Mike Farris:
My guest today is Brett Harris. Brett and his twin brother Alex started a blog called The Rebelution a couple of years ago and have written a book—Do Hard Things. Brett, when you guys talk about rebelling against low expectations, what do you mean by that?

Brett Harris:
You know, in the simplest sense, we’re calling young people to rebel against rebellion, to renounce allegiance to everything that’s ungodly in their culture and to transfer that allegiance to Jesus Christ, pursuing his standards and expectations for the teen years. It’s really a call to the best life, not the easiest life, and we’re calling our peers to really, “Don’t waste your life on things that don’t really matter.”

Mike:
Now you’ve had the opportunity to be in leadership positions—how do older people usually react when they see that you’re not just a couple of “clueless teenagers”?

Brett:
Well, first of all, teens aren’t clueless. They just don’t care because they’re not expected to care. And I think that adults, most of which have also grown up with a lot of lies about the teen years. I want to label young people like Alex and myself as prodigies or as exceptions to the rule that all teenagers must be clueless. And our argument really, is that in light of history and God’s word, we and thousands of teens like us are more normal than your average teenager. And what is abnormal is this idea that teens are clueless punks who can’t contribute to society.

Mike:
Brett, thank you so much for those great insights. I’m Mike Farris.