Shannon McNear, Author

... that those glowing lightsticks can burst open? ... that anything the liquid spills on will likewise glow? ... that a glowing three-year-old will freak out?? Especially if her oldest brother suggests that the liquid is toxic and corrosive ... fortunately, the label says that the liquid is non-flammable and non-toxic. Temporary discomfort may be experienced if it gets in the eyes, however. Since her eyes aren't glowing--and we turned off the lights to be sure--I'm guessing she'll be okay. Life is never dull at my house ...

Waiting. Gotta love it. (insert slightly hysterical laughter) But if it's the Lord we're waiting on ... the payoff is STRENGTH and ENDURANCE. (Isaiah 40:31) This past week, I feel like I've been given a second wind--and those eagles' wings--and I'm just soaring. First of all, the "breakthrough" came in the form of an answering email from the personage who critiqued my work months ago, and offered me a recommendation to her agent ... and I found that email waiting for me last Thursday night after our Passover Seder. For those unfamiliar with the term, that's a family dinner celebrating Passover as the Jewish people continue to, only with a Messianic twist--showing how all the elements of the dinner/service point to and are fulfilled in, our Machiach Yeshua. As someone raised thoroughly Gentile, I find it a beautiful and unique way to celebrate the death and resurrection of our Lord. So anyway ... I'd been waiting a while to hear from said pe

It's been an interesting week. I haven't known quite what to post ... just one of those stretches where I've really had to cling to the knowledge that the Lord is good, and that He has a plan, and that His plan is good. :-) But, I think I had a breakthrough yesterday. Or rather, I did have a breakthrough ... one time of waiting is being exchanged for another, and I'm still floating from sheer relief. All week I've been contemplating a song from Newsboys' "Devotion"--one which talks about how no matter how life is going, whether good or bad, we should praise the Lord. "Every blessing You pour out I'll turn back to praise/when the darkness closes in, Lord, still I will say/Blessed be the Name of the Lord ..." Pretty elementary stuff, spiritually, but hardest to do when things are rough, or when we're stuck waiting with no discernable reason. Yet, absolutely vital ... I heard another song tonight, one that I've seen the word

(written late evening, March 31) I’m continually astonished at how the Lord provides confirmation—and a clear sense of His presence—every time I need it, and then some. Over and over … and over. Deep calls to deep at the noise of Your waterfalls … I’ve been doing the Beth Moore The Patriarchs study with some of the ladies at church for the past few months. (Yes, the study was designed as a 10-week course … so we’re a little slow.) I confess I hadn’t expected much when we first started, but this has been THE best study I’ve done in a while, maybe bar none—not only in the richness of how she covers the everyday real lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but also to the startling relevance the various issues they dealt with have had to my own life over the past months. (And note, I didn’t choose the name of my main character, Jake—derivative of Jacob—on purpose; that happened long before we started the study. So did the fact that my Jake just happens to be a “patriarch” of his own w