Hope Amidst Waves of Adversity

I was in my early thirties and I felt invincible in the ocean. That day that feeling radically changed.  Howard and I drove by the Ventura Pier on our way north to surf Rincon. By the time we drove back the surf had destroyed that pier.

We made our way down to the beach and then, as we knelt down and strapped our leashes to our ankles, we scanned the horizon. As big as it was, it was getting bigger. I felt compelled to make the sign of the cross as we heard basketball size boulders being banged against each other.

We would have to power ourselves through wall after wall of the biggest surf I had ever seen.  Howard spoke only one word: “Gnarely.” We paddled for thirty minutes but we still found ourselves fighting the powerful currents and waves trapped in the impact zone.

Finally, there seemed to be break in the swell and the hope within me called on every fiber of my being for an all or nothing effort. But, it turns out, that this was just a lull before the biggest set of the day. My heart sank as I saw mountains barreling towards us.  My only hope was to paddle over wave after wave beyond to deeper water. I made it over the first wave only to be facing a bigger one.  I paddled with all my might, stroke after stroke up its face, barely making it over the second one, but then, I saw the next monster wave.  It was already drawing me towards it sucking water up from the reef.  I knew that, no matter how hard I paddled, I could not make it over the thick lip of that wave before it threw. Diving deep would not help either. I could not get deep enough and it would just suck me up the back of the wave and then throw me over the falls.

I turned towards shore. It was well over a quarter of a mile away. I paddled with all the strength I had left. My heart pounded from the workout but even more from the fear. My heart sank.  I thought of my children.  How would they survive without their dad.

I looked up at the shore line and saw all the cars parked along Pacific Coast Highway and all the people standing there watching me die. I thought this is the last sight I will ever see. Just then, one of the waves I had just paddled over exploded against the twenty foot sea cliff cascading water right over the top of them and across three lanes of highway.  I knew how Peter felt when he was sinking. I looked back. The monster wave was throwing out over me.  I yelled out “JESUS!”  and took my last breath as the wave exploded on me.

It crushed me under its weight pinning me to my board as I rode under the white water towards the treacherous cliffs. I held onto the rails of my board with all my physical strength and held unto my hope in Jesus with all my might. He was my only hope.

Finally my board burst out from the wave and I caught my breath just as it surged and engulfed me again and threw me onto the rocky cliff. I scrambled up the cliff face dragging my surf board up the rocks behind me. As I reached the top, hands reached down to pull me up over the ledge on the highway. I thought of Peter as Jesus’ powerful arms pulled him out of his hopeless situation in the stormy sea.

You see Hope is only hope if it is in a hopeless situation. But “Our hope is in the Lord.” (Psalm 14:6)” Look up your redemption draws near. (Luke 21:28 ) Reach up in hope to him now. No matter what your situation, He will not fail you.

My website BearsWave.Com gives you access to all of our multi media and a link to my books.

Until next week Ride the Wave of the Holy Spirit

Aloha

Bear Woznick

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The Virtue of Hope

Sometimes, in the middle of the night, I wake up to the sound of surf and to a dream of a massive, beautiful wave rolling out in the deep blue, over a hundred miles out to sea and I know that my board and I have an appointment, with that wave, in the coming day. As Song of Solomon (Song of Solomon 5:2)  sings to us “I sleep but my heart is awake. I long for him whom my soul loves.”

I wake up a few hours later and pour a morning cup of Kona coffee and then, full of anticipation and excitement, I look out over the ocean to the horizon. I am filled with hope; longing for that perfect wave.  I wax up my board and paddle out a quarter of mile to the reef we call “Pops.” That reef bends the wave and draws it in to itself and makes it accelerate a bit as the off shore trade winds, blowing up its face, hold it up, sculpt it and hollow it out as it builds up and then finally throws.  I know, that if I time my drop just so and fade a little to the left and then power a bottom turn to the right, that I could find myself in the tube hidden in the barrel of the wave and I will be, as my book title proclaims “Deep in the Wave.”

