God's Kingdom ~ Separation of Church and State

A kingdom, in the broadest sense of the word, is any region where a king or queen rules.  Therefore, God’s kingdom is truly as broad as the universe is wide.  He created it, and it is his.  However, since the fall, the earth is contested ground.  Satan, the True King’s archenemy, has fooled many sincere Christians into believing that the world is indeed his; but the devil has not created anything of his own, he has only drawn to himself what belongs to God.

“The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains, the world, and all who dwell in it.” ~Psalm 24:1, NASB

Still, many believe that the world is not of God, and as a result have limited the Kingdom of God to their own inner lives, or to the church.  In placing the ‘things of God’ in a contrived ‘upper sphere,’ everything else, the ‘secular,’ naturally falls to a ‘lower sphere.’  Thus, a Christian working in a secular environment, for instance—in the ‘lower sphere’—is often in a state of discontent, because he cannot reconcile his ‘worldly’ work with the Kingdom of God.  According to Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis, "Many Christians have been duped into accepting a false idea: that there is a 'neutral' position they can take in regard to social issues.  Some Christians even accept the idea that the U.S. Constitution declares that there should be a separation of church and state and, thus, they don't want their Christian beliefs to influence politics."  But the Kingdom of God has no bounds: even as the well-being of the church is vital to a community, so is the well-being of the city council, the school, and the grocery store!  Therefore, we must learn to think of economics, education, business, medicine, politics, and everything we do, as being part of God’s realm. 

In limiting the Kingdom of God to their private lives, Christians have shirked responsibility and stewardship in a vast arena.  Someone is going to rule this world; if not the Christians, then the un-Christians—if not the spiritual, then the unspiritual.  When we lack in our responsibility as Christians, we leave this world to the usurping reign of the enemy.

A popular phrase is “separation of church and state.” It is used in modern America to mean, “keep your religion at home, the government has no God.”  It is the government’s way of keeping God—and essentially morality and all religion—out of state affairs.  It is widely assumed to have come from the Constitution.  But this is not what our country was founded on.  To the contrary!  Our founding fathers—George Washington, John Adams, James Madison, and many others—quoted the Bible more than any other book.  Indeed, of all their writings and the quotes found therein, a stunning thirty-five percent of all quotes come from the Bible. 

George Washington said in his Farewell Address: “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.  In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars.”  John Adams declared that “…we have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion.  Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.  It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”  Of what ‘religion’ besides Christianity could they possibly have been speaking?  Could the morality they depended on be any other than that defined by the Bible? 

Now, why would John Adams say our government is inadequate to the government of a people aside from morality and religion?  Clearly, it is because American government is self-government; religious, morally responsible people are capable of governing themselves under God, and have no need of a king or dictator.  The framers of our Constitution intended a government by which the people could govern themselves – not a government that would manage people’s lives for them.  Once, however, we descend into immorality and abandon religion, we are no longer capable of responsibly governing ourselves, and can no longer be restrained by the self-government Adams was talking about.  Our civil freedoms can remain only as long as our people are able to govern themselves in a morally responsible way.

Though the words “separation of church and state” do not appear in the Constitution, and the concept is often misunderstood and misused, there is actually some truth contained the phrase.  The founding fathers knew that no one can be forced to conform to a particular religious belief, and Congress should be forbidden from even attempting such a thing.  They had seen religious compulsion and its effects back in Europe, and wanted to protect their country from such an outrage.  James Madison said it best: “The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries.”  The First Amendment was adopted to insure freedom from religious coercion or persecution through civil means and to keep any religious institution from dominating over the others through governmental power.  It was certainly not intended to completely alienate God from the government.  

God cannot be separated from the civil government any more than He can be separated from the church government.  We can, however, separate church government from state government.  Separation of church and state is intended to mean that the church government has its responsibilities—the state should not baptize believers, for instance—and the civil government has its responsibilities—the church cannot be responsible for prosecuting criminals or carrying out military interventions.  Each has its bounds that should not be overstepped.  However, the phrase Separation of church and state” has become the government’s way of weeding out all aspects of Christianity from state affairs.  This is not how it was intended. 

Separation of Church and State? Yes, in terms of function and jurisdiction.  Separation of God and Government? Absolutely not!  It simply isn’t possible, because every authority under heaven comes from God, and nothing is outside the reach of His Kingdom.

