I am an a officially trained philosopher of religion at the University of Oxford 😉 .

My Dad, Ron Grow (1947–2021) died at 4am (pst) on January 11^th, 2021. He had been in and out of the hospital over the last two years, and had other health problems over the years prior. This time he ended up in the hospital in July and then after being in hospital for close to three months spent the last month and a half or so in a nursing home under hospice care. He was a retired Conservative Baptist Pastor, and lived in Southern California (where he was also born). I love my dad immensely, and miss him more than words can articulate. Please keep our family, and me, in prayer through this season of grievance. He was suffering greatly at the time of his death, so I find great comfort in knowing he is now full of the joy and health of the Lord at this very moment (I try to imagine what that looks like, but it is hard). The sense and reality of absence right now can be overwhelming, as you many of you know who have lost close loved ones as well. Death still has a sting, but it is the last enemy that will finally be put under Jesus’ feet at the eschaton. I pray for the eschaton, that its eschatos, Jesus Christ, might come, and come quickly! I have all the more reason to want to be there now. I won’t end this with the typical RIP; that seems too final. I don’t want closure; I am remaining open to the notion that I know the One that sees my Dad right before Him right now. I find great hope and blessed assurance in this. I pray that the Lord tells my Dad, to his face, that I love Him; and I am confident He does. But please do pray for the family. The funeral will be in a few weeks, and so until that happens it will be hard to move forward with certain things; like the mourning process. You can read a tribute post I wrote for my Dad over a year ago now. I wanted him to read something like this before he left for glory (and he did read it).

PS. My blog post output might be even slower than it has been during this next season, we will see. On the other hand, writing has always been therapeutic for me.