News to make me sing

I just got an excellent telephone call. Not only is all my blood work "normal" and in good shape, but my mammograms are all clear. Hurrah! God is good and to be praised no matter what, but it is so easy to sing praise to Him when he is so kind to me!

I am still scheduled for a chest C-T in April, followed by a follow-up with the oncologist, and I need to make some decisions about whether I will see my current oncologist or not, so I would appreciate your continued prayers for me, and for these upcoming events.

Tomorrow, I am getting on a plane, Lord willing, and heading to Bloomington, IN, to visit with Ben and Elsa. I was excited anyway, since this trip was canceled a couple of times due to my treatment. But now I can go without wondering about those test results. Isn't God gracious?

Praise God from whom all blessings flow:
Praise Him all people here below.
Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts.
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost!
~ The Old Hundredth metered Psalm, sung by grateful children since around 1550

Sundays with Jean

Here are a few collected quote from this week's reading of Calvin's Institutes.

If we confess that we lack what we seek of God, and he by promising it proves our lack of it, no one should now hesitate to confess that he is able to understand God's mysteries only in so far as he is illumed by God's grace. He who attribultes any more understanding to himself is all the more blind because he does not recognize his own blindness.
(2.2.21)

If...the Lord wished to show that nothing good can ever be wrung from our heart, unless it become wholly other, let us not divide between him and us what he claims to himself alone. If, therefore, a stone is transformed into flesh when God converts us to zeal for the right, whatever is of our own will is effaced. What takes its place is wholly from God.
(2.3.6)

As Augustine teaches, grace precedes every good work; while will does not go before as its leader but follows after as its attendant.
(2.3.7)

...God by co-operating perfects that which by operating he has begun...
(2.3.11)

"...Grace anticipates unwilling man that he may will: it follows him willing that he may not will in vain." Bernard agrees with Augustine when he makes the church speak thus: "Draw me, however unwilling, to make me willing; draw me slow-footed, to make me run."
(2.3.12)

...the human will does not obtain grace by freedom, but obtains freedom by grace; when the feeling of delight has been imparted through the same grace, the human will is formed to endure; it is strengthened with unconquerable fortitude; controlled by grace, it never will perish, but, if grace forsake it, it will straightway fall; by the Lord's free mercy it is converted to good, and once converted it perseveres in good; the direction of the human will toward good, and after direction its continuation in good, depend solely upon God's will, not upon any merit of man. Thus there is left to man such free will, if we please so to call it, as he elsewhere describes: that except through grace the will can neither be converted to God not abide in God; and whatever it can do it is able to do only through grace.
(2.3.14)

The agrarian side of life...

My sweet husband is out in the back yard turning manure into my small vegetable garden so that when we return from our trip to Indiana next week, we will be ready to plant peas and spinach. Meanwhile, in the sun room, tomatoes and squash, snapdragons, violas and forget-me-nots are all growing from little seedlings into bigger seedlings. And next week is Spring break at Indiana University. And the NCAA basketball tournament announcements are tomorrow. I guess Spring is really almost here!

There is something about the rhythm of the seasons and growing things that reminds me of the preciousness of life, and the care of our heavenly Father for us and out world. Are you weary of the winter, Gentle Reader? Get a pot and plant some seeds. You will feel better.

Redeeming time...

Recently a friend remarked that she was amazed at the number of books I read. I was, in turn, quite shocked. I am a slow, plodding reader, and don't consider myself a very "good" reader, though I love books and reading. When I started to think about it, I realized that there are many ways I chip away at reading, and over time, the little chips add up to quite a mound.

One thing I do is download an audio book on my mP3 player to listen to while I walk each day. This means 30-50 minutes of listening most days. I can chip away at some longer books that I may not otherwise complete that way. Right now I am enjoying Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy as I walk. And sometimes when I want a little break from Hardy, I switch over to Scripture Memory Songs, or just listen to the world around me and the reflections of my heart. However, at times, I need to discipline my own thoughts, and listening to something helps with that!

I also download an audio book onto the computer in the office to listen to while I sew. Currently I am being awed by the prose of Augustine in his Confessions.

When I am doing busy-work in my room (dusting, or cleaning my bathroom or floors, or organizing closets or drawers) I often listen to sermons or lectures on the computer in there. That is how I am chipping away at Dr. David Calhoun's lectures from Covenant Seminary on the Institutes of Calvin. I'm not sure how flattered Dr. Calhoun would be to know I listen to his excellent lectures while I clean the bathroom, but I am enjoying them and finding them profitable.

I also take time each morning to read scripture and pray. I am currently going through the bible in two years, and my dil Elsa is joining me in that journey.

I set aside a little reading time most afternoons. This is rest and refreshment time, and my body and mind need it.

Dave and I read aloud together for a few minutes at the end of the day most days, as well. Currently, we are reading through Calvin's Institutes that way, though we have read a variety of things in that time, and it has been a great way to finish the day together.

