The BodyGlove

All my life I’ve struggled with swimming. I’ve almost drowned twice, and I would add one more time simply due to the terror that swept through me that I might go under.

I typically chalked up my lack of water-favor and water-fervor to my lack of swimming lessons when I was a child, or my sinus issues when freestyling. My wife and friends swim across a lake, and I only join them if I’m wearing a life preserver or sporting a raft.

Then, a friend informed me that because of bone density, there are some people who tend to sink, while others tend to float. I never heard such a thing; but it explained alot. I’ve always struggled to stay above the water, in every setting.

As far back as I can remember, I sunk. Add to this that I hate getting cold, and you understand why I happily watch my children spend hours in the water while I watch from the sidelines.

Then, my friend Brian bought a BodyGlove. $35 CAN at Costco. Big end of summer sale.

He said, “I float. I’m warm. I want to swim.”

After much deliberation, I bought one.

I float. I’m warm. I want to swim, too.

My life has changed this summer. I want to swim. All the time. You can’t get me out of the water.

A simple truth. A risky purchase based on a simple truth. An outward change that others would find fodder for uninvited commentary. Old fears displaced by a fresh sense of possibility.

As an unwitting evangelist for BodyGlove, I now have 4 friends interested in buying one themselves, and none of them surf.

One man’s hope precipitates another’s; not a work that is so hard to do when one has fully bought in, and taken the risk. Thanks, BodyGlove.

P.S. My wife is diggin’ the new look. Smokin’.

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Sheltering Mercy: Prayers Inspired by the Psalms

Sheltering Mercy, along with its companion volume, Endless Grace, helps us rediscover the rich treasures of the Psalms—through free-verse prayer renderings of their poems and hymns—as a guide to personal devotion and meditation.

The church has always used the Psalms as part of its prayer life, and they have inspired countless other prayers. This book contains 75 prayers drawn from Psalms 1-75, providing lyrical sketches of what authors Ryan Smith and Dan Wilt have seen, heard, and felt while sojourning in the Psalms. Each prayer is a response to the Psalms written in harmony with Scripture. These prayers help us quiet our hearts before God and welcome us into a safe place amid the storms of life.

This artful, poetic, and classic devotional book features compelling custom illustrations and foil-stamped hardcover binding, offering a fresh way to reflect on and pray the Psalms.