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Give it up for...Monday, March 12, 2001
Luke 6:36-38 He talked with twists of humor and reverence. He prayed quietly, and I listened intently to every word. He showed me how to use a couple of tools and helped me build a set of wooden blocks to give Chris and Marc for Christmas. He gave Margaret and I a parallel Bible, inscribed simply, "From Al and Louise, may God bless and enrich your lives now and always through His presence in the Word." One day he asked me to type some sheets of memories and devotions he had written. Without computer, using whiteout to correct my mistakes, I typed for him. Turns out Al lived a pretty hard life. Fighting, poverty, running away, hitchhiking west during the Depression, living in the mountains. Marriage problems, problems with the kids, sometimes big problems. Al wrote more, I typed what he wrote. He spent time, paid attention, listened to his wife, to his son. The vicissitudes of his life did not blunt his brilliance, nor did they atrophy his giving muscles. He grew and he grew and he grew. And by the time I met Al, he was mellow and strong. Most of his rough edges were smooth. Long ago, he had made the choice to surrender, to receive what God had for him and to give it away. Now he had more to give away than ever, and he was happy. Thinking of Al, now in his 90s in a nursing home, I remember a prayer James Joyce wrote at the end of his autobiographical Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man...
"Welcome, O life! |
I didn't meet Al Schmidt till he was in his late 70's. He smiled a lot. Not much upset Al, and his contentment inspired me. I was newly married, a new father, with an uncertain future and tiny income. Al and I saw each other most Saturday mornings with a few other guys who sang and talked and prayed together, over donuts.