Shelburne faith column: A great man with a strange name
When I was a kid at home, N. L. Clark seemed like an old man to me. I remember several times when he shared meals at our family table. During my teen years I often heard my preachertraining father speak of “Brother Clark,” and I sensed that Dad had immense respect for this gentleman. Later it became clear to me that this distinguished church leader and professional educator was my father’s spiritual hero. During my father’s last decade, in fact, he published a booklet of Clark’s writing.
Born in 1870, Clark became an active church leader who stood in the pulpits of Churches of Christ and Christian Churches all over the Texas/Oklahoma/Arkansas area. In the early 1900s he filled the president’s chair in two Christian junior colleges. When he visited our home, I had no way to know that he would soon become the top administrator in the public schools in Dallas.
Since my own father had founded and was directing a school to train preachers and church leaders, he and Clark shared many insights and concerns.
I’ve heard N. L. Clark’s name all of my life, but I didn’t learn what those initials stood for until almost seventy years after he died in 1956. N. L. — all I ever heard him called — stood for Nimrod Lafayette.
Why would any parent tag their son with such a moniker? Lafayette was the French dignitary/soldier who led our Continental Army in the decisive Yorktown victory over the British troops. So his name was still honored by most Americans when Clark was born.
But Nimrod? Today in slang it means a jerk or an idiot, but that slur probably didn’t evolve until several decades after Brother Clark breathed his last. Nimrod first appears in the book of Genesis. He was a great-grandson of Noah through his son Cush. That first Nimrod was remembered as a great hunter and a famous warrior.
N. L. Clark and his siblings were born during a time when many Christian parents gave Bible names to their children, so my guess is that the Clarks named their son after this famous Bible hero. I also think I understand why he chose not to be known as “Nimrod” after he left home.
I suspect that all of us are grateful that our parents didn’t burden us with a name like Nimrod Lafayette. But how many of our lives are so honorable and fruitful that people will still be speaking our names with respect and admiration seven decades after we are gone? What people remember about us — or if they do remember us at all — will depend not on our names but on how we use the years God gives us.
Gene Shelburne is pastor emeritus of the Anna Street Church of Christ, 2310 Anna Street, Amarillo, Texas. Contact him at GeneShel@aol.com, or get his books and magazines at www.christianappeal.com. His column has run on the Faith page for almost four decades.
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Shelburne faith column: A great man with a strange name
