Get Off Your "But"

Get Off Your “But”, by Sean Stephenson
Published by Jossey-Bass
ISBN: 978-0-470-39993-4
Rating: Must read

If you want to be inspired to ‘get off your but’ and make positive changes to your life, then reading, Get Off Your “But”, by Sean Stephenson is a must read. Suffering from birth with Osteogenesis Imperfecta, a brittle bones disorder, Sean Stephenson shares with us his thirty year journey of his life. He has us realize our full potential in spite of any adversities we endure. Sean makes us realize there are no excuses to why we sit on our ‘buts’.
Sean shares his daily endurance to his physical disabilities to teach his readers we can overcome our fears and insecurities and learn more about ourselves. He gives us practical skills to help us to get off out ‘buts’ and live our life to the fullest. Sean lives his life in a wheelchair with his disease with ‘pain’ as his middle name. When asked if he gets used to the pain Sean replies, “No, at best I understand how to control it.” This is Sean’s message to his readers in his realistic guidebook, Get Off Your “But”. He shows us how we control our own life. We can feel sorry for ourselves, or we can Get off our ‘buts’ to make positive changes in our lives. Today Sean is a psychotherapist and a world renowned professional speaker.
What makes Sean so special? He learned how to displace his daily pain through self-discovery, “Pain was my teacher and I became its good little student.” Sean eliminated all his ‘buts’ and he encourages his readers to eliminate our ‘buts’. For example: Sure, I’d like to change, BUT….. I’m too old/too young. I’m too short/too tall. I’m too fat/too skinny. I’m not pretty /handsome enough. I’m not smart enough. I have a learning disability. Sound familiar? It sure did to me.
I had an unexpected life change at age 55 due to a chronic illness and have been sitting on my ‘but’ for nine months, ‘but’ I am disabled’. After reading Sean’s six lessons in his book, I am now off my ‘but’! Never before has a book gone beyond words on a page to real life behavior changes like Sean Stephenson’s book. Sean’s encouragements in his words and lifelong lessons have his readers participate in activities such as writing responses in a journal. This activity gives us true insights and helps us to get off our ‘but.’ Sean makes us realize we all have challenges and opportunities, and we can choose to sit on our ‘buts’ and make excuses or Get off our ‘buts’ and be successful in life. I chose to get off my ‘but’ after reading Sean Stephenson’s book, Get off Your “But” and I am looking forward to a sequel to keep me inspired to stay off my ‘but’.

Book Review by Mary Crocco

Green, by Ted Dekker

Green connects the Circle Series; Black, Red, and White. This is Book Zero, the Beginning and the End, which can be the starting point for readers who have not yet read the trilogies, and it may also serve as an ending to those readers who have read Black, Red, and White. Green is a science fiction/fantasy story with spiritual parallels to the Bible. Thomas Hunter bears the burden of fighting good and evil, using the Books of History. In these Books, events following the year 2010 have yet to begin. Strangely enough, they began in the year 4036 AD, the future, not the past.
Green is filled with suspense, violence, and hate, however, love and romance is not forgotten in the story. I liked how Ted Dekker described the characters and battles Thomas Hunter fought in both worlds in great detail, which invoked nightmares if reading the book before bedtime. On the other hand, when reading the references to the Book of Histories, it made me stop reading, close the book, and think about my knowledge of the Bible. It was thought provoking to me because I currently have mixed feelings about my faith.
I would recommend reading this novel; however, I would advise reading the trilogies first. Without prior knowledge, I could see a reader becoming confused. The ending itself has me thinking Ted Dekker is leaving room for an ‘opening’ to The Circle in the future, another good reason to read the trilogies first. You decide if you agree after reading, Green, by Ted Dekker.
I am a member of Thomas Nelson’s Book Review blogger program. http://brb.thomasnelson.com/
Book Review by Mary Crocco