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Gotta Have It!: Freedom from Wanting Everything Right Here, Right Now

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What a timely book for the day we live in!

With so many confused about the differences between wants and needs, author, Gregory L. Jantz, PhD, has written a book that helps the reader identify the areas of their life that may be excessive. Not pertaining just to finances, the author addresses a variety of areas where we may find ourselves over-indulging: food, alcohol, drugs, sex, spending, gambling, hobbies, etc.

According to Jantz, when a want becomes "supercharged" it begins to feel like a need. If you can identify the triggers that lead you to excessive behavior, you've won half the battle. This book is divided into three sections to help you overcome excessity and surrender your needs to God. It's also a great tool to help readers learn how to choose wisely and grow as a person.

The author is very up front and states that this won't be an easy journey. In fact, some will not be able to accomplish complete restoration with the book alone and may need to seek out additional counseling.

Do you really know the difference between "want" and "need"? The author has arranged the book into 3 sections: Identifying the things that we personally think are wants or needs; Selecting the "true" needs according to God; and how God can provide for those needs in our life today. And these needs don't mean just physical but emotional and spiritual as well for often trying to fulfill a spiritual/emotional need becomes a physical compulsion that never satisfies because it doesn't meet the original "need". There are questions throughout the chapters allowing the reader to define their own ideas at that particular place in the book. He talks about "excessities" the need to turn excesses into necessities in today's world. There was a great deal of psychological work involved and I wouldn't recommend it as a book to work through alone but rather one to work through with a counsellor who can give guidance and help with the reader's insights and stumbling blocks.

The title (the subtitle and the cover art too, for that matter) led me to believe the book was an expose'on the evils of materialism. Well aware of these evils and having never been tempted to keep up with the Jones, I set out to read the book for no other reason but an obligation to review it (I won it on a David C Cook Facebook competitions-which I highly recommend for its fun factor and simplicity).

But by page 5 I realized that my first impressions were wrong (Step up your packaging game, David C Cook!). The book is about bringing balance and perspective into your life by taking control of excesses in your life that give you a false sense of security and comfort. The book is more about moderation than frugality, more about being a steward than living a life of bare minimums.

Jantz begins with the first step towards getting rid of your Gotta Have It's: Distinguish your wants from your needs. While it was a very elementary and obvious start, I was pleased that he did not get overly repetitious or insult my intelligence. When he says the obvious, it's merely a to set me on familiar ground-sort of a launch pad-before sending me on a journey of exploring and understanding my deeply-rooted thoughts and feelings that control my choices.

By page 40, I was hoping the book would help me conquer my primary want for chocolate and my secondary want for all things sweet. But the next page came along and set straight my tongue-in-cheek thought: Referring to the role of electronics in our life, Jantz says, "Electronics can fall into two camps-gadgets that help you stay connected and gadgets that help you disconnect." Of course, what he says about electronics is applicable to all the different components of our life. Throughout the book, he brought me back, again and again, to question stuff in my life and see if it connects me to or disconnects me from God and my responsibility as His steward on this earth.

Spread throughout the book are sections called Planting Seeds that tactfully helped me identify the excesses in my life . I was impressed with both Jantz and David C. Cook at the lengths to which they have gone to ensure these sections are non-threatening. First the title, Planting Seeds. How could you possibly be offended by or get defensive over it! Then, the font. An unobtrusive san serif, it stands apart from the rest of the book as if to say, "You don't have to do this exercise if you feel uncomfortable." And, finally, the language and directives of these sections are very low-key and more contemplative than finger-pointing in nature.

The entire book is a very comfortable environment, conducive to reflection and self-questioning. You never feel like Jantz is holding your feet to the fire till you `fes up and give it up. He is not about giving you a guilt trip. What he says is that there nothing wrong with my frivolous collection of antiques or my love for chocolate, but when "our wants, our preferences, our choices, our excessities supersede and obscure our true needs" (p 65).

(I received this book free from David C. Cook. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.)

Dr Gregory L. Jantz takes a methodical approach to getting to the bottom of our desires and needs and the differences between them. He helps get to the bottom of our spending so much time trying to get what we WANT that we don't have enough time and energy to get what we need.

Jantz believes that each person has an excessity- when our excesses become 'necessities'. I agree with this fact. Especially in North America, we have so much stuff that we often find ourselves complaining and throwing tantrums, like a toddler- at least inside, when we don't get the thing that we want or feel like we "need".

At the end of each chapter there is a section called Planting Seeds where Jantz asks questions and allows you time and space to reflect on what you have learned and to put it into practice.

Thanks to David C Cook via B&B Media Group for a free copy of this book to review

Excess is a wonderful thing but it can easily consume our lives. "Gotta Have It! Freedom from Wanting Everything" is a guide to fighting the wants and go in pursuit of the needs. Letting go of one's frivolous wants proves to be a wise key in controlling one's life and attaining a greater level of happiness, and Dr. Gregory L. Jantz helps readers drop the nagging feeling. Thoughtful with plenty of wisdom, "Gotta Have It!" is a fine collection and a solidly recommended one.

Dr. Jantz's new book has the subtitle, "Freedom from Wanting Everything, Right Here, Right Now." Readers will discover why they crave excessities, learn how to judge their importance and how God can help let go of them.