The Search for Truth ~ Postmodern America

Postmodernism is best defined as “a reaction to modernism,” so it will be most beneficial to take a moment and explain what modernism was.  Modernism dates all the way back to the Scientific Revolution in the seventeenth century, and by the Enlightenment in the eighteenth century, modernism was in full swing.  During the modern era, optimism grew along with the belief that all problems could be solved through science and human reason.  Along with this elevation of human reason and the rejection of the supernatural came a belief that man was the center of all things—the starting point and the ending point of all that is real and true.  It was widely accepted that ultimate truth could be determined through independent human reason and the scientific method. 

Near the end of the twentieth century, modern optimism started to morph into postmodern cynicism.  After two hundred years of optimism based on human autonomy, the nineteenth century brought international military conflicts of incredible proportion, nuclear bombs, an unimaginable magnitude of bloodshed, and ideological conflicts beyond belief.  Science began to be viewed with suspicion, and human reason was often downright rejected.  If reason based on the scientific method brought the human race to the very brink of self-destruction, perhaps it wasn’t so trustworthy after all.  The very notion of “objective” reason began to be severely questioned.  Some postmodern thinkers denied that humans were capable of being completely objective.  Postmodernists asserted that “universal truth” did not even exist.  They saw truth as being something determined by cultural and social contexts.  This produced such statements as, “What is true for you may not be true for me,” and allowed non-Christians to stand up to Christians with responses like, “I’m glad you’ve found the truth that works for you!”  Truth, for the postmodern pessimist, became a matter of personal preference.  All faiths and ideologies were viewed as equally “true.”  The cry of the postmodern era was “tolerance!” However, tolerance not only means allowing others to hold their own set of beliefs while you hold yours; it means accepting that everyone else’s doctrine is just as true as your own. 

Postmodernism turns to human intuition to determine truth.  However, turning to human feelings to find the truth that’s right for you is just as problematic as trying to use the scientific method to determine universal truth.  Does believing that a certain idea is true make it true?  Is there no objective standard of truth by which all claims of truth can be measured?  It naturally follows that, if truth is different for everyone, so is reality.  Reality itself is a human construct.  Liberty is viewed as “the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.”  Carrying such reasoning to its logical conclusion, such a definition of liberty could be used to justify abortion, infanticide, euthanasia… what next?

Neither modernism nor postmodernism are dead.  In 21^st-century America, the “prevailing wind” is postmodernism.  It is a climate that allows Eastern occultism and Islamism to thrive right alongside of Atheism and Christianity.  This is the world in which my friends and I are growing up.  This is the world in which we must be prepared to lead, the world in which we must take a stand for what we believe, and discover truth through divine revelation, through God’s Word—the only source of real, ultimate truth.  

*This post is my personal thoughts on chapter 8 of Assumptions that Affect our Lives by Christian Overman, "The Prevailing Wind of Postmodernism."

Creation Speaks!

When it comes to the matter of the origin of life, it is impossible for a person to hold any position other than one of faith.  Indeed, faith is required to believe that God created the universe; but so much more faith—what a wild imagination—is necessary to believe that the world came from nothing, was created by nothing!  Atheists believe that man evolved from ape, and before that from a shapeless, lifeless blob that rose from the sea.  How much more faith is required to believe this than to simply admit to the existence of an intelligent Creator!

If we are to accept the assumption that human beings are simply the result of the random activity of chemicals, and we are only a part of the self-creating, self-sustaining, impersonal force called ‘nature,’ then what more worth do we have than a monkey or a tree or a rock?  If we are not created in the image of God, stamped with the fingerprint of our Creator, then where indeed is the meaning and purpose of life?  If we adopt the belief that we came into existence by random chance, then how can we even trust our own thinking?  C.S. Lewis said it best:

“Supposing there was no intelligence behind the universe, no creative mind. In that case, nobody designed my brain for the purpose of thinking. It is merely that when the atoms inside my skull happen, for physical or chemical reasons, to arrange themselves in a certain way, this gives me, as a by-product, the sensation I call thought. But, if so, how can I trust my own thinking to be true? It's like upsetting a milk jug and hoping that the way it splashes itself will give you a map of London. But if I can't trust my own thinking, of course I can't trust the arguments leading to Atheism, and therefore have no reason to be an Atheist, or anything else. Unless I believe in God, I cannot believe in thought: so I can never use thought to disbelieve in God.”

