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Hi there. This is Sarah Zilestra, Senior Writer for the Gospel Coalition.

My job is to find and report on places where God's Spirit is at work in the world.

So I hear a lot of stories about Christians who are living sacrificial, joyful,

God glorifying lives, and I'm excited to share this one about Alex Harris with you.

It's fair to say we're coming out of a hard year.

Everything we've done for the past 12 months has taken more effort and resulted in less

productivity. It's harder for teachers and pastors to communicate online,

and it's less effective for people to listen and learn that way.

It's more difficult to look after an elderly loved one when you can't visit them,

and they feel less cared for. It's more challenging to breathe and speak through a mask than

without one. We've expanded a lot more energy doing things that were normally nearly effortless,

going to the grocery store, spending time with friends, figuring out how to exercise.

Perhaps we would have been better prepared if we'd already read a book Alex Harris

wrote with his brother Brett a dozen years ago called Do Hard Things. In it, Alex and Brett

proposed that doing hard things prepares you to do even harder things.

You should get up early, they said. Step out of your comfort zone. Do more than what's required.

...