Book review : "Living without worry: How to replace anxiety with peace" by Timothy Lane
Tim Lane is co-author with Paul Tripp of "How people change" and "Relationships - a mess worth making", is a Westminster graduate and a PCA minister. You can find out lots about him at www.TimLane.org where he describes himself as "Author, Speaker, Trainer, Counselor".
I confess that I came to this book with a degree of trepidation (I agonised over that word) having been through an experience of burn-out in the recent past and just having attended a conference that was largely centred around the theme of the sufferings and struggles peculiar to pastoral ministry. I had to speak on the struggles of missionaries and how churches can help them. So concern, stress, anxiety and worry are subjects I have been thinking a little about.
I suppose I was concerned that I might find a book that confronted Christians with their faithlessness and worldliness in giving any room to anxiety and worry. The danger, as the author puts it, that you end up worrying about the fact that you worry - a destructive spiral.
Instead what I found was a careful, gentle and nuanced book from a reformed (or biblical) perspective on mankind, sin, the world, God's sovereignty and the realities of this difficult and uncertain world. There's a close analysis of worry - defined as "over-concern" (as opposed to "under-concern" or just the right degree of concern) and a consideration of worry and the past, the present and the future. Practical advice is given on how to change, motivated and energised by "real truths" and helped to cast all your anxiety on him.
For me, the book was somewhat let down by Chapter 10, a consideration of the ministry of the Lord Jesus to the apostle Paul in Corinth. I would love to see a study of Paul, his concern for the churches and his need for the reassuring presence of the Saviour faced with work in Corinth. Such a study will need to handle the data in Acts very carefully indeed.
But this is a very helpful book and I would recommend it to pretty well anyone - we all struggle - or will struggle with anxiety over something.
in addition there are lots of videos on Youtube of interviews with Dr Lane. Here's one :
I confess that I came to this book with a degree of trepidation (I agonised over that word) having been through an experience of burn-out in the recent past and just having attended a conference that was largely centred around the theme of the sufferings and struggles peculiar to pastoral ministry. I had to speak on the struggles of missionaries and how churches can help them. So concern, stress, anxiety and worry are subjects I have been thinking a little about.
I suppose I was concerned that I might find a book that confronted Christians with their faithlessness and worldliness in giving any room to anxiety and worry. The danger, as the author puts it, that you end up worrying about the fact that you worry - a destructive spiral.
Instead what I found was a careful, gentle and nuanced book from a reformed (or biblical) perspective on mankind, sin, the world, God's sovereignty and the realities of this difficult and uncertain world. There's a close analysis of worry - defined as "over-concern" (as opposed to "under-concern" or just the right degree of concern) and a consideration of worry and the past, the present and the future. Practical advice is given on how to change, motivated and energised by "real truths" and helped to cast all your anxiety on him.
For me, the book was somewhat let down by Chapter 10, a consideration of the ministry of the Lord Jesus to the apostle Paul in Corinth. I would love to see a study of Paul, his concern for the churches and his need for the reassuring presence of the Saviour faced with work in Corinth. Such a study will need to handle the data in Acts very carefully indeed.
But this is a very helpful book and I would recommend it to pretty well anyone - we all struggle - or will struggle with anxiety over something.
in addition there are lots of videos on Youtube of interviews with Dr Lane. Here's one :
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