Do Hard Things

This message is mainly to teenagers but not just to teenagers but also to adults. Many young adults I know are in this weird stage where they are fully grown up in their physical make-up but acted just like they did in high school when they had know responsibilities. This phenomenon, known as a kidult to the world of doctors and people that know a lot more about this than me, causes cases such as young people who have no ablity to really fend for themselves.(ie. they still live a home, they can't hold down a job, that sort of thing.)

Amazingly this phenomenon was not known one hundred years ago. Back then a young person was either a child or a man(or woman). There was no in between stage now known as a teenager. Much of the reason for this was that when a young person was a child his whole goal was to become a man. George Washington, one of the greatest Americans of all time, became the chief surveyer of Culpepper County, VA, at the mere age of 17. He was a man at 17.

Why don't we see that kind of thing any more? The reason is that back then the culture expected a child to spend his childhood preparing to become a man. He was expected to do the hard things required to become a man.

I mean let's face it every good thing in life comes through hard work. For instance, I play football. Currently, we are in the "offseason" of football. But in order to become a better player, I must go in a least three times a week and lift weights. This may not sound hard, but three hours a week of strenuous moving of a bar up and down is not exactly rewarding a the time. When you get done you pretty much feel like a pathetic little weakling. But after three or four months of this seemingly unrewarding work, you begin to notice something. The 95 pounds you used to be benching that almost killed you, it feels like nothing now.

The most rewarding work that we ever do is the hardest. Paul, one the greatest apostles ever, probably did not feel to excited about the prospect of being stoned or nearly beaten to death several times, but because of the hard backbreaking work he put in, the gospel went from being a Jewish sect to a worldwide religion(I hate to use that word). What would we have done without the incredibly hard work put in by our forefathers at the beginning of this great nation. What would the world be like if John Adams had not went to Harvard(or Yale, I can't remeber which) at an extremely young age. What would our lives be like if Alexander Hamilton, founder of our economic system, had not started as a clerk in an accounting office at age 13? What would the world be like without the hard work put by young people just like myself?

My question to all young people reading this is this. If they could do it, why can't we?

I know I don't always choose the hard way(as my family will attest), but God please help me if I decide that the hard way is not the good way for me.

Donovan Colegrove

P.S. If you want to read more on this subject, visit http://www.therebelution.com.