Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Immersion: Live the Life God Envisioned for You by Mark McNees


Publisher: CreateSpace
Publication Date: April 2011
Format: eBook
Pages: 280
ISBN: 978-1460967706
List Price: $2.99
Memorable Quote: “It does not matter if you are Bill Gates or a homeless person, you have the same amount of hours each day, week, month and year. So, how are you going to invest the time you have been entrusted with in this life?”
Mark McNees’s Immersion: Live the Life God Envisioned for You is inspiring, entertaining and heartfelt. McNees combines personal anecdotes, scriptural analysis, and individual/group Bible study activities as he guides us on a journey to understand God’s purpose for our lives. Immersion is broken down into seven themed sections—1) Life Immersed: The Great Commandment, 2) Water: Loving God with all you heart, 3) Breathe: Loving God with all your soul, 4) Navigate: Loving God with all your mind, 5) Kick: Loving God with all your strength,  6) Stroke/Pull: loving others as yourself, 7) Swim to Win: Putting in all together. McNees carefully uses the metaphor of competitive distance swimming to link and explain his message. Although not an athletic or sports fan, I did enjoy this framework because it allowed me to see that true faith does not come easily without dedication and persistence. I also enjoyed that McNees’s admitted earlier on that he was not a perfect figure and experienced his own struggles. By relying on God, however, he was able to overcome these struggles. 
In short, I highly recommend Immersion to others. It provides a holistic guide that addresses faith as well as everyday goals such as time management and healthy eating habits. Plus, McNees’s writing style makes it a fun and at times humorous read.