Author: Jeff Hampton

For Wilshire Baptist Church

For the past week as I’ve worked in my upstairs office, I’ve heard grinding and pounding as concrete foundations are broken and giant slabs are dropped into dump trucks. And behind it all has been the constant drone of heavy equipment.

The noise is coming from Garland’s Central Park a couple of blocks away where an old Air Force Reserve facility is being transformed into a dog park. It’s a modern-day version of the Biblical notion of beating swords into plowshares: where once upon a time, military personnel planned and practiced for invasions and battles, puppies and their owners will frolic in the green grass and relax under the canopy of trees.

Continue reading “Swords to Plowshares”

For Wilshire Baptist Church

It was surreal, and it was unexpected: I was standing next to LeAnn, my wife, while staring at the name of Debra, my first wife, on the mausoleum wall. I never expected to see that name on that wall so early in life, and after that happened, I never expected to love and marry again. And most certainly I never expected to be in a room with both of them. But there we were, the three of us, united in death and life.

Continue reading “Digging Your Own Grave”

For Wilshire Baptist Church

While waiting for a meeting to begin, I was listening to music on my iPhone and heard “Fooled Around and Fell in Love” by Elvin Bishop, a personal favorite from the 1970s, and Paul McCartney’s “Alligator” from just a few years ago. And sandwiched right between the two was a Kurt Kaiser arrangement of “Gesu Bambino.”

Continue reading “Easter Ears”