Unoffendable
How Just One Change Can Make All of Life Better
by Brant Hansen
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Pub Date Apr 14 2015 | Archive Date Apr 14 2015
Thomas Nelson--W Publishing | Thomas Nelson
Description
It turns out giving up your “right” to be offended can be one of the most freeing, healthy, simplifying, relaxing, refreshing, stress-relieving, encouraging things you can do.
It’s a radical, provocative idea: We’re not entitled to get offended or stay angry. The idea of our own “righteous anger” is a myth. It is the number one problem in our societies today and, as Dallas Willard says, Christians have not been taught out of it. But what if Christians were the most unoffendable people on the planet?
In Unoffendable you will find concrete, practical ways to live life with less stress, including:
- Adjusting your expectations to fit human nature
- Replacing perpetual anger with refreshing humility and gratitude
- Embracing forgiveness and beginning to love others in unexpected ways
In a humorous and conversational style, Unoffendable seeks to lift religious burdens from our backs and allow us to experience the joy of gratitude, perhaps for the first time, every single day of our lives—flourishing the way God intended.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9780529123855 |
| PRICE | $18.99 (USD) |
Average rating from 13 members
Featured Reviews
Lori Lutes (, Reviewer
http://shetreadssoftly.blogspot.com/2015/04/unoffendable.html 4/14/15
Unoffendable by Brant Hansen Thomas Nelson: 4/14/2015 eBook review copy, 224 pages ISBN-13: 9780529123855 http://branthansen.com/
My Thoughts:
Unoffendable: How Just One Change Can Make All of Life Better by Brant Hansen is very highly recommended life changing book. Today I am choosing to not be offended.
Hansen, in a very accessible, conversational style full of self-deprecating humor, draws the attention of Christians to a Biblical truth that we may be ignoring. We need to deliberately choose to not be angry, even righteous anger, and not take offense. We need to take a step forward in our faith and walk with God and choose to be unoffendable.
Hansen writes, "Not only can we choose to be unoffendable; we should choose that. We should forfeit our right to be offended. That means forfeiting our right to hold on to anger. When we do this, we’ll be making a sacrifice that’s very pleasing to God. It strikes at our very pride. It forces us not only to think about humility, but to actually be humble."
As humans we actually like to be angry. Anger offers us a sense of moral superiority. The problem is when anger takes up residence in our hearts. We need to do what Dr. Martin Luther King recommended: "recognize injustice, grieve it, and act against it - but without rage, without malice, and without anger." Learning to let things go, not take offense, not make it personal, is the biggest hurdle we face. Often whatever we are scandalized over or upset about doesn't even have anything to do with us; it's someone else's behavior.
If we can manage to not be offended and keep a mindset of gratitude life will go much better for us. "Because that’s the thing about gratitude and anger: They can’t coexist. It’s one or the other. One drains the very life from you. The other fills your life with wonder. Choose wisely." And if you are constantly being offended it might be time to honestly evaluate your inflamed ego. If you can have an attitude of gratitude and humility, you will quite naturally be less easily offended.
Hansen summarizes that, "Choosing to be unoffendable means choosing to be humble. Not only that, the practice teaches humility. Once you’ve decided you can’t control other people; once you’ve reconciled yourself to the fact that the world, and its people, are broken; once you’ve realized your own moral failure before God; once you’ve abandoned the idea that your significance comes from anything other than God, you’re growing in humility, and that’s exactly where God wants us all." "When we surrender our perceived “rights,” when we let go of our attempts to manipulate, we find—surprise!—joy." And wouldn't anyone choose joy over being angry and offended all the time?
This would be an excellent resource for a small group study or any individual who wants to break the easy-to-take-offense cycle that seems so common today. And, although this is firmly a Christian book, the world at large could do with a dose of being unoffendable. This is an eye-opening look at something most Christians know at some level but need to take that knowledge to heart. It's time to be unoffendable and acknowledge that God is in charge.
Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Thomas Nelson Publishers for review purposes.
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