There is a longing in all of us for that perfect wave, that perfect free throw shot, that perfect long pass, or the perfect approach golf shot.  There is something in man that is drawn to the beauty of perfection and more than that a desire to be one with it. There is a desire for the perfection of the beautiful high mountain meadow with that flowing stream cascading into a waterfall below.  Every romantic novel ever written, is really only tapping into that desire deep within us to love and to be loved by our creator. That “E.T. phone home” yearning in us is a deep longing for intimacy with our Creator that He Himself placed within us.

As I make the five minute paddle out to the line up, my eyes scan the horizon six to eight miles away in anticipation.  That is where you see the lines of the bigger surf rolling along like the back of a huge hump back whale. Do you see? I am paddling to the surf but, in a more powerful and awesome way, that wave is coming to me.  The Word promises us: “If you seek me I will let you find me. If you seek me with all your heart I will let you find me.”

This is our hope. That God will meet us here in our lives today for God is not afar off. He is as close as the next breath that he Himself gives to us. Hope is the deep longing desire that we hold before us. With an expectation that it will be realized.  But we must step off the shore line.  We must paddle out into the deep. We must respond to His calling and paddle out to meet him.

And then; and then we wait.  Surfers Wait.  We look to the horizon for what we long for.  We cannot make the surf build, we cannot make the wave.  Even so, we wait for the presence of the Lord for He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” ()  We can paddle out through prayer and adoration. We can paddle out to the reef by receiving the sacraments and through humble service.  But it is He that, in his perfect timing and will, sends us the waves of His Spirit that we may be so deep in Him that like a surfer deep in the tube, we are hidden in Him and only He is seen.

You can find our books, blogs, radio and videos at BearsWave.Com

Until Next week Ride the Wave of the Spirit.

Aloha Kakou Malama Pono

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The Virtue of Faith – It is What We Believe

I had kind of dozed off, laying back with one foot on the rudder guiding my twenty six  foot Catalina “The Tandem girl.” into the breeze.   I sat up a bit and did a 360 degree look around.  I could see that I was about halfway between the Channel Islands and Ventura Harbor. In other words I was in the shipping lanes where the big boys play. That was not a good place to doze off.   A fog bank had rolled over the islands moving towards me fast and it was in the process of swallowing up a huge freighter a few miles to my port side that seemed to be on a heading straight toward me.

The thought came to me “This cant be good”.  I did not have a radar deflector on my mast so I had to I hope that their crew had been alert enough to see little ole me before the fog enveloped us both. I checked out this “new” gadget I had just installed called “GPS” but I could not trust myself to it so I tapped the rim of the my compass and saw it float free and reset itself.  I turned my boat into the wind a bit with a heading about a mile south of where I knew the harbor entrance to be seven miles away.  By dead reckoning and keeping myself on 32 Degree heading, even in the fast approaching fog I should get close to my mark.  By keeping a keen ear I would hopefully hear the surf in time to turn to the port side before running aground, then I could sail along the coast until I heard the mournful fog horn at the entrance to my safe harbor.

I looked back at the big freighter but, she had disappeared into the oncoming fog that was now only minutes from swallowing me. The ships fog horn bellowed a mournful cry like a great bull mired in mud. I reached into my captain’s kit and brought out my little “wanna-be” fog horn and blasted out its pitiful screech that sounded like the cry of a baby wanting to be changed. I looked up at the mast head only to see her disappear as the fog engulfed me.  I could barely see the “telltail” wind indicator strings on the mainsail’s lowest reefing point just six feet above my head.

Here I was, one of the worst sailors the world had ever known, in the middle of no man’s land.  Just little ole me, the fog and a big gnarly freighter.  I usually sailed just by line of sight but now the only thing that I could barely see was the compass.  I knew that 32 degrees would take me to home port and it was also the fastest angle away out of the danger zone of the shipping lanes.

