Amazing How Badly You’re Missed
Lyle Ackerman (my oldest brother)
I know we don’t talk much. Not really sure why.
We’re not all that diff’rent, at things that we try.
It’s really quite sad when I think “you’re my brother”.
How distant we’ve grown apart, far from each other.
A much sadder story is had to be told.
One where you’re standing outside in the cold.
Surrounded by walls, holding back so much good.
The reason they’re there, being not understood.
Each week I’m in Church and it saddens me dearly.
So many lives you had touched, very clearly.
All the good friends, you had made. Their concern!
Hearing of hopes that you soon might return.
It’s said a man’s lucky to have one good friend.
One person who cares from beginning to end.
I know there are times that you feel you’ve not any.
From what I can see you have so very many.
They all miss you deeply, these men and their wives.
They tell me how much you have touched all their lives.
They can’t understand, why you’ve turned from your Lord.
Why all of their friendships are being ignored.
Each week I see Karen, in Church, all alone.
It doesn’t seem right that you’re staying at home.
I fear you will lose her if God’s not your bond.
Him in your heart’s what once made Karen fond.
You got our whole family going to Church.
And now, so it seems, you are lost in your search.
Of all of the hope that you’d once found in God.
The fire that blazed in you, quenched. Seems so odd!
Don’t know what affected you—pulled you away.
Just wish you’d come back to the family some day.
The family at Church that you’d left far behind.
And all those good friends that you happened to find.
Our family all goes there, except for a few.
Our ma and the kids, with exception of you.
You need to come back. We all wish that you would.
You touched many lives there. You did so much good.
Week after week people ask “how is Lyle”?
They speak of you highly and for a long while.
They miss you and pray for you—call you their friend.
They hope, soon, to see you, in Church once again.
I guess that is all that I have, now, to say.
I hope that it works in a positive way.
Hope you will act on these thoughts that I shared.
Come visit these people for whom you once cared.