Additionally, if we do not believe in God—and therefore in thought—we can never trust our own decisions regarding such things as medicine, civil government, law, or any other matter. 

The God of the Bible is a personal, thoughtful, intelligent being; whereas the god of ‘Nature’ is merely an impersonal force with no real power.  Had not God spoken, giving the ocean its waves, the wind its blast and the clouds their rain, what many revere as ‘Nature’ would have no bearing whatsoever.  Anglican Clergyman William Paley compared creation to a watch.  If a man came across a watch in the woods, he would not automatically conclude that it had always been there, or that it had come to be there by random chance; rather, he would know that the watch had had a watchmaker, and that someone had lost that watch in the woods.  Likewise, one should not see any part of Creation—or ‘Nature’—and conclude that it has always been there or that it came to be by random chance.  Instead, we should see in Creation an indication of a Great Watchmaker, a higher intelligence that designed the universe. 

Man is made in the image of God; this is a privilege that is seldom fully recognized and appreciated.  We are created in the very image of our Creator.  We are set apart from the rest of creation in this: we are imprinted with the physical beauty, spiritual emotion, and superior intelligence of our Great Watchmaker.  We are also given the duty of bearing that beauty, emotion, and intelligence before the rest of Creation, for our very presence proclaims the name of God most high.  If a person accepts the assumption that all people are “image-bearers” of God, it will affect every aspect of his life.  He will never struggle with a poor self-image, because he knows that he bears the beauty and intelligence of his Creator.  Additionally, he will treat others as special and priceless because he acknowledges that they, too, bear the unique mark of a God who loves each of us as if there were only one of us.

After God created everything, he declared it to be ‘good.’  The world is fallen, but it was created by a perfect, beautiful, sinless God, and He cannot create anything that is not good.  In spite of the evil and sorrow inherent to our beings and to our world because of sin, both are still called beautiful by the God who made them.  To quote Sam Gamgee in The Lord of the Rings, “There is some good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for.”  There is beauty and goodness to be found in this world, and we are here to overcome the evil and strive for that good.  God’s grace and goodness make this world good—these are things of goodness so great that sin can never spoil them.

Man was not consulted prior to the birth of the universe.  This reveals to us another fascinating aspect of God’s character: he is Love, and he created man simply so that he would have something—someone—to love.  He is an up-close and personal God; when he had finished creating the world—the skies and seas, the fish and trees, the bears and bees—he saw that it was good.  But he also saw that, though he loved it all, there was nothing capable of loving him back.  He wanted someone with whom he could enjoy a personal, intimate, two-way relationship.  That is the kind of God by whom we are loved!

“One must not view creation as merely a one-time action of the past, but rather as a continuing deed of the present,” writes Dr. Christian Overman in Assumptions that Affect our Lives.  God created the world and set the heavens in motion, but he did not then simply sit back and let time unfold.  If we return to the clock analogy, we see that in this respect Creation is not like a clock; God did not simply wind it up and then go hands-off.  He is present at every hour of every day, and were he to become absent for even one moment, the universe would descend speedily into darkness and chaos.

Creation speaks, testifying to the greatness of its Creator.  A logical, open-minded person cannot look at the planets—how each is placed exactly where it belongs, and how, if one were even a degree out of place, all would be in ruin—or a flower—the beauty and delicacy of each blossom, and the intricate designs necessary for its functionality—or an amoeba—the tiny, complex inner workings of what is so often mistakenly called a “simple cell”—and remain deaf to the shouts of “behold the handiwork of our Creator!  See the design so evident in my being!”  All of creation daily proclaims the existence of the fingerprints of its watchmaker, its present, personal, loving overseer. 

Understanding God's Will ~ Romans 12:1-2

God’s will is often difficult to comprehend.  I know from experience that it’s easy to think we’re walking in His will right up until we come to a closed door.  When that happens, figuring out our next move can be a challenge: sometimes we don’t like where He’s taking us but we see that, though it hurts to change course, the path of God’s will really leads to something far better than we could ever conjure up on our own.  Whatever the case, we are explicitly told in the first two verses of Romans chapter 12 two steps we must take in order to find God’s will in our lives.

