{"id":1338,"date":"2019-07-24T11:37:56","date_gmt":"2019-07-24T16:37:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/staging\/1734\/?p=1338"},"modified":"2019-07-24T16:32:36","modified_gmt":"2019-07-24T21:32:36","slug":"simple-gifts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/simple-gifts\/","title":{"rendered":"Simple Gifts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I wasn\u2019t even supposed to usher on Sunday. My wife and I are part of the usher team at Augustana Lutheran Church<\/a> in Chicago, but our usual commitment is for the fourth Sunday each month. Jean was elsewhere that day, but I came with our grandson, Alex. I promptly learned from another usher that two men expected to serve were missing. She asked if I could assist her. Why not? I agreed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later, she asked if I could be the one who stayed outside in\nthe narthex. One of us usually remains out there to greet late-arriving\nvisitors, distribute bulletins, and take a count of the attendees. During the\noffering, two more ushers join to assist in passing the collection plates. All\nin all, it is a relatively easy way to be of service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes, there are other tasks\u2014helping newcomers find restrooms,\nhearing aids, copies of the sermon–whatever. None of it is very complicated.\nIt just requires a willingness to serve. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On this Sunday, as the service progressed, I noticed an elderly,\nunfamiliar African American gentleman near the back who was fumbling with his\nhymnal. He flipped through it, then put it back in the little slot below the pew\nin front of him. This happened two or three times. He looked uncomfortable and\nfrustrated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes visitors to a Lutheran church can be slightly confused\nby the order of worship, depending on what, if any, other Christian tradition\nthey are accustomed to. One primary goal of ushers should be to make everyone feel\nas comfortable and welcome as possible. I discreetly wandered over and quietly\nasked if I could be of assistance. I thought I might be able to explain something.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can\u2019t read the words,\u201d he told me. Thinking he needed to explain, he added, \u201cThe stores have reading glasses for $9, but they cut off my check . . . .\u201d His voice trailed off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I did not inquire further. Social Security? Disability? Pension?\nThis was neither the time nor the place to ask. He needed glasses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI came because I wanted to be able to sing in church.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a heartbreaking note of sincerity in his frustration.\nIt was also striking that inability to afford reading glasses was the source of\nthat frustration. As noted in my last\nblog post<\/a>, just a month ago I had cataract surgery to fix my own reading\nproblems, which bore no connection to poverty. Having acquired 20\/20 distance\nvision with artificial lens implants, but needing reading glasses to continue\nreading and working on a computer, I had gone to Walgreen\u2019s initially to get\nreading glasses with 1.5 magnification for computer work as recommended by my\nophthalmologist after the surgery. After the second surgery, he also\nrecommended 2.5 for normal reading use, such as newspapers or books. In each\ncase, following a suggestion from my younger sister, I looked for a three-pack\nthat cost a little over $16, closer to $20 with sales tax. For the second set,\nI discovered from the cashier that they were \u201cbuy one set, get one free\u201d that\nday. I now had three pairs for computer use, and six for reading. I spread them\naround the house to avoid having to find them when I need them. One pair here,\none pair there . . . . They were cheap\u2014at least for me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this man was embarrassed at his inability to read the hymnal\nfor the mere lack of $10 to buy a pair of readers. I had never thought of such\na simple need being out of reach, but for him it was real. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLet me help you,\u201d I said. I walked away toward our\ngrandson, sitting a few rows forward on the same side of the sanctuary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGive me the pouch with the glasses,\u201d I said softly. At\nfirst, Alex looked at me as if he were confused. I urgently pointed to the Houston-themed\npouch (actually, a rubber beverage cooler and tourism promotional item, adapted\nfor the purpose) in which my reading glasses sat, and he realized what I wanted.\nI removed the glasses and tossed the empty pouch back on the pew. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I took the glasses back to our visitor. \u201cThese are yours,\u201d I\nsaid. \u201cI have others.\u201d He looked surprised but accepted them quickly and tried\nthem on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before long, he was leafing through the hymnal and the bulletin\nwith the order of service. \u201cI can see really good now,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the offering, to my surprise, he insisted on placing\na dollar in the plate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For much of the remainder of the service, as opportunities allowed, I saw him conversing with a young man in the pew behind him, discussing his new experience. \u201cI used to go to the Catholic church,\u201d he said at one point. Perhaps, somewhere, he had heard that, if you really wanted to sing, Lutheran congregations have made a point of it for nearly 500 years. One of Martin Luther\u2019s big changes during the Reformation was to turn his congregations into singing congregations<\/a>, and so they remain to this day. It is one of the more distinctive aspects of Lutheran worship, and one of the reasons Lutheran composers produced a profusion of hymns in the centuries that followed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Augustana sanctuary during December 2018 Sankta Lucia celebration. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Or, maybe this man just found us by happenstance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way, he was suddenly happier and seemingly more\nfulfilled. I now had no glasses until I drove home, which took a while after we\npicked up Jean, and the three of us enjoyed lunch in a Mexican restaurant in\nOak Park, but I no longer need glasses to drive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And like I said, there were lots more at home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re yours,\u201d I told the man again. \u201cJust take good care\nof them.\u201d When not wearing them proudly, he stashed them in a coat pocket for safekeeping.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a simple gift, and I have been blessed with more than\nI need. I don\u2019t know where he lives or how. But I am reasonably certain that he\nfelt his life had improved. At least, it certainly seemed that way, given that\nnew smile on his face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jim Schwab<\/em> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wasn\u2019t even supposed to usher on Sunday. My wife and I are part of the usher team at Augustana Lutheran Church in Chicago, but our usual commitment is for the fourth Sunday each month. Jean was elsewhere that day, but I came with our grandson, Alex. I promptly learned from another usher that two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1338"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1342,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1338\/revisions\/1342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}