Power

The Lovely Young Lady gave me a book for my birthday, Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul by John Eldredge.

It is in part about being a man, and the rites of passage that we as a culture no longer embrace about boys becoming men. One of those rites is going into nature alone to be alone and with God, to explore the world and our souls.

Because of this advice, I decided to take a little foray into nature. It wasn't terribly far from civilization, it was on the west coast of the island of Hawai'i. My game of golf was going nowhere, and I wanted to go take some pictures of the waves crashing against the rock formed by lava. The beauty there is amazing - bright skies, unbelievably blue water, black lava, white foam, all in motion, all playing off one another. So I grabbed my cameras and my sense of adventure and started climbing the lava to the ocean to see what would happen.

On my way I said, "God, please protect me and don't let me do anything stupid."

That prayer was 50% answered.

I worked my way towards the water, snapping pictures and taking some video. I was watching the waves, timing them, seeing how high up the rocks they would wash. Occasionally a wave would wash up a little high, up to my ankles at the highest. The lava was slippery the closer to the sea I got, the more time under water the lava spent the more algae was able to take a hold.

The way I saw it, I knew the patterns of the waves and how they beat against the rocks. I knew the limits of how high the waves could come and where they would go. And knowing this I perched myself right at the edge of a little precipice where waves would come in and send flumes of water and mist high into the air. I had never seen a wave crest the edge there, and had no reason to think that would change.

With video camera in hand, I crouched low hoping to get a nice big splash on film. A few waves came and went, with little effect. I moved a touch closer.

It was right about this point that God resoundingly ignored half my prayer. It seems it's my job to not do stupid stuff. A wave, I have no idea how big or fast, came rushing over the edge of the precipice, hit me right in the chest, bowled me over, and dragged me across the lava while I desperately tried to get a hold of something. Even though the lava was slick with algae it still gouged copious amounts of flesh from my knees, elbows, and hands.

The other half of my prayer, the more important half, was fortunately answered. I found some rock onto which I could get a grip and the wave washed away without taking me out to sea. Had I hit my head on the lava or had the wave pulled me back out into the much more dangerous waters, it's likely I would not have lived. This wasn't just a beautiful place, it was a powerful place.

I walked back wet, bloody, and substantially less proud than I had when I started my adventure. I'm glad I prayed that prayer. I'm glad the water and rocks showed me who the boss really is. And I'm glad for my adventure. Thank God for beauty and power.