The first instruction Paul gives in Romans 12 is this: “…offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.  This is your spiritual act of worship.”  When we read about sacrifices in the Bible, they are dead.  A dead goat, a dead bull, a dead lamb.  What on earth does it mean to be a living sacrifice?  In my way of thinking, it means we put ourselves on the altar, giving all of our time, talents, and treasure to God’s will.  There it is again—God’s will!  So the first way to discern God’s will is to commit ourselves wholly and completely to whatever He is doing, whether it makes sense to us right now or not.  This total ‘handing over of self’ starts at the heart and works its way out from there.

Second, we are told, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”  That is easier said than done.  We know what “the pattern of this world” is, and we know we’re not supposed to ‘go with the flow,’ so to speak; and we don’t—physically.  But often we catch ourselves thinking thoughts that don’t come from Jesus, and therefore are of the world.  This part of Paul’s instruction starts in the mind: “be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”  Thoughts don’t come from nowhere; they don’t just pop into your head.  We can think things on purpose, and I believe that is what Paul meant.  By intentionally thinking about things that glorify God and consciously committing our thoughts to Him by telling ourselves things like ‘God loves me,’ ‘I can do all things,’ and ‘I am a child of the King,’ we can discover His thoughts, His will.

Three or four years ago I went through a very trying time during which I didn’t commit my heart and mind to God, and so had no clue where he was taking me.  At the beginning of my freshman year in high school, my parents took issue with some part of the philosophy of the church my family was a part of, and they decided to pull up roots and move on.  I didn’t understand why we had to leave, and the emotional struggle that followed was perhaps the most difficult time I have ever experienced.  My parents and siblings made themselves comfortable at the church we currently attend, but I hardened my heart and refused to heal.  I was physically attending church but I wasn’t worshipping or fellowshipping there.  I had only a few old friends who actually stood by me during this time, as I lost touch with most of the others due to the change.  The tears eventually stopped, but I still felt a hole in my heart that I thought would never be filled.  I couldn’t imagine that this was part of God’s will for my life; I wasn’t willing to consider the possibility that God might want me somewhere other than where I thought I wanted to be.

Last summer I read Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris, and it got me thinking.  Among other things, I started trying to improve my attitude and how I was acting towards my family.  Shortly afterwards, my parents decided I was going to start speech and debate, whether I wanted to or not.  I didn’t want to--it was the last thing in the world I wanted to do--but instead of fighting it I resolved to do hard things, opening my heart and mind to new possibilities and turning my own strong but crooked will over to God.  It’s a good thing I did, for I soon found myself smack in the middle of one of the most wonderful experiences of my life—the thing God used to fill me.  Through the forensics club I joined last fall, God has blessed me with a brand new circle of dear Christian friends, refreshed my passion and purpose in life, and renewed my relationship with Him and His Son.  His plan was not for me to remain in 'my' church, where I thought I wanted to be, and it certainly wasn't for me to keep moping around, refusing to find joy anywhere.  Instead, He took me out of what seemed to be a good place and into an even more wonderful one; I created the valley in between by my own stubbornness.

God doesn’t align his will with ours; we must submit our will to his.  His will is often vastly different than we imagine it to be.  I thought I was supposed to go one way, and I was very wrong.  In fighting the current of God’s will and trying to swim upstream towards what I wanted, I caused myself a world of pain and heartache much more severe than if I had simply turned towards the light and floated in the direction God wanted me to go.  We must remember the words Paul used to open the twelfth chapter of Romans: “I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.  Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – His good, pleasing, and perfect will.”  When we offer our bodies, minds, and hearts to God in worship, He will show us His will—and His will is infinitely better than ours! 

Do Hard Things ~ Their Story Meets My Story

Alex and Brett Harris, 24-year-old twins from Oregon who graduated from Patrick Henry College in 2012, are ordinary kids who have done some extraordinary things.  While still in their teen years, Alex and Brett started a new movement among teens: the Rebelution.  They combined the words 'rebellion' and 'revolution,' creating a brand new word to refer to an entirely new concept: rebelling against rebellion.  More specifically, Alex and Brett defined the Rebelution as 'a teenage rebellion against low expectations.'  They wrote a book, Do Hard Things, when they were nineteen, and it was through this book that these two not-so-ordinary average homeschooled guys changed my life. 