Jesus knew that there would be times like this for his church so he put an experienced fisherman and sailor to head the primitive church. Peter and his successors are the Captain of the Catholic Church or the “Bark of Peter” as she is called.  From the beginning men were appointed as successors. As they eleven said after the resurrection referring to place left open by Judas:  “Let another man take his place.” This apostolic succession of bishops comprises the magesterium; the official teaching body of the church.  The college of bishops point to us the heading on our compass to true north.

Deception is usually just a little lie that is mingled with truth. If my compass on my boat was only off by a few degrees I could end up lost at sea or being rundown by another ship in the shipping lanes. How important it is to have the proper solid interpretation of scripture.  All heresies of course are based on just a little twist in meaning of God’s word.

From the time when the primitive church defined and defended transubstantiation of the actual body and blood in the Eucharist and consubstantiation of the trinity and defined the canon of scripture, the magesterium defined and defended our faith. You can be confident that the Catholic Catechism faithfully interprets scripture. To paraphrase St Augustine “When you pick and choose what you want to believe of the gospel, you do not believe in the gospel at all you only believe in yourself.”

You can find our books, blogs, radio and videos at BearsWave.Com

Until Next week Ride the Wave of the Spirit.

Aloha Kakou Malama Pono

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The Virtue of Faith – The point of Departure

At what point does an adventure begin?  When did my adventure of paddling my surfboard across the twenty seven treacherous miles between the islands of Molokai and Oahu begin? Did it begin when I first conceived of the idea? Did it begin when I set the date for the paddle and began to write on a yellow pad the plan for accomplishing my goal? Was it when I began training with long paddles along the California shoreline and then later between the Channel islands and the coast?

Did it began when I checked in my twelve foot tandem surfboard at the airport counter in Oahu and the clerk looked at me funny when I bought only a one way ticket to the remote island of Molokai.  Did it start in the dark of the night under the stars and brilliant full moon as I heard the splash of my board hit the water, checked my compass,  crossed myself and jumped on my board?

Did the adventure begin when I put my first hand in the water and began my first paddle stroke? Did it began an hour later when I finally paddled beyond the pull of the tide as Laau Point receded out of sight? Did it start when the treacherous winds, ocean currents, tidal pull and a double overhead ground swell swept me away from Oahu?  Did it start when I made one of my six one minute rest stops on the ten hour and nineteen minute crossing and sat up on my board only to sense a massive shadow move beneath my board twice?

Did it start when I found myself paddling through and being stung by dozens of man of war jelly fish? Did it start seven hours into the paddle when just seven miles from Oahu, the rip tide from the thunderous surf off the cliffs and twenty-five mile an hour trade-winds pushed me so hard that I could not stop even a moment to rest? Did it begin when I finally grasped the harbor buoy at the entrance to Hawaii Kai only to have a massive wave crush me against it?  Or did it begin when I finally dragged myself onto land?

The essence of an adventure is a series of points of departure. It is that series of small decisions that propel a common man to do an uncommon thing. It is Peter stepping out of the boat in faith.  A hero takes that one step further through uncommon acts of valor of sacrificially giving himself in unconditional acts of love. It is Mary saying “Yes.”  It is Jesus at the Mount of Olives saying “Not my will, but thy will be done.”  It is the yes to rising in the morning in an act of fortitude and self sacrifice to provide for your family. It is a saying yes to daily mass and intercessory prayer, or praying the daily liturgy of the hour. It is leading your family in a decade of the rosary at dinner.  It is gathering others to start a men’s fellowship or just asking your pastor “What can I do to help?”

When does your adventure begin?  It begins now.  You already sense in your spirit the things that God is asking for you to lay down and the things that God is asking you to pick up.  You already see your point of departure and it is not far off on the horizon it is now.  As David prayed “Lead me to the rock to high to climb and I will climb it”

Pour a second cup of coffee and pull out a yellow pad of paper, pray and listen to the Holy Spirit’s promptings and begin to write down small goals and then begin to take small steps. Make stepping out in faith the pattern in your life.  You may miss the mark and not hear God quite right, or you may fail, but in the process you will grow, you will become, you will bless people and you will live. Say Yes to God’s will. Be the adventurer; walk humbly and boldly. Walk the heroes walk.

