What is a Rebelutionary?

Have you ever heard of The Rebelution? Yes you have; you just did. Yee-hah. I don’t even remember where I first heard of it. I think I saw an advertisement in World Mag, a few years ago. I remember Mom saying to Lizbelle “Hey, this looks good. Are we any where near any of their conferences?” We weren’t. We were on our way to Korea then. Still aren’t any where closer. Eventually I found the blog, and then the book. I am so thankful.

The Rebelution began as a blog by Alex and Brett Harris, grew to a conference, and then became the book: “Do Hard Things” by those Harris twins. The blog is ranked as one of the most popular Christian teen blogs around (not sure which ones are more popular, but hey). Now they are working on their second book, due out next Spring. So what does it mean to be a Rebelutionary?

(To define the word rebelution: it is a combination of ‘revolution’ and ‘rebellion’. The official definition on TheRebelution.com is: “a teenage rebellion against low expectations”.)

Well, the purpose of a Rebelutionary is to DO HARD THINGS. Wait a minute, what’s that supposed to mean? Hard things? What about teenagers? Adolescents? They have their cliques and clubs, they watch TV from dusk till dawn, play their computer and video games, maybe occasionally read a book, if it’s a comic or a sensual romance or a horror story, go to the mall and spend their money and their parent’s money, and make sure that what they’re wearing is whatever everyone else is wearing (i.e., what ever the latest mentally ill celebrity is wearing). WRONG. As young ladies and men we are supposed to live to glorify God; using our young and single years to serve him in a way that we won’t be able to when we “grow up”. Our years are precious, a gift from God, and we ought to be using them wisely. That doesn’t mean no fun; my word no! If our heart is in it, of course we’ll enjoy it and have fun. If it is just a drudgery, then no, it will not be fun. So it’s up to you there. The years we have as teens and young adults can be used in so many ways. Look at Zach Hunter, Zac Sunderland, ( I know, a lot of Zachs), Alex and Brett themselves, Deborah Drapper (here and here), to name only a very few. And look at people from history, who set the example for rebelutionaries: George Washington, Clara Barton, William Bradford, Laura Ingalls, and so on; all of whom worked hard at what we might consider to be an early age. It used to be just normal for teens to work and act mature when they were younger. Nowadays, it’s unusual.

People in general expect us to be lazy and rude, unintelligent and unable to carry on a reasonable conversation with an adult. So they’re surprised if they find us talking sense or reason. Many people think I am much older then I am; not because I am necessarily older looking, but because I enjoy talking to adults, and am respectful to them, among other things. I am not amazingly clever, probably never will be, but I am not afraid of or think it’s boring to have conversation and participate in adult things. I wouldn’t grow very much if I didn’t talk with “grown ups” and learn from them. Anyway, what am I doing to be a Rebelutionary?

Well, the book gives us two different kinds of hard things. The small ones and the big ones. They are both of equal importance. Big hard things are those that seem like mammoth tasks: i. e. raising a huge amount of money for a charity or your church, speaking in public, leading or planting groups or organizations… can I go on? That was really a lame list, but you get the idea. Small hard things are the things that nobody notices, like reading your Bible, genuinely pursuing a relationship with God, making your bed, getting your lessons (or homework) done every single day, practising your instrument, taking out the trash (honestly, that’s a tuff ‘n ) & c. I cannot claim to have done a big hard thing, no sirree. Actually, I can hardly claim to have done my small hard things faithfully. I can only say that by God’s grace I am trying, although I fail far too often. But God is teaching me, and “I press on towards the goal of the upward calling of Jesus Christ”. I can only encourage everyone to read this book, ‘Do Hard Things’, as I keep praying that I will someday reach the goal.

~Meg, Plain and Simple