FROM A SOW'S EAR TO A SILK PURSE/SANCTIFICATION

Walla Walla, WA 70 degrees, beautiful weather,

I have my second R-CHOP tomorrow. It is a 6-7 hour process and I'm not looking forward to it. Hopefully my PICC line will work for the infusions and everything will go smoothly. I am starting to lose my hair. It comes out in clumps. I told our daughter Cleo that I am starting to look like a dog with mange. I may just shave it all off to get it over with. Cleo is saving some of it to make a bird's nest. I told her to make it big enough for a Robin's nest, she got a kick out of that. I am hearing from brothers and sisters that they have received their blood sample kits from the SCCA. They will get those sent back in and then we will find out who is a possible stem cell donor match. I will have a PET scan within 3 weeks to see how effective the R-CHOP  has been. That's when I will have to go back to Seattle and make decisions about the timing for the Stem Cell Transplant. There are some big decisions surrounding all of those details, and we would appreciate your prayers for wisdom and discernment. We weaned the 2010 calf crop yesterday. The mother cows don't seem too stressed about it all. The calves are in the feedlot next to the barn and are already munching on hay through the feeder panels. They will need their second shot in two weeks for all their post weaning vaccinations. Bud Bier is putting up our final 16 acres of feeder hay this week. So far, the weather is co-operating and that will wrap up all our 2010 farm work. We sold some grass horse hay last week and got more hay stored in the barn for winter. Being home has given us a chance to get all the regular things done that need to be done before winter. The cows will be out on pasture for another 6-7 weeks before we will have to think about supplementing their feed rations. Cleo will have to round up some help to take care of that over the winter. Kriss is looking forward to leaving her crutches behind in less than two weeks. I would like to share with you the story of a special man who walked on crutches for 21 years, from 1641-1662.

Blaise Pascal was born June 19, 1623. His mother died when he was three years old. When he was eight, his father moved with his three children to Paris, France so that he could better care for them and provide the best opportuities for an education. He knew that Blaise was a gifted child. When the author Chateaubriand met him for the first time, he described Blaise as "un effrayant genie", a frightening genius. Desiring Blaise to have a more classical education, his father forbade him from studying mathematics. That minor impediment did not stop Pascal from learning on his own. By the time he was 11 years old, he surrepticiously had a paper published on the creation of sound and sound waves, based on his secret study of mathematical principles. His father relented and enrolled him with the greatest mathematicians of his day. By the age of 12, he had mastered the 33 original propositions of Euclide. His fame intensified with his publication, at 16 years of age, of an essay on cones and conical properties.

His father worked for the government calculating tax and interest fees. It was a job he could do at home so he could be with his children as much as possible. However, he often would work through the night doing all these minute calculations. Blaise created "la machine arithmetique", or a device that could make those calculations which would become the precusor to all modern calculators and computors. It made his father's work feasible, given the time he had available. By this time his family had moved to Rouen. Following an accident in which he broke his leg, Blaise's father needed in home medical care. It was provided by two caregivers who had recently been converted to the teachings of Jansenism, an offshoot of Catholicism that melded teachings of Augustine and Calvin. The entire family was converted and Blaise came to the conclusion that the ultimate goal in life was not the acquistion of truth, but the inculcation of holiness. Tragically, Blaise had fallen victim to early onset tuberculosis when he was 18 years old. He would have to use crutches for the next 21 years until his death in 1662. Rather than becoming embittered by his limitations, Pascal used his suffering as a launch pad in order to focus more fully on the sicknesses of his soul. He wrote an essay entitled: "Prayer to God - How to Best Learn From Affliction". From 18 on, he would never live a day without physical pain and misery. He is a living testimony to all of us about overcoming great obstacles.

Despite his physical limitations, it seemed to magnify his intellectual and spiritual gifts. Pascal had an unique view of science and religion. Theology was a "science, or source of knowledge based on the authority of revealed truth in Holy Scripture". Emperical Science was "based on human reason and scientific experimentation that led to 'connaissance' deep understanding". In his vast mind and view of the world, he was able to reconcile his religious convictions with his world changing scientific contributions. He rejected all authority, both ecclesiastical and intellectual that refused to embrace new understandings and progress. His secular resume is without equal. His studies on "le vide", or vacuum, led to the creation of the first barometer and such practical devices as the hypodermic syringe. Ultimately he would establish the foundational principles of hydraulics, infinitesimal calculus, theories of probability and vast theological insights. Equally, he would put into practice his biblical convictions in the creation of a form of public transportation for the poor by purchasing, from his own resources, wagons and teams to make circular routes to safely transport workers to and from places of employment. The streets of Paris were plagued by reckless aristocrats travelling in large carriages that maimed and killed untold numbers of pedestrians, usually the poor and halt. Blaise felt he was supernatually saved from one such incident while traversing a bridge in Paris and barely escaped death or further physical impariment.

As with all human beings, Pascal experienced his own wanderings in the wilderness. Following the death of his father in 1651, Blaise struggled with a crisis of faith and identity. His father had been the foundation stone that stabilized his entire life. How could he live without that stability and security? He went through a period of secularism and public acclaim. He was a favorite among the salon devotees and he embraced a new philosophy of life that sought to understand the world through instinct and calculated behavior. He provided for his new admirers ideas on beating the odds at gambling, which made him very welcome and  popular, indeed. He eventually, however, would be drawn back into the fellowship of the faithful. Monday, November 23, 1654 between the hours of 10:30 pm and 12:30 am, Blaise would describe in minute detail an encounter with the living God. Words like certitude, joy, peace and total submission would highlight his response to this encounter. He summorizes this experience by stating: "Eternally in joy as a result of one day of spiritual awareness in this world. Non obliviscar sermones tuos "I will never forget your promises". Amen.
Rededicated to his love for God and his passion to serve others, Pascal would consecrate the rest of his life to writing Christian treatises, debating opponents of Jansenism, and hiding out after he and his teachings were banned by the Papal authorities. Nearing the end of his life, he continued to show mercy and love. He gave a mother with a sick child his home, so she could properly care for her family. He had his sister place him in the paupers home for the terminally ill so he could die amidst the poor. On his deathbed, his greatest regret was that he had not done enough to alleviate the sufferings of the poorest of the poor.

