Brandon: Example set by Ethel Lynn holds true today

When Susie and I were in our early teens, our mother and daddy volunteered our family to work during Daddy’s scheduled vacation time in a church camp in Saskatchewan, Canada.

Daddy was the camp pastor, Mother took on kitchen duty and Susie and I were just ordinary campers.

We had a chance to meet girls from all over Canada and, for several reasons, that camp experience was a milestone in my growing up years.

One person that we met there is someone Susie and I still talk about. Her name was Ethel Lynn Peacock and she was our cabin counselor for Cabin Redrose, the place we called home for three weeks at camp.

A makeshift bungalow with room for eight girls and one counselor, the rustic cabin was the scene of late night talks, pranks and sing songs.

Ethel Lynn was a beautiful person. Her long blond wavy hair framed a face with brown kind eyes. Yet there was even a more meaningful aspect to Ethel Lynn. She was just as lovely within as she was on the outside. She was a friend and guide to all the girls in Cabin Redrose.

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Ethel Lynn was kind, compassionate, helping, generous and considerate. Really Ethel Lynn was someone we all looked up to. If any girl in that camp was asked who they admired, I would say that 99 percent of the girls would have named Ethel Lynn.

She was always ready to give friendly advice and we listened because her presence just caused us to pay attention.

Ethel Lynn was an aspiring actor. In fact, every afternoon we had an impromptu camp wide talent time in the cafeteria. Ethel Lynn performed nearly each time, quoting poems to acting out Dorothy in the “Wizard of Oz.” Acting was Ethel Lynn’s love and she was good at it.

She had already led in several plays in high school and was headed to a performing arts school.

Ethel Lynn told us about her philosophy of acting. Her advice was to “be yourself and then become your character.” But aside from her beauty and charisma, there was a depth to Ethel Lynn that was well beyond her years. On one of our late night visits in Cabin Redrose, we girls were listening to Ethel Lynn as she gave the nightly devotional.

I will never forget what Ethel Lynn, the actress, said to all of us: “If you say you are a Christian and just play the part, you are only playing a game … giving a dramatic performance on a make believe stage.” And when she talked we listened.

I have thought about Ethel Lynn’s words often. There are many avenues that can help to nurture our relationship with God — fellowship with other believers, preaching, teaching, music, church functions, seminars and conferences and all of these can be good.

Yet, I have seen in my lifetime that activities can become more important than concentrating on “loving the Lord your God.” I know this because I was guilty of that.

Ethel Lynn’s words and life demonstrated to me that we may perform in the religiosity play in life and be tragically superficial in our spiritual outlook because activity is our main focus. God looks at our intentions and our affections. He looks at and knows our core and what makes us tick so our real feelings are known completely by God.

Ethel Lynn’s example also taught me a life built on true faith is living each day in obedience to God, asking him to guide us in each thought we have, each word we say and each deed that we do. True faith causes us to live our lives in such a way that others see Jesus through us. We are wholly sold out to him.

That’s the lesson I learned from Ethel Lynn and it was not act.

Judy Brandon writes about faith for the Clovis News Journal. Contact her at:

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