Hawaiian Humility

By Cindy Martin –

Hawaiians are indeed a humble people. My husband and I had opportunity to experience their gracious and hospitable spirit on our recent trip to three of their gorgeous islands. The trip was a fulfillment of a dream of ours to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary in Hawaii. It was glorious – a steady stream of brilliant sunshine, dazzling sunsets over the ocean, lush green foliage accentuated with cascading colors and exhilarating aromas, plenty of new adventures and all the mango and pineapple that we could eat!

One of our new adventures was to try boogie boarding. Wearing our matching mango-colored Monkskin shirts to protect from sunburn and boogie board rash, we waded out into waist-deep waters, ready to ‘catch a wave’. Let’s just say the wave caught us! I had just turned to listen to what my husband was saying and the next thing we knew our legs were tangled up in each others’ under the water, our boogie boards had left without us and we came up gurgling salt water and gasping for air.  The ponytail that I thought I had anchored at the back of my head was now dripping into my left ear!  Once we were able to gain our footing (much closer to shore), we laughed uncontrollably at ourselves.

I had just commented earlier that day that you sure could tell who the tourists were.  My words had been in response to all the mismatched and clashing Hawaiian print shirts and shorts we’d seen, along with the big wide brimmed hats and heavily sun screened faces. We now felt like the obvious tourists and were experiencing a little Hawaiian humility of our own!

Despite our initial ineptness, we did manage to get in a number of good runs; enjoying the pure bliss of skimming across the top of the water at what seemed like warp speed. Our form was not perfect by any means – in fact I finished off the day with a full face-plant in the sand, complete with a scratched up chin and skinned upper lip!  Still we had so much fun and I am not soon to forget the very practical object lesson I learned that day. “Therefore let any one who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12 RSV).

Prayer: “Thank You Lord for the gifts of fun and recreation.  Thank You too for joining us in our fun and creating teachable moments in the midst of it all.”

“First pride, then the crash—the bigger the ego, the harder the fall” (Proverbs 16:18 MSG).