Let me back up a bit and tell you the story of these two normal, but extraordinary, young men.  In the summer of 2005, when Alex and Brett were sixteen, they decided to take a break after several years of high-school speech and debate.  That’s when their eyes were opened.  Instead of letting the boys laze away the summer, their dad put them on an intense reading program that involved thick books on a wide range of topics: history, philosophy, theology, sociology, science, business, journalism, and globalization.  The twins began to realize that, though the books they were reading were written for adults, teens were the ones who really needed to read them.  Teens were the philosophers, scientists, journalists, and businessmen of the next generation, and they needed to be aware of what was going on in the world that would be theirs in just a few short years.  Alex and Brett became convinced that there had to be more to the teen years than modern culture suggests. 

Looking for a way to share their ideas with other teens, they decided to start an online blog page called ‘the Rebelution.’  It was a simple, Google-hosted blog, but it soon became the most popular Christian teen blog on the web.  Alex and Brett posted a series of articles called The Myth of Adolescence, questioning the modern view of the teen years as a time to goof off.  From all over the world, teens started to comment on their posts, and the twins were surprised and elated to find that other teens also felt strongly that the teen years should have deeper meaning.  The online discussions heated up, and it became obvious that the movement would go much farther than a Google-hosted blog with a generic design template.  Three weeks after the blog was launched, the sixth-largest daily newspaper in the United States, the New York Daily News, wrote a feature article about the Rebelution, which drew more readers to the blog. 

In October of 2005, Alex and Brett Harris were invited to apply for a two-month internship at the Alabama Supreme Court.  They were astounded.  Sure, they’d been successful in speech and debate competition; but they were only sixteen years old, and still in high school!  The staff attorney in charge of Justice Tom Parker’s office had been reading the Rebelution blog and saw an opportunity to test out the idea that teens waste enormous potential.  Justice Parker decided to ignore the usual age requirement and look only at whether the boys could do the job. 

The brothers chose to apply for the internship and were accepted after an agonizing month of waiting.  They would start two months before they turned seventeen.  Though they were very excited, the boys also felt enormous pressure: God seemed to be making them guinea pigs for their own ideas, and it was up to them to prove that teens really could do hard, important things. 

Upon their arrival in Montgomery, Alabama, the twins learned that they would be expected to contribute in a variety of ways, and training would be entirely on-the-job.  It would be very hard work; Justice Parker had ignored the boys’ age when he accepted them for the job, and he would continue to ignore it.  Though Justice Parker and his staff were very kind and inclusive, Alex and Brett didn’t receive any special treatment because they were so young.

Each time the boys did well at something, Justice Parker trusted them with a bigger, more significant task, so that at the end of two months the boys had gone from running errands to accompanying Justice Parker to momentous events.  They had risen from editing cases for punctuation and spelling to actually contributing final paragraphs.  By the time their internship was over, they were thrilled at what they had been able to accomplish.  They returned home to Oregon eager to get back in touch with their friends on the Rebelution blog, and they found a host of teens eager to join them in doing hard things.

Another opportunity came right away.  The Harris boys were invited back to Alabama to serve as grass-roots directors for four simultaneous statewide campaigns for the Alabama Supreme Court, including Justice Parker’s run for chief justice.  The guinea pigs had survived!  Their internships had tested two young men, but the statewide campaigns would test hundreds of teenagers.  As grass-roots directors, the twins would be working with and recruiting teens to head up efforts around the state, following the same principles that had given them the job: they would judge by ability, not age, to decide who would be recruited.

Alex and Brett returned to Alabama in spring of 2006, ready to advance the Rebelution to a whole new level.  All of the campaign’s key members were young: their campaign manager, who was by far the oldest of the group, was in his thirties, and their field director was twenty-three.  Teens designed the campaign website, planned housing and meals for out-of-state volunteers, used advanced mapping software to create driving routes for literature drops, planned events, coordinated television updates, and provided graphic design, photography, and videography.  By the time it was all over, teens had worked hundreds of hours on the campaign and coordinated the largest grass-roots operations in the state that season.  They lost the election, but they won something much bigger than a campaign.  Alex and Brett, and hundreds of teenagers across America, had proven that kids are more than capable of successfully completing important tasks.

When the twins arrived home from Alabama, they decided it was time to take their little blog to the next level.  They started a project to create a full-blown website that would feature discussion forums, links to hundreds of other articles, and a conference section detailing their plan to host four regional events during 2007.  After weeks of planning and hard work by Alex, Brett, and two of their friends, the website launched on August 28, 2006, the one-year anniversary of the Rebelution blog.  The response to the web site was immediate and overwhelming: the web traffic on their site jumped from 2,200 hits the previous day to 12,800 on launch day—a 480 percent increase overnight!  It was no longer a generic, Google-hosted blog; it was a huge online community.

