Swensons Book Critique

Swenson Book Critique

MARGIN: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives

Name of Student: Charl E. McRae

Class: (PLED 625)

Instructor: Dr. David Hirschman

In this assignment, we have been given the task of reading “Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives” by Richard Swenson to critique and give personal application to our lives. When we compare our needs and the things that we face today, compared to the generations before us, it is more and more apparent that we have a bigger struggle with the balancing of our lives. It is very easy for us to point out the obvious things that have happened, such as the betterment of technology, and yes this is something that while trying to enhance changes, still hindered man and kept man tied down. There’s still a bigger issue that a solution needs to be found for. In this book, we see Richard Swenson writing from the perspective of a medical doctor and also a believer in Jesus Christ. He uses the term “Margin” to describe what is missing in the lives of the people that he sees on a daily basis. This book is written to a Christian audience and after reading, we see that there is practical wisdom to a people that have priorities out of place and being over-taken by the accelerating pace of things around them.

Summary

In reading the introduction to this book, I found Swenson, dealing with a topic that has plagued the 21st century dearly, and this topic is “Stress and Overload”. Swenson starts his thought of in the section that is entitled “THE PROBLEM: PAIN”. It’s in this section that Swenson takes the time to discuss the impact progress has on a man’s life and also the detriments as well. At this same time, Swenson informs the people that there is a cure, and this is something that grabbed my attention. As stated earlier, Swenson has broken this book up into three sections that will both measure and address the problem,...