I've been in a Beatles mood the past few days, after seeing the very clever movie "Across the Universe" (a musical about the 60s; all the songs are Beatles songs). So, while getting ready in the morning, I've been listening as my iPod plays all the Beatles' albums, in alphabetical order. I've heard "A Hard Day's Night" and "Abbey Road" and "Beatles For Sale," and now I'm into "Help."

This morning I again thought of my high school speech teacher, Mr. Simmons. I think of him every time I listen to "I Need You" off the "Help" album, because of how often George sings, "I needchew." Among the many things Mr. Simmons taught me in high school was the admonition to speak distinctly: "need you," in this case, rather than "needchew."

Over the years, many who suffer from hearing loss have expressed appreciation that they can understand me because I do speak words distinctly. That's a compliment that I was hoping Mr. Simmons would hear. In 1991, when I moved back to my hometown of Wilmington, DE, to become pastor of St. Stephen's Lutheran church, one of the first visits I made was back to my old high school (now I'm sounding like a Steely Dan song!), to find out how I could contact Mr. Simmons, to thank him for how he had formed me, and to tell him that I had become a professional public speaker. I knew he would be way beyond retirement age. I was very sorry to hear that he had died. So he never knew the extremely important influence he had had on me.

I've kept in mind how important it is to be a model for those coming along after us. I'm sure it's true for you and me too: that we have influenced many people and don't even know it. To put it in explicitly theological language: God has used (and continues to use) us in ways we're not even aware of.