Book Review
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By Paul Borthwick
Reviewed By Tiffany Jackson
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| Book cover for Simplify. |
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Shopping, cooking, cleaning, reading this week’s Sunday School lesson and purchasing a new outfit for tonight’s gala, all seems like a handful to juggle in one day but what if life could be simplified? Author Paul Borthwick has the answer. In his new book, Simplify: 106 ways to uncomplicate your life, Borthwick challenges readers with easy tips to help cut back, scale down and establish new ways to meet realistic expectations; therefore allowing room for a more balanced lifestyle.
Each chapter is filled with easy steps and practical ideas that can be used for daily living. Through scriptures and content from other well-known authors, Borthwick gives suggestions and asks the challenging questions or the questions that many want to ask but try to avoid. He also provides helpful answers in the areas of finances, scheduling, technology and fitness to help individuals fight back their hectic pace.
Before the book elaborates on helpful tips, Borthwick first raises the question, “Do you need this book?” He then delivers an array of situations that people might have found themselves involved in. He continues by saying if you find yourself saying yes to the questions then this book is great for you. Talk about a mind reader. This book is an easy read and most readers will find it very relatable.
Bible verses are also helpful in this book as they add to the guidelines that are so vividly laid out on the pages. But what I found to be very comical and yet, disturbingly true was the contemporary contrast to Psalm 23, which reads:
Psalm 23, Antithesis
The clock is my dictator, I shall not rest,
It makes me lie down only when exhausted.
It leads me to deep depression,
It hounds my soul.
It leads me in circles of frenzy for activity’s sake.
Even though I run frantically from task to task,
I will never get it all done, for my “ideal” is with me.
Deadlines and my need for approval, they drive me.
They demand my performance from me, beyond
the limits of my schedule.
They anoint my head with migraines.
My in-basket overflows.
Surely fatigue and time pressure shall follow me all the days of my life,
And I will dwell in the bonds of frustration forever.
This piece is then quickly followed by the story about the farmer and his dog who went out on a short walk and when they returned the dog looked like he had been traveling for days because he was exhausted. The dog did a lot of zigzagging. Whenever he saw an animal he had to chase it. The moral of this story is that if you do not stay focus on the bigger plan, you will find yourself exhausted from something that could have been easily avoided. Other great stories and comments are also told in this awesome book but you will just have to purchase it to read more.
So for those who are looking for another instruction manual to better their life, Simplfiy: 106 ways to uncomplicate your life is a perfect pick me up.
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