In 2007 and 2008, Alex and Brett took the Rebelution on the road, hosting Rebelution conferences across the United States, and internationally in Japan.  Then, two years after their dad dropped that huge stack of books on the kitchen table, they decided to write their own book.  Do Hard Things tells their story—the story of two ordinary teenagers who took on extraordinary challenges—as well as the stories of other teens who joined the Rebelution.  Not only that, but Alex and Brett tell us—the ordinary teens—how we can do hard things, too.

These normal but extraordinary young men touched my life through their book, Do Hard Things; the Harris boys’ story has inspired me to a degree that I never thought possible.  I read their book just over a year ago, and it has inspired amazing things in my life.  I'm seventeen, I've been home-schooled since kindergarten, and I've always been an ‘A+’ kind of girl, but this book made me realize something new.  Alex and Brett outline five kinds of hard things: First, things that take you outside of your comfort zone.  For me, this involves putting myself in situations where I'll have to try new things, meet new people, and risk looking like a dork.  Second, there are the things that go beyond what's expected or required, like pushing for an A+ even when everyone already thinks you're great for getting an A-.  Third, we can join together with other teens to do hard things that are too big to accomplish alone.  Then fourth, there are the small hard things that don't pay off immediately; and fifth, taking a stand, going against the norm. 

I've tried to do hard things in most of these areas.  Probably the biggest hard thing I've done so far is start speech and debate—that was definitely outside of my comfort zone.  Just over a year ago, my parents discovered speech and debate, and were inspired by what they thought it would do for my character and confidence.  To say that I had an aversion to public speaking is a major understatement—I was terrified.  When I showed up at club that first day, I didn’t know anyone, I knew nothing about debate, and I had no idea what I was getting myself into.  Fortunately, thanks to the Harris’s encouragement to step out of my comfort zone, I had decided beforehand to abandon all my perfectionism and self-consciousness and just go for it.  In club that day, our coach had us play some wacky impromptu speech and acting games, during which I made a complete fool out of myself.  I stretched my comfort zone almost to the breaking point, and found myself smack in the middle of one the most fun things I’ve ever done, as well as part of a brand new circle of dear friends.  I competed in Team Policy debate, which improved my research skills, my public speaking ability, my confidence, and my relationship with my brother, who was my partner.  I also qualified to participate in the National tournament with my 10-minute prepared speech, which happened to be about Do Hard Things!!  Throughout the year, I began friendships with homeschooled teens all over the state of Colorado—and across the nation—and my faith was elevated to a new level through those relationships.  To think that I might not have gone to that first speech and debate club meeting, had I not been so influenced by Alex and Brett’s book, is horrifying.  I’m motivated all over again when I consider it!

I was also re-inspired to play the piano like never before.  I’ve played for over eleven years and have reached a certain level of proficiency, but during the beginning of my junior year I became bored with it and my progress plateaued.  I was over at a friend’s house in the spring—a friend who holds my respect and had already inspired me to do better in a lot of areas, including debate—and heard him play the piano.  He had played for only five years, but he made what I previously called ‘playing’ seem like chopsticks.  He helped me realize that doing hard things applies to piano, too!  I knew I could do better, and threw myself back into practicing with a passion and a fury.  I recently mastered the theme from The Pirates of the Caribbean, arranged by Jarrod Radnich; I knew starting out that it would be very difficult and would probably take several months to complete, but with determination, practice, and patience I finished it!  I am continuing to push myself to play more and more advanced and exciting pieces.

It might surprise you to learn that the thing I've found the hardest is the little things, the daily routines that really are the framework for life.  It's doing the laundry, exercising regularly, keeping my room clean, being patient with my little brothers and sisters, responding to my parents with respect... the things that need done again and again.  I sometimes wonder if it's actually going to make a difference in the long run.  Is it really going to matter in five years if I make my bed today?  It will.  The Harris boys’ book made clear to me that these are the things that build habits, preparing us for bigger challenges in the future.  We're always going to have these menial tasks that don't seem to matter, but these are the things that God uses to shape us into the men and women He wants us to be.

