Gotta Have It

June 14, 2010
Jantz (Hope, Help, and Healing for Eating Disorders), founder of the Center for Counseling and Health Resources in Seattle, tackles a topic that deals with an inner impulse that every man, woman, and child will understand and relate to. Jantz skillfully handles addictions nd, abuses of every type as he challenges readers to admit they spend far too much time trying to get what they want so that they have no energy left for what they need. The author dissects the power of wants by closely examining deepest human needs for comfort, reassurance, security, validation, and control; he contrasts the human "gotta have it" impulse with the gifts God provides: patience, endurance, contentment, wisdom, hope, help, and even sometimes answers, noting how these things truly satisfy the soul. Strong on biblical principles for handling life's challenges, Jantz offers an insightful and encouraging resource for any person of faith with any sort of tendency toward excess, which could mean just about anyone. This is a timely and nerve-exposing primer of American life today.

May 1, 2010
Jantz (founder, Ctr. for Counseling & Health Resources; "Hope, Help, and Healing for Eating Disorders") and his coauthor, McMurray, address what they term "excessities"excesses that come to seem like necessities. They have in mind not only the conventional excesses of materialism but also alcohol, food, gambling, work, exercise, and other behaviors destructive if pursued wrongly or to excess. They assert that these excesses are our attempts to find things we need in the modern worldcomfort, validation, and control, to name a few, and that God can supply all of those needs. VERDICT Whether or not every reader concurs with the solution, the authors' diagnosis of our "excessities" is spot on. Excellent both for the individual Christian trying to cope with a problem of excess and for the church or church reading groups.

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