Follow Me

Growing up as a child and young teenager, our family ritual on Sunday evenings was to eat dinner, wash the dishes, and then settle in to watch The Wonderful World of Disney. So many wonderful movies came on our television over those years. One of them was “Follow Me Boys”. It starred Fred McMurray, Vera Miles, and Kurt Russell. The main character, Lem Siddons, a saxophonist, wants to settle down and become a lawyer. He settles down in a small town and works at the general store. Trying to woo the lady at the bank, he volunteers to become the scoutmaster for the town’s rowdy group of boys. He picks up the scout manual, begins to read it and he and the boys set out to learn this Boy Scout thing together. They learn how to cook outdoors, set up tents, build and rebuild scout huts, patch canoes, and more. The town begins to see a change in these boys for the good (Spoiler alert, he does marry the lady from the bank).

The common thread throughout the movie, of course, is the phrase, “Follow Me Boys” which comes from the song the scouts sing as they march on their weekly; Saturday morning hikes (hikes that happen every Saturday for twenty-plus years). Lem has laid out for the boys what is expected for them to succeed as scouts and to succeed in life. As these boys step out and follow this man, wonderful things happen. Boys’ lives are transformed as are many others in the town. Hoodoo, the boy who had no sense of direction eventually became the governor of the state. Whitey, a boy who was seen as a bully and had a hard family life was taken in by Lem and his wife when his father died and he became a doctor. For twenty-plus years boys and others followed this man whom they loved and respected.

The lyrics to the movie theme song go like this:

Follow me boys, follow me.
When you think you’re really beat 
That’s the time to lift your feet,
And follow me boys, follow me.
Pick ’em up, put ’em down and follow me,
Pick ‘em up, put ‘em down pick ‘em up.
There’s a job to do,
There’s a fight to win,
Follow me boys, follow me.
And it won’t be time till we all pitch in,
Lift your chin with a grin and follow me.

Jesus never promised that life would be easy, but he is inviting us into something big and meaningful that will change your life forever. Follow me all, follow me. Pick em up and put em down and follow me.