Author: Jeff Hampton

For Wilshire Baptist Church

I had just spent several hours hauling two cubic yards of pea gravel to different locations in the yard and walked into the mud room from the garage where I froze for a moment. The mud room was sparkling clean, as was the rest of the house in preparation for an event we were hosting the next day, and I didn’t want to get it dirty. But isn’t the mud room called “the mud room” for a good reason? Isn’t that where we’re supposed to kick off our muddy shoes, strip off our dirty clothes, and wrap up in a towel before stepping into the clean house?

Continue reading “Holy Mud”

For Wilshire Baptist Church

While our associate pastor is away on sabbatical, our pastoral residents are taking turns performing many of his tasks, including processing and posting these weekly blog submissions. I’m thinking this is a great opportunity for the residents to fill up on new experiences while they’re filling in — as it was for me in the summer of 1980 when I was an intern at the Sherman Democrat newspaper.

Continue reading “Measuring Up”

For Wilshire Baptist Church

“Do you know who I am?”

The question makes my skin crawl because of the way it is often used by people with power and prestige to taunt people with no power or prestige.

I heard it most recently in the news reports of a local politician who allegedly got into an altercation with a teen and allegedly spoke those words, “Do you know who I am?” I’m using the word “allegedly” here because I’ve recently written here about waiting for the facts instead of rushing to judgment, and the facts are still being sorted out in this case.

Continue reading “Humbled”