Blog – Page 4 – Jeff Hampton, Writer

Often my sense of humor is ill-timed, like on Ash Wednesday when I was standing in line in the chapel to receive ashes. As my turn drew near, I saw Katie Murray’s ever-present smile and thought, “maybe I should ask her for a Nike swoosh instead of a cross.” Yes, I know: sacrilege of the highest order, but I had a lot of disjointed thoughts rolling around inside my head.

Just moments before that, we sang “The Old Rugged Cross,” a great old hymn I grew up singing with this refrain:

So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross,

till my trophies at last I lay down;

I will cling to the old rugged cross,

and exchange it some day for a crown.

February 12, 2026

Let the Mystery Be

For Wilshire Baptist Church

Do you know what God looks like? On a recent Sunday morning, a little girl in LeAnn’s Pre-K Sunday school class said she had drawn a picture of God. LeAnn asked if she could see it, and the answer was “no, I’m taking it home.” I think that’s a pretty good answer.

Perhaps from the beginning of time and certainly for the last 2000 years, humans have tried to picture God, along with Jesus and the Holy Spirit. We’ve mostly tried to recreate God in our own image, which often has resulted in renderings of stern old men in beards. We’ve seen everything from Michelangelo’s God reaching out to Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican in Rome, to George Burn’s depiction of God as a frumpy little man in a jacket and loafers in the film, “Oh, God!”

February 6, 2026

Parsing Pronouns

For Wilshire Baptist Church

A longtime friend who writes, performs and advocates called this week with a request: He’s in the final editing phase of a book of essays about blessings and wanted my opinion on his use of the pronouns “I” and “you.” His editor said he should use one or the other but not together. My friend contends they can and should be used together. I agree – not just grammatically and stylistically, but because when used together there is so much power.

When we talk about what we are doing, have done or will do or experience, we use “I.” Meanwhile, “you” is usually about, well, what you have, are or will do or experience. Often those are two different conversations. But when you are talking about a personal experience and want to make a universal connection, using both “you” and “I” builds a bridge to shared experience.