Today the topic is Addiction, Pain, and Pleasure. The book "Dopamine Nation" by Dr. Anna Lembke is a fascinating read on our habits, our addictions, our pleasures and our pains. She discusses what pain is and what pleasure is and how we can manage them for good. Addiction is a serious problem that we are all afraid to admit that we have. Whether it is food, smartphones, sex, pornography, work, "retail therapy," alcohol or drugs - addictions are addictions.
My feeble attempt at discussing this book does not do it justice (I am still learning the proper way to review a book and it shows), but I highly recommend reading this book to understand yourself more. The Word of God instructs us to examine ourselves, and the tools and knowledge in this book can help us accomplish a fair examination of ourselves. Let us never forget that our God does not tremble at the sciences, He is in fact the God OF the sciences.
It is 100% possible to read most books, if not all, and compare them to the truths of God’s word and applying what is true to our lives and hammering home what The Lord had already said. The authors are simply reiterating (intentionally or unintentionally) what was long wrote before they time began.
All of that to say, I will be calling the book reviews I do for Stewardship In All Things “Read Tape." Reviews
It’s a play on words to signify the very essence of this “one man’s red tape is another man’s protection” with the T-A-P-E being the acronym for the criteria in which I will rate these books. Here is how I will be examining them.
T stands for Tweetable. Most likely everyone’s favorite category because this is what we do with most pieces of writing. We see quotes we love and tweet them out or use them as captions. There was no other word that I felt would best describe what my intentions are with regard to the content. By Tweetable, I want to rate the book on it’s content in sound bytes. If the book has a lot of quotes that are worth sharing, or it has a lot of phrases that are worth writing down or remembering - then it is very Tweetable.
A stands for Applicable. Because some of these books are not gonna be Christian based books, I want to judge these books on if we can take things from this book and apply them to our lives in reflection to what scripture says. Some of the non christian books read are going to have themes in theme that are very applicable to daily living that drive scripture home for us. The higher the application, the higher the score
P stands for Presentation. If a book stands out due to its format or its aesthetically pleasing in unique ways, it gets a higher score
E stands for how Engaging the book is. If it was a book that I really looked forward to picking up again, I will give it a high score. If it was a book I struggled to want to read due to its intellectual language or it just seemed really academic, then it will probably get a lower to mid range score.
These reviews will be posted on this podcast and there will also be a few graphics posted based on the review on social media as a quick recall.
I hope you look forward to these reviews as much as I look forward to reading the books and hopefully inspiring everyone to pick up possibly their first book since college.
C.S. Lewis is credited with saying “we read to know we are not alone.” The more we read, the more we may find that our problems are not our own. We share them. The more we read, the more we may find that all the hardships we may face, we may find gratitude that we haven’t had a worse time than others. The more we read, the more we may find that we have the capability to examine even the small wins in life that others before us have helped us realize.
I hope these reviews bless you and give you a heart to be and feel connected to other people, dead or alive, and a heart that gives God thanks.