Great expectations?

If you missed the BCS Championship game last night featuring Alabama v. Texas, you missed an interesting game.

A lot of people tuned in to see what they hoped would be a great game starring Colt McCoy, the winningest quarterback in NCAA history, leading his team to a BCS Championship. It didn’t turn out that way. In fact, four minutes into the game McCoy was knocked out of commission with a shoulder injury.

That’s when things got interesting.

Now Texas had to look not to their star quarterback, but to a true “freshman” backup QB, 18-year-old Garrett Gilbert. Just the previous year Gilbert was playing football in high school. Last night, he was thrust, unprepared, in front of more than 90,000 fans in the stands, millions tuning in via television, and in front of his team with the demand to perform beyond his experience or preparation.

Imagine the pressure!

Initially, the phrase “the Freshman” was bandied about multiple times by the game announcers, and Twitter lit up with dismay that “the Freshman” just couldn’t pull this off. To say the least, expectations of Gilbert were quite low. But Gilbert quickly calmed down and started performing like a more seasoned QB as he led his team to a touchdown and two-point conversion, putting his team back into the game. While Gilbert was able to bring his team back in contention, he wasn’t able to lead them to a win, as ‘Bama finally rolled to victory.

In spite of the outcome of the game, Gilbert did an admirable job of stepping up when he was called on.

Believe it or not, and quite to the contrary of what we think about young people today, history — and the Bible — are replete with great stories of outstanding accomplishments by teenagers.

From Daniel and his friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, to David facing Goliath, Jeremiah called to be a prophet while still a teen, or even Mary and Joseph becoming the earthly parents of Jesus, God has used teenagers to do great things for Him and this world we live in.

Yet today, American culture has vastly dummied down expectations of youth. Today we expect more trouble and challenges from teens than great feats and accomplishments. But it wasn’t always that way. Up until the end of the 19th century, older children were routinely working in family businesses and by their teens they often were beginning to marry and start their careers. Because of very real, serious abuses to employing children, labor laws were passed in our country that began the change of how we view — and what we expect — from young people. We changed from demanding too much labor from children to expecting very little from teens. The outcome is a culture that thinks it’s normal for young people to largely play away their early years, leaving the “more serious things of life” for later years.

The result hasn’t been good for teens or our country.

Fortunately, there are a couple young guys leading a “rebelution” against low expectations for teenagers. Alex and Brett Harris are twin brothers who are the founders of The Rebelution, an organization dedicated to inspiring teens and young adults to have a positive impact on the culture. The Harris brothers speak at The Rebelution Tour conferences and are co-authors of the book Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations. In addition to writing and speaking, the twins are currently attending Patrick Henry College in Virginia.

What kind of expectations does your church have for teens? Is the focus on building a big attendance on game night, but never considering how teens can impact the world for the kingdom of God? What do you challenge your teens to do? What do you think they are capable of?

Let me encourage you to become familiar with “The Rebelution” and consider joining in a revolution to rebel against low expectations of teens. Consider what you can do as a person, a parent, a church leader, to help teens become all they can be in Christ, for Christ.

Scotty