Giant Killers: Overcoming Obstacles and Seizing Opportunities

Review\nINDIE READER BOOK REVIEWGiant Killers: Overcoming Obstacles and Seizing Opportunities
By Steve Lawson\nIR Verdict: In a sea of books that offers guidance to leaders,especially in the Christian nonfiction segment, GIANT KILLERS provides a fresh,modern take on an ancient story.\n"a Christian perspective on how emotional intelligence and mindfulness can lead to the strength people often need to face their giants"
Everyone has "giants" in their lives that need slaying--fears, worries, guilt, insecurity, etc.--but those giants can be overcome through self-awareness, combined with God's grace.\nThe Bible story of David and Goliath has long symbolized how people can overcome seemingly impossible situations to come out ahead. Former pastor and church planter, Steve Lawson uses this story as the pervasive foundation for his book, GIANT KILLERS: OVERCOMING OBSTACLES AND SEIZING OPPORTUNITIES. Lawson, now a leadership trainer, explains how the giants in peoples' lives hold them back from moving forward through daily issues, such as broken relationships, financial worries, addiction, and grief.Calling upon the work of authors such as Tom Rath (Strengths Finder 2.0)and John Ortberg (The Life You've Always Wanted),Lawson shares through personal experiences, other people's stories, and passages from the Bible how "key character qualities of identity, discipline,graciousness, action, and hope--when combined with the power of God's grace--will enable any leader to not only overcome any obstacle, but will prepare him or her to seize opportunities as well."\nLawson's non-confrontational, non-judgmental,conversational writing style and thoughtful use of scripture offers a Christian perspective on how emotional intelligence and mindfulness can lead to the strength people often need to face their giants and overcome the barriers between fear and triumph. Although the book was written for a Christian audience, the universality of the David and Goliath story and the real-life situations discussed in the book do not preclude non-Christians from gaining insight into the importance of self-awareness, empathy, and hope.\nIn a sea of books that offers guidance to leaders, especially in the Christian nonfiction segment, GIANT KILLERS provides a fresh, modern take on an ancient story.\n~IndieReader.
IR received this book free from the author who paid for the review. The remuneration in no way affected IR's feedback on the work.
- See more at:indiereader.com/2016/04/giant-killers-overcoming-obstacles-and-seizing-opportunities/#sthash.qAUfAGOb.dpuf\nKIRKUS REVIEWS
A spiritual guide to overcoming life's seemingly outsized obstacles.\nAs the centerpiece of his nonfiction debut, longtime pastor and public speaker Lawson has chosen the biblical figure of King David, which is always a tricky gambit. Although David is one of the most courageous, charismatic figures in the Old Testament, it can also be argued that he's one of the most self-serving, so using him as a guide to life requires some careful picking and choosing. As this book's title indicates, Lawson opens his narrative with the signature story of young David's heroism defeating the Philistine champion Goliath in single combat. In Lawson's conception, Goliath stands in for all the seemingly unbeatable difficulties of life, and he stresses that such difficulties are not always external. They can take the shape of an "internal list" of "all those things that one has done, things that have been done to us, mistakes we have made,failures, frustrations, and weaknesses," he says, which combine to form"an impenetrable case for why we are unworthy to do anything for God."\nThe author's easily accessible progression of chapters features plenty of self-deprecating humor and pop-culture references, including nods to the movies The Blues Brothers (1980)and The Princess Bride (1987). He uses a series of stories from David's life to make his case that "giants come in all forms" and to stress that Christians sho