Brother Lyme

As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. 1 John 2:24

Today in church my preacher mentioned those we influence, and it got me to remembering someone who had greatly influenced me. Right around the age of eight years old I started going to Sunday School. My Sunday School teacher was a man named Brother Lyme. I have no idea what his actual first name was, we simply called him Brother Lyme.

 

Few men in my life have ever had such an influence upon me as Brother Lyme. He was a quiet man, and very dignified, but it was couched in humility. He was a godly man that revered God’s Word and brought that reverence into his Sunday School class and into our lives. He gave me my first Bible. You could have handed me a bar of gold and it would have meant nothing compared to that Bible. Brother Lyme explained to us that when we held a Bible in our hands we were holding onto the very words of God. For a young boy that truth was both astonishing and life-changing.

Brother Lyme was my Sunday School teacher for about 3 years. And I did not want to leave his class when I was old enough to go up to the next level of boys of twelve years old. Indeed, I asked him if I could stay in his class, but I had to go with the older boys into their class. I knew, and I was correct, that the next class would never have that same godly atmosphere, peace, and power as we read God’s Word aloud and revered its Author.

I still strive to be even a fraction of the godly, dignified man that Brother Lyme was to me, and to pass on that same reverence for The Holy Word of God on to others. That wonderful Sunday School teacher could not have imagined how those few short years would impact a boy, a teenager, a young man, and now an old man.

We will impact those around us for good or ill. We may believe we do not have much influence or sway in this world, but once you attach the name “Christian” to anyone, everything changes in the way others see us. They may see us as hypocritic fools who only play at religion, or they may see us as people who love God and actually live like Believers. But be sure that they do see us.

Too often in my life I have acted much less like a Christian and more like a fool. Our human frailty often overshadows any Christian dignity we ought to manifest. Nevertheless, we must strive, as my preacher reminded today, to live out our Christian faith and let Christ shine through us. I’m glad I saw that in Brother Lyme. It was life-changing for me. We all need to be more like Brother Lyme, for this world has too few like him.

Prayer: Dear Lord, forgive me for the times I’ve represented sinners better than representing You. Help me to be more like You. To let others see Jesus in me. Amen.