Book Review: Unstuck (Tim Lane)

Review by Thomas Eglinton

Every Christian wants to change. As God reveals our individual sins to us, we want to repent from them and start living a holy life in those areas. But it isn’t that easy. We often find ourselves struggling with the same sin, trying and failing to overcome. It is easy to feel stuck.

This is where Tim Lane seeks to help in his book ‘Unstuck’. The subtitle is ‘a nine step journey to change that lasts’ but it is not a self-help book. Instead, Tim presents a framework to help you stop and think during those moments of temptation.

What I love about this book is that it is about those moments.

How should you think when you feel the anger rise in your chest? What can you do when lustful thoughts call? What are some core truths that will help when you feel anxiety start to take over?

Tim positions the reader in that moment and the gives nine things to think through that will help you change. I don’t think that you would sit down and go through each of the nine steps every time you feel tempted, instead I think different points will resonate with different people at different times. So what this book does is put prompters in your head so you can begin to think biblically during the stress of temptation.

Tim even provides some personal stories to show you how the biblical thinking he is writing about can be worked out in practice.

There is a very helpful info-graphic to help you understand and remember these prompters. You can view that graphic below.

This book is a helpful resource for pastors and counsellors to be aware of as it is written for every Christian as we all struggle through this life – repenting of our sin and ‘working out our salvation in fear and trembling’.

Unstuck: A nine-step journey to change that lasts

by Tim Lane