Sobering Thoughts from the Balcony
The Scene
This has been the best of opportunities. Really for the first time in our 27 years of marriage, Tammy and I have been able, due in large part to our kids, to spend the past several days in Ohau, Hawaii on vacation. With the exception of one work trip to Las Vegas where she was able to join me, we’ve never spent more than three days on a trip, including our honeymoon.
Each morning while she gets ready, I sit on the balcony of our hotel with a cup of coffee and watch the unfathomable numbers of surfers riding the waves early in the morning here in Waikiki. I read my Bible, sip my coffee, and just look out over the world. It is truly relaxing.
During the days we’ve spent our time seeing all the sites and doing some of the things we honestly never thought we’d get a chance to do. It’s been great. At night, we’ve walked the strip, done some shopping, eaten good food, and enjoyed each other’s company. It has been a time of renewal and refreshing.
But today as I sit here with my coffee, I’ve noticed a world of extremes. The world of photographs and marketing campaigns superimposed over the real world of hurt, pain, and a profound lack of mooring.
On the beach, two ladies stood next to one another, the picture of opposites. They were even looking in opposite directions. One lady was barely dressed in her tiny bikini, revealing far more than anyone outside of her marriage relationship needs to see and the other in an ankle-length dress complete with oversized had and long sleeves. The juxtaposition was jarring … but a great picture of the teaming world below our 19th-floor perch.
As we've tootled about touring the island, tasting its flavors, and seeing its sites, we’ve noticed some patterns. In a culture that blurs the lines between male and female, sometimes erasing it, where masculinity is dangerous and femininity is outdated; in a world where personal desire and fulfillment seem to trump all else, I can’t help but feel saddened by the sheer number of young women we’ve seen who, in a fleeting and desperate grasp at significance, feel the only way to do so is to market themselves as a visual buffet to all who would partake.
One very young teenage girl at the luau with us obviously had already had cosmetic work done on her lips and sported the largest fake eyelashes I’ve ever seen. She couldn’t have been more than 15. She spent the night on her phone snapping selfies and making poses; completely out of the moment.
There are parts of tourists communities you never see in the brochures; the impoverished local community, the vendor barely getting by riding his bike to his station at the kiosk, the homeless group spending their nights on the public beach access, or the squatters camp near the North Shore. These sites bear out darkness and depravity that makes a hard sale in the travel brochures.
At least twice this week I’m certain I saw an older man trafficking (or purchasing, it’s hard to tell) a much younger girl, her face was distant and afraid. Two couples who just met shared a really fat blunt in front of all the world as they tried to keep up with the older gentlemen in their company, obviously wasted and stumbling about the street. Decadence, hedonism, self-indulgence, empty gratification, and ultimately empty lives await those who pursue the things of this world to fill the gaps only God can fill.
As I study Romans 3 and 4 from the balcony this week, I’m brutally reminded all around me the state of man without God is utterly hopeless. We are lost, drifting, like the large ships I’ve seen passing by, were they to lose their engines, snap their anchors, and suddenly be tossed by a violent storm. We are drowning, yay, we’ve already drowned in a sea of self.
The words of Romans 3 couldn’t ring any more true as I observe the depravity of my own heart as well as the depravity around me. If one were to dwell here too long, he would find only a story of despair and hopelessness.
But on the contrary, Paul reminds us that righteousness, the kind salvation is built on, the kind of which God the Father can approve, can’t be found in our efforts and works, even if they were to be completely successful. The righteousness God seeks, and the only righteousness He finds in any of us, comes as an imputed gift, benevolently credited to our account because of our faith.
The scene played out before us in the microcosm of man isn’t one of simply despair and hopelessness but of death and life. It is actually a story of HIOPE. What strikes me the most, even more than the utter sadness of the observable human condition, is that Jesus Christ Himself is able and was efficient in redeeming every last drop of it on the Cross!
Every hollow stare from the young lady who thinks the only thing she has to offer this world is her sensuality; every young (or old) man who believes her; every depressed businessman, every crushed soul searching for significance; He redeemed them all and gives them hope. The hope of something greater, something permanent, something transcending all we see before us. He is that Hope.
It is a popular thought to believe that everyone in America has heard the gospel and a great many have received it. If you believe that, you’d be mistaken. Even if they HAVE heard it, a great many have not believed it. I’d go so far as to say a great many in the church have never truly believed it. Evidenced by the relentless pursuit of the things of this world to provide satisfaction only He can bring.
If you are reading this and feel insignificant, hurt, empty, lost, and without hope, turn to Him. He offers you freely all the hope you could ever want. Repent and follow Him today. He’s waiting …