Looking at the short 39 year life of Blaise Pascal, one sees the process of christian sanctification. It did not originate with Blaise Pascal. He would be the first to declare that it was all by grace and the free gift of God. He would be very content today, knowing that almost all of Christendom knows little or nothing about him personally. but benefits daily from his great knowledge and contributions to the world. His was a heart dedicated to loving and serving both God and humanity. If you ever travel to Stockholm, Sweden, visit the Royal Museum and there you will find the perfected Calculating Machine Pascal made for Queen Christine of Sweden around 1652. He is a living testimony of the faithfulness of God and the fruitfulness of lives that seek to honor God using the talents and abilities God provides. My own journey towards sanctification is very modest and far from complete. Nevertheless, my first summer working in Alberta was a jump-start on that path of holiness and sanctificaiton.

MEDICINE HAT, ALBERTA, CANADA SUMMER OF 1966

One of the first reality checks I received after being on brother Noel's cattle ranch for only a couple of days, was my language. Noel took me aside shortly upon my arrival and asked firmly and bluntly, if I would clean up my language around his two young sons. Well, I had been making a sincere and conscious effort to not use any words that would be offensive, but it seems it wasn't good enough. "Gosh darn", "Shoot", "Son of a gun" and other seemingly innoculous phrases were just thinly disguised replacements for their sinful cousins. I would have to learn a whole new way of talking, and I did. The first Saturday I was there was shopping in town day. It was starting to warm up and I put on a pair of cut-off pants to go to town. Noel flatly said he wouldn't be caught dead being seen with someone wearing cut off pants to town, so I could choose to change clothes, or stay home alone. Reality check #2. Sunday, of course, was a day of worship and rest. I had no idea that it would be taken so literally or consistently. Going to church was a cultural, as well as a spiritual shock. Boy and girls were segregated in separate classrooms, even for high school students. What a bummer. Noel and Betty attended a Church with a "holiness" origin and it wasn't anything like the Presbyterian worship services I was accustomed to attending. It could last long past the normal hour of 12 noon and it got pretty emotional at times. Returning home, we had a great lunch that Betty had mostly prepared the day before and then I was informed that it was time to rest, meaning FOB, flat on bed. I wasn't used to doing nothing on Sunday and I tried to argue my way around this new reality, but to no avail. The clincher was after nap time, we had a very light snack and headed back into town for evening worship. What a shock to my system to find out that going to church in the morning was just the prelude to the real service that took place in the evening. This was a praise and testimony service where people were expected to get up and share what God was doing in their lives and world. It could go on forever. After less than a week, I would have probably headed back home, but I had no way of getting there.

The details of my employment were that I was to work 6 days a week for $5 a day, plus room and board. It was better money and food than I could have earned back in Wapato, and Noel wouldn't pay me until the end of the summer, so I wouldn't be tempted to foolishly spend any of it. Week two brought another crisis. I received a letter saturated with perfume and covered with lipstick imprints of lucious lips back in Wapato. Betty was sincerely shocked that any self-respecting girl would send such a letter. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I wasn't so sure she was that self-respecting, but she let me have the letter in spite of her doubts about my moral character. Within two weeks the letters stopped. I'll never know if Betty confiscated the letters, or I was just another victim of short term romance and long distance forgetfulness. I grieved about a day or two and decided I was probably better off unattached for the moment. Slowly, God began to change my attitude and behavior. I actually started to listen in church and I met some really sincere believers who loved God and weren't ashamed to admit it.

Work on the ranch turned into a routine of irrigating, harvesting hay, fixing fence, working cattle and feeding chickens. It was those 500 chickens that changed my life for good. Betty raised these meat chickens to sell to customers in town in order to buy things for the family that she needed and wanted. About the hottest time of the summer, she told me that it was time to process the chickens. Now, I had helped my family butcher chickens back in North Dakota, but this was a serious number of chickens to process and I dreaded the smell of wet chicken feathers and warm entrails for two weeks. Every day we had to reach our goal of 50 chickens in order to be finished in two working weeks. It started at the crack of dawn. Heating water for scaulding, catching 50 chickens, removing the heads and stacking them up for dipping in the scaulding water and then we got to pluck every stinking feather and then "clean" them, or remove all the entrails. Final work was to singe off any chicken hair, wash them and put them in bags for the freezer. It took all day. I dreamed about chickens every night. I saw chicken feathers even when there weren't any. I could tell you everything about chicken anatomy in minute detail. To relieve the boredom, I thought about inventing an automatic guillotine devise the chickens would mount following a corn trail which would make the de-heading a lot more interesting. It was vetoed without serious consideration.The redeeming thing about chicken processing was the untold number of hours I spent just sitting in the shade of a building talking to Betty about life and faith. She was and is one of the most Godly people I have ever met. She truly cared about me and my well being. I could ask her anything and she had a gift of wisdom and compassion. The things she taught me those days doing chickens were worth all the boredom of chicken plucking. By the end of the summer, I had made some significant progress spiritually and personally. I used some of my earnings to buy a bred Hereford heifer. I took home the rest of my loot on a Greyhound Bus that took almost two days to get to Wapato, after an overnight stopover in Spokane. I would be entering Wapato High School that Fall and I was committed to living a Godly life and doing all things to the glory of God.