I've also had some opportunities to take a stand.  During my sophomore and junior years, I was in various situations where I was surrounded by provocatively dressed girls, perverted guys, nasty language, and bad attitudes.  I took a stand by dressing modestly, keeping a clean mouth, and doing my homework.  I was also on the lookout for opportunities to share my faith in the midst of the secularism.  I was often confronted by peers who shunned me for my faith.  But I found that I could be thankful for those situations, because in them I saw possibilities, chances to let them see the love of Jesus through me.

Now, as I am beginning my senior year of high school and preparing to take my next step towards adulthood, I am continuing to do hard things.  In September, with the aid of a preparation curriculum that my mom purchased for me, and the diligence and persistence only God can give, I raised my ACT score five points from my initial test.  I recently discovered the American Legion Oratorical Contest, a “high school Constitution speech contest,” in which real money is the prize for winning.  My desire to attend an excellent - and expensive - private Christian university, combined with my passion for and faith in the Biblical roots of America and the uniqueness of our Constitution, is inspiring me to work hard, writing and memorizing the required speeches; competition begins in December.  I have decided to compete in Lincoln-Douglas debate instead of Team Policy, which will force me to become even more confident and self-sufficient in the area of preparation, since I won’t be able to depend on a partner.  It will also expand my horizons from concrete, straightforward policy to discussing complex, multi-faceted ideas such as philosophy, values, and the history of morality.  I have begun competing in Extemporaneous Speaking, an event in which the student is given 30 minutes to prepare a seven-minute speech that addresses some aspect of current events.  This has forced me to pay attention to what is happening in the world around me and caused me to realize just how good my life really is.  As I consider how my outlook on life has expanded and my opportunities have increased over the past eighteen months since I read Do Hard Things, I thank God for the Harris twins, and that I found their book when I did!

Though I’ve never even met them, Alex and Brett have started a whole new life for me.  Reading their book was like being born again a second time: Before, I was just an average homeschooled kid with a little circle of friends, moderate ability to play the piano, a faith that was mine (not for sharing!), and a well-defined comfort zone.  Since I read their book, I've become an average homeschooled kid who’s trying to be extraordinary.  I have an extended circle of dear friends, the desire and motivation to play the piano like a master, a stronger faith that I’m eager to share, and a comfort zone that—though already significantly larger—gets stretched farther every day.  I give credit to Alex and Brett for exciting and motivating me, and glory to God for inspiring the Harris twins and creating me with the traits and talents necessary to make the Rebelution manifest.

The Land of the Free

"…O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?"  

This question was penned by Francis Scott Key during the War of 1812; by the dawn's early light, he yearned to know if the flag, and with it America's freedom, had survived the battle.  Now it seems rather prophetic: what made America free?  And is she still?  Do the red, white, and blue really wave o’er the land of the free?

Our founders took a valiant step in signing the United States Constitution in 1787: that special document granted more freedom—and more responsibility—to the American people than had ever been given to a nation before.  In his first inaugural address in 1789, George Washington called America ‘the Great Experiment,’ because the success of such a free nation was uncertain.  Washington recognized that in order for the established liberties to survive, citizens would have to embrace the accompanying responsibilities.  Justice Joseph Story wrote in 1883, “[The Constitution] has been reared for immortality … It may, nevertheless, perish in an hour by the folly, or corruption, or negligence of its only keepers, the people.”  The responsibility, participation, and religious morality of individual citizens made America the land of the free; Americans cared to learn about the Constitution and generally accepted an inherent moral standard that caused them to embrace the responsibility Washington called for.  Today, as Americans reject religion and moral absolutes, and lose interest in the Constitution and its implicit responsibilities, our nation's foundation is crumbling.  We need to revive the fight for liberty that was so pivotal in the history of America.

Alexis de Tocqueville coined the phrase "American Exceptionalism" to refer to the unprecedented liberty, stability, and prosperity that thrived in America, based on concepts such as unalienable rights, limited government, and an educated and virtuous citizenry.  Our founders took these ideas straight from scripture and built the Great Experiment on a solid foundation.  The last thing they wanted to do was create a government or a Constitution that mandated a single religion, but as George Washington succinctly stated, "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports."

