Apparently, someone at the University of Virginia is smoking crack.

Some of you may remember that we had a false alarm last year and thought that the end was near for my grandfather.  It was a good false alarm, in that I think it gave my father a peace about eventually losing his father, especially after flying up to NJ to see him and having a good visit.

Well, Poppy shook loose his earth-suit of 97+ years on Monday.

It’s been a long day (for a bunch of reasons), so I’m gonna be lazy and just quote an email that I sent out to friends earlier tonight.

All,

I would appreciate prayer for my father’s family. My father’s father died today. It was fairly expected, as his body seemed to be shutting down over the last week or so. He was a believer, so we know he is with Jesus, and is finally re-united with his wife of 71 years (she died in Sep 2005).

And seeing as how Philly and South Jersey are close to heaven, he had a shorter trip than most.

Dad seemed to be at peace with it, though he was (of course) sobbing when he called to tell me. I think the false alarm that we got back in October of 2007 and Dad’s subsequent trip up to NJ to see his father gave him the closure that he needed.

Paraphrasing something that I wrote shortly before this trip: We are certain (as any one person can be of another) of the salvation of most of my family, whereas some cousins and spouses, not so much. And (as would be expected) there’s a variance of closeness to the Lord among the Christian members of my extended family. So, in whatever way God wants to use each person, please pray that He’ll be seen clearly and glorified in these upcoming days.

Final arrangements haven’t been made yet, but it’s looking like the funeral will be on Friday. FYI and FWIW, I won’t be going up there for the funeral (long story).

Grace
Brendt

Over the last 6-7 weeks, I’ve been dealing with a kidney stone. I had two lithotripsies (where they blast the stone wtih sonic waves to break it up).  After the second one, the doctor said that the fragments that remained were passable without a lot of pain, as long as they didn’t bunch up.

I have been told that kidney stones are the closest that guys can come to giving birth.  Thankfully, I was blessed through most of this process by (relatively) little pain most of the time.  But, then the “danger” of bunching up became a reality. Apparently, I had good Christian fragments that were obeying Hebrews 10:25 and were “not forsaking the assembling of [themselves] together, as is the manner of some [stone fragments]“.  Starting on Wednesday night, I was hitting Amazon for baby name books.

The pain backed off some by mid-day on Thursday, but the doctor and I decided that it was time to operate and just get out what was left — which he did on Friday.  This procedure is invasive (yeah, they go up where you’d think they would).  In and of itself, it doesn’t yield post-operative pain.  However, going to the bathroom after the procedure will sting a lot for the first few days.  So they gave me a drug that raises the pH level of you know what, thereby making it less acidic and therefore less painful to pass.

As with many liquids, changing its pH level also means that its color changes.  Now I finally understand what someone means when they say that they’re “going green”.

Q: Why are Baptists opposed to pre-marital sex?
A: Because it might lead to dancing.

And dancing might lead to this.

Side question:  What brand of Christianity encourages (demands?) that women wear shin-length shapeless dresses, but thinks that (bad) dancing to (unsuccessfully) mimic pop stars is OK?  That’s a strange combo.

I found this video on Tim Challies‘ site.  I’m not sure whether to give him a HT or a smack. 

Not that I haven’t been saying it all along, but look at this and tell me that Obama’s entire platform isn’t “I’m not McCain/Bush.”

HT to Challies

The following post contains partial nudity. Viewer discretion is advised.

Uber-blogger and Canadian Tim Challies gives his perspective on Sarah Palin and the hub-bub surrounding her.  He looks at the issues both from a political standpoint and from a Christian standpoint.

Most of it is serious, however, my favorite part (at the end of a long week) was when he characterized Palin as being “undoubtedly a better shot than Dick Cheney!”

(Don’t bother with the comments — they start out with the clown that trolls Tim’s and JT’s sites, and probably don’t get any better.  Tim often attracts commenters that disagree with him, but on the rare occasions that he goes poltiical, things go really weird.)

He was just sitting there, staring at the front of my house.

“Mom just mentioned us. I think we’re supposed to stand up. C’mon guys, stand up!”

“Well, I’m standing up.  Hi, Mom!!”

There’s this moment, too.

HT to JT for the video part.