Author: Jeff Hampton

For Wilshire Baptist Church

You can learn a lot when you look into another person’s face. You can learn even more when you have a razor in your hand.

Dad was in the hospital for a week and now is in rehab after breaking his leg. He’s always been a stickler about his appearance, so when he hadn’t shaved in several days, I took my electric razor and offered to do the job for him. He’s been a blade man all his life, and in fact when I was in high school or college and someone gave him an electric razor, he tried it briefly but rejected it and I took it. That being the case, I wasn’t sure if he would let me do it but he said yes.

Continue reading “A Close Shave”

For Wilshire Baptist Church

Driving up into the Texas Panhandle we witnessed an interesting convergence of old and new on US 287: coal trains rumbling across pastures dotted with towering wind turbines.

Wind turbines represent a promise for the future. Coal trains embody the strength of our past. Both bring benefits to us right now in the form of electric power; both have their proponents and naysayers. Wind energy is clean and quiet but it clutters the horizon. Coal is out of sight unless you live near a coal mine or a coal-fired generator. Coal has an established business/economic model. Wind energy is still subsidized by most governments.

Continue reading “Changes on the Wind”

For Wilshire Baptist Church

Walking around the yard, checking on things as the heat increases and the chances of rain dry up, I noticed that one of the newish utility poles on the side of our corner lot has a round aluminum tag on it. Examining it closely, I found it was stamped with various abbreviations and numbers, including 10/24/19 and Lufkin, TX.

Most every summer of my childhood we’d drive down through the East Texas Piney Woods to my grandparents’ house. Our route took us past countless acres of tall pine trees, logging trucks and sawmills, and through the city of Lufkin. It may sound silly, but seeing Lufkin stamped on that pole made me wonder if the tree it started as might have been growing in the forest near Lufkin when I was passing through as a kid.

Continue reading “Strong and Tall”