At the birth of our country, Americans were qualified and proud to take part in the government of this great nation; they understood the Constitution and the values it was based upon, and they accepted a transcendent moral order.  In the words of Alexis de Tocqueville, "Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith."  America was a predominately Christian nation in which every individual had a sense of responsibility for himself, to his fellow man, and to his country.  Public schooling was created for two specific purposes: so that they could read the Bible for themselves, and so that they could learn the basic principles of American liberty.  Thomas Jefferson declared, “Whenever the people are well-informed they can be trusted with their own government”  True to our founders' ideals, early Americans accepted an inherent moral standard, understood that their freedom depended on their knowledge of and participation in the political process, and instilled that flame of liberty in the next generation.  These fundamental elements of society allowed the American Experiment to thrive.

Unfortunately, America is headed towards the failure of Washington’s Great Experiment, leaving Old Glory flying over a land that is less free every day.  Schools have strayed from fundamental literature, philosophy, and history courses, and so don't fully equip students to become the guardians of Constitutional liberty.  We have seen a subsequent decline in the overall enthusiasm of citizens for the Constitution and the participation it calls for.  In a 1998 survey of 600 high school and college students, a mere 35% could quote the first three words of the Constitution.  In 2010, a study conducted by Muhlenberg College found that only 28% of adult citizens even claim to have read the entire Constitution.

America’s wandering from the Constitution went hand-in-hand with its abandonment of religion and morality.  Biblical teaching was purged from schools, even as family circles and other sources of religious teaching began to deteriorate.  70-80% of Americans claim to be "Christians," but according to a 2009 Baylor Research study, only about 12% of Americans say that religion is relevant to their life.  Americans are straying from their belief in a transcendent moral order; and when morality disappears, our sense of personal responsibility follows swiftly after.  As Ronald Reagan so aptly stated, "If we ever forget that we are one nation under God, we will be one nation gone under."  

We are forgetting what Adams and Jefferson and other early Americans knew so well—what made our nation great in the first place: that in order for the Great Experiment of Democracy to succeed, the people must have responsibility that stems from a sense of personal morality, and they must be knowledgeable and willing to contribute to the governing of their nation.  

The rising generation of Americans is one obsessed with rights, but forgetful of responsibility; many Americans want a free lunch.  They want the government to pay for healthcare, hospitalizations, meals in the form of food stamps, abortions, even birth control.  They forget that, as Thomas Jefferson so aptly stated, “A government large enough to give you everything you need is a government large enough to take everything you have.”  Our founders gave their time and treasure, blood and tears, even their lives to cast off the chains of tyranny, secure liberty, and ensure that future generations would enjoy freedom from dependence on the government.  Now, however, as young Americans cease to know—or care—about the Constitutional principles that brought prosperity to our nation, they are allowing the government to expand.  We must gather our wits and return to our duties, or we will find ourselves under the thumb of tyrants once again.  Author and speaker Andy Andrews explained that pattern in his book The Heart Mender, “America sought, from bondage, spiritual faith, from spiritual faith we found courage, courage brought liberty, and liberty brought abundance.  But that abundance created complacency, and complacency has led to apathy.  The political apathy that so dominates young Americans has led to an entitlement mindset, some form of government dependence.  That dependence will eventually bring us back into bondage.” 

The Constitution protects our life, liberty, property, freedom of speech and religion, privacy, right to bear arms, and right to a fair trial; and it limits the power of the federal government; these liberties that were bravely signed into existence by our founding fathers in 1787 depend for their survival on the guardianship of the American people.  But how can we defend the principles found in our Constitution if we do not know what they are?  How can my generation adequately carry the mantle of responsibility that will soon be handed down to us, if all we are concerned about is what we can gain from the government?  The answer is simple: we can’t. 

‘So, where do we go from here?’ you might be asking; ‘what now?  It seems so hopeless!’  Still, I believe there is hope for our country, for my generation, for the future of Washington’s American Experiment.  That hope is found in young people like those in my forensics club and across the nation who do care to learn about the Great Experiment and her Constitution, and who are willing to toil and sacrifice to preserve it.  We respect John F. Kennedy's admonition, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

By recalling the rich heritage of this great nation, by returning to the foundations of religious morality and to the history and philosophy behind our Constitution, and by transforming the mindset of this generation from entitlement to responsibility, we can restore the United States of America to what it is supposed to be: in the words of Ronald Reagan, “…a New World, and, yes, a shining city on a hill where all things are possible.”  Washington’s Experiment can survive; America can remain the land of the free and the home of the brave – if we are brave enough to do whatever is necessary, and give all that we have, to protect freedom.