitory for orphans in China, or mending relationships with parents or younger siblings.
Maybe you’re part of the Rebelution already, or maybe you just want to find out more. Maybe you’re asking one of the questions we get most frequently from readers: “Where do I start?”
This book is about taking the next step. It includes ideas from us and dozens of other young people on topics like:
• how to stand up for what you believe • strategies for overcoming stage fright, fund-raising fright, and phone-calling fright (hint: it gets easier as you go!) • ways to get going when you feel stuck and keep going when you feel discouraged • how to understand God’s will and glorify Him through your efforts • God-honoring ways to think, feel, and act after you’ve completed a big project
In short, this is a handbook full of practical steps and real-life stories to encourage and equip you on your journey of doing hard things. We want you to feel as if you’re at one of our conferences, or in a small group of people talking about doing hard things—which you may be!
All the questions in the pages that follow come from people just like you, collected on our website and through personal conversations. We’ll do our best to answer them with stories and insights from our own lives. We’re traveling alongside you in this adventure—and we want to share with you what God has been teaching us these past few years.
But just like Do Hard Things, this book isn’t about us. It’s about the incredible, seemingly impossible things God is doing in our generation. That’s why in Start Here you’ll find dozens of true stories from rebelutionaries who are making a difference in their homes, at their schools, and around the world. We love sharing other young people’s stories because they challenge us as well—and remind us that we’re not alone. We also love the way real-life stories provide a glimpse of the diverse ways God wants to use each of us to do hard things for Him.
Toward the end of the book, we’ll be sharing the stories of two rebelutionaries in particular: Ana Zimmerman and John Moore. As you’ll see, Ana and John took on very different hard things, each with the purpose of glorifying God and helping others.
At the age of fifteen, Ana raised more than six thousand dollars and organized an event called Love the Least in her hometown. The event introduced her community to the work of Abort73, an organization that exists to show the injustice of abortion.
With a group of fellow teens, John Moore wrote, produced, and directed his own feature film at the age of nineteen—and went on to win the $101,000 grand prize at the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival.
John and Ana faced many of the same hurdles and questions you’re encountering. Their stories provide an in-depth look at the beginning, middle, and end of the “do hard things” process. We think you’ll be encouraged and inspired.
Pursuing Faithfulness, Not Success
As thousands of young people around the world are discovering, doing hard things is the most satisfying, thrilling way to live some of the best years of our lives.
So where do you start? As you’ll find in the pages that follow, the answer is: right where you are. Being a rebelutionary means committing to doing even ordinary things extraordinarily well. As each of us is faithful in that, God will be faithful to prepare us for whatever calling He has for us.
For some of us, that calling will be big in the world’s eyes, and for some of us it will be small. Whether it is big or small, God will be glorified—and the world will be changed by a generation that gives up seeking worldly success to pursue a life of faithfulness.
That’s when the ordinary becomes extraordinary. And that’s what this book is about.
Ready to start?
Continues...
Excerpted from Start Here by Alex & Brett Harris Copyright © 2010 by Alex & Brett Harris. Excerpted by permission.
Alex Harris, Books, Brett Harris, FIRST Wild Card, Homeschool, Start Here
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