I also never leave the house without a book. This is how I chip away at some of my non-fiction reading in particular. I can read a few paragraphs or a chapter while waiting in the doctor's office, and it adds up over time.

This year as I have completed my cancer treatments, I have found it a particularly necessary spiritual discipline to keep my mind fixed on good and true and beautiful things. These are some of the disciplines that have helped me to do that. I hope they will encourage you, Gentle Readers, and if you have other suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

Basketball as therapy...

Yesterday my sweet husband sent me an article on the effects of menopause which was sent to him by our insurance company. That pretty much sums up my yesterday. Just read the list of symptoms: mood swings, hot flashes, trouble sleeping and concentrating, etc., etc. There you have me. Add to that the additional problems with all this being induced by a drug, with the stress of waiting for medical test results, and with the normal-life adjustments that have to be faced post-cancer, and yesterday was just a tough hill to climb and leave behind me. But today the daffodils are blooming (even though we are under a winter storm warning...)

March has historically been a tough month for us. Dave has had at least three cancer recurrences start in March, and I've had one. We like to just get through March, quite frankly, and I'm sure it is part of the little battle I am fighting with my emotions. I am fighting to trust God here, and He is gracious in keeping me from despair.

The up-side of March is that even if you end up in the hospital, the NCAA basketball tournament games are on all day. What a lovely distraction! Part of fighting despair, after all, is distraction. When do brackets come out, anyway?

Our continuing culture of death...

Gentle Reader, as you know, I usually post family news here: updates on my health, my family's health, or the doings of various family members, or reflections on the doings of our great God in our hearts and lives. I usually save my rantings for my other blog. But I am so concerned about the turn of policy in this country with regards to the use of embryonic stem cells in research, that I felt obliged to write not only about it on my other blog, but here as well.

On Monday of this week, President Obama rescinded the ban on federal funding for certain types of embryonic stem cell research. He did so without ever addressing any of the moral question surrounding such research, and public funding of it. I have grave concerns for the broad approval President Obama has given. Even the Washington Post and the New York Times, not normally places I look to for my moral compass, discuss the problem. Andrew Kern over at the Quiddity blog asks the question fairly:

The natural sciences are not morally neutral, they are subservient to morality. They are mere knowledge, which, in turn gives power. Knowledge may conceivably be regarded as morally neutral (I don’t think I see it that way, but I can see how people would). Power cannot. Power enables action. Action is always moral.

Therefore the moral sciences provide a higher order of knowledge than scientific knowledge...

The last century has, practically and philosophically, made clear that scientific knowledge is not morally neutral if only because human beings possess it and are empowered by it.

Let us grant, then, for the sake of argument, that science should be freed from religious constraints. Should it also be freed from moral constraints? And where do those morals come from? Historically, I can only see two options: metaphysics (philosophy) and religion.

The trouble with metaphysics is its practical instability. Plato made it rather obvious that only a few people can attain to the level of metaphysical clarity that can order a society. That is at least one reason why he never opposed religion per se.

For this reason, a democracy could never survive a scientific age in which morality is based on metaphysics. If, then, we have eliminated metaphysics (philosophy) and religion, then what will we base our decisions on?

This question cannot be dodged.

You can read the whole thing here (only slightly longer than this excerpt) here. President Obama's claim that science is morally neutral is absurd, as is aptly pointed out here. Robert George and Eric Cohen state the case much better than I can. They say in part:

For those who believe in the highest ideals of deliberative democracy, and those who believe we mistreat the most vulnerable human lives at our own moral peril, Mr. Obama's claim of "taking politics out of science" should be lamented, not celebrated.

In the years ahead, the stem-cell debate will surely continue -- raising as it does big questions about the meaning of human equality at the edges of human life, about the relationship between science and politics, and about how we govern ourselves when it comes to morally charged issues of public policy on which reasonable people happen to disagree. We can only hope, in the years ahead, that scientific creativity will make embryo destruction unnecessary and that as a society we will not pave the way to the brave new world with the best medical intentions.

You can read the whole piece from the Wall Street Journal here.

If you would like to learn more about this whole issue, I suggest you read this piece by Yuval Levin of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, or read this List of the Media Myths about stem cell research. The truth is, there have been no applied cures from embryonic stem cells, even though a life is destroyed. Adult stem cells have had much more success in actual treatments, and are available without the death of the donor.

I am afraid that the research and morality involved in this issue is being ignored in favor of promulgating the idea that we are free to do whatever we wish. And the culture of death we are creating will be a frightening place to try to live. May God have mercy on us, and cause us to both follow Him and protect the lives of the helpless.

Happy Birthday Elcejo!

When we were first getting to know Elsa, we would occaisionaly IM with her when she was at Hillsdale. Her "screen name" was "Elcejo", short for "Elsa Christine Johnson" (and pronounced el-see-joe). Well, somehow, I still think of her affectionately as Elcejo.

So happy birthday, Elcejo! You have brought much joy to our family, and now we can't even imagine you not being part of our lives!