You can find my books and blog as well as video and radio at BearsWave.Com

Until Next week Ride the Wave of the Spirit.

Aloha Kakou Malama Pono

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The Prayer of Faith

Can you imagine what it felt like? I lifted Krystl Apeles high over my head in a victory lift on the podium on the beach in Waikiki in front of the statue of my boyhood hero Duke Kahanamoku and then received the World Masters Tandem Surfing Trophy.  Krystl was an amazing partner and it is she who deserves the credit for the win. As the cameras rolled and the crowd applauded I had only one thought. A scripture throbbed in my heart as it pounded with the exhilaration of the moment: “I glory in my weakness; for when I am weak then I am strong.” (2 Cor 12:10)

To take any credit for that victory would only be vanity and vainglory. For you see, there was a time when I was almost an invalid. I often had collapsed for weeks at a time with severe back pain. I had been in a constant back spasm for nearly fifteen years.  The pain had made me emotionally edgy and it had restricted my physical activity.  The cold water of a California surf session would sooth it, while in the water, but by the the time I would get home I was walking with my back crooked over to one side again.

I had been to several doctors and therapists and even a committee of the best back specialists and researches in the world at UCLA. But they could not determine what was causing my pain and had no recommendation for treatment.  Physical Therapy only made it worse. It came to a point that I accepted that I would live like that the rest of my life, unless, God chose to heal me.  I knew he could heal me because fifteen years earlier he had healed me of hypoglycemia and I had witnessed other miracles.   I prayed to him almost every moment for relief and the “prayer of faith” (James 5:15) had been prayed over me many times.  I knew God could heal me if he wanted to, but if St.  Paul suffered with a “thorn in his flesh” (2 Cor 12:7)  perhaps this pain was being allowed by God for a higher purpose.

Then one day, at a christian seminar on prayer, one of the instructors said that he had a sense that God was healing someone of a back problem.  Then they said that the injury occurred while that person was carrying bricks and also while kicking someone.  That blew my mind. In college I had experienced the first injury while kicking during a karate class and then I re-injured it more severely while carrying some bricks.  At the moment that word was spoken, I felt something powerful flow through my body and my soul. God healed my back. My back had now become His back and my weakness had became infused with His strength for “When I am weak, then I am strong.”(2 Cor 12:10)

Even now, as I lean over to type this, I remember, almost every moment, that God healed me twenty years ago. Almost with every breath I breath, I remember, that by God’s grace and the prayer of faith, I am healed. That is why my being a Masters World Champion Tandem Surfer means nothing to me unless it means that it opens the door to share the incredibly good news of God’s power and love.

When we pray, we do not need white knuckle faith where we try hard to convince ourselves and God that we believe. That is more of a faith in faith, not a faith in God. Faith is just a resting in God’s faithfulness. When we pray for healing, miracles or provision we pray believing God will move in accord with His will.

God is not a vending machine.  The prayer of faith does not mean we always get the exact results that we wish for, but our prayers, fully yielded in a trusting to His will, are always answered with a Yes.  “All promises of God are a ‘Yes’ and a ‘So be it’.” (2 Cor 1:20) We are charged, by the very Creator of the Universe, with the responsibility and opportunity to actively participate in His releasing His power.  Like Mary, We are the ones that say “Yes” to God’s will and, in so doing, God says “Yes” to us and releases His power to accomplish His perfect will.

God respects the dignity of our free will and so awaits the prayers of the faithful to move.  He awaits our intercession. He restrains himself awaiting our entreaty,  Just as He knocks on the door of our hearts and waits for us, of our free will, to open ourselves to his saving grace, so he empowers us and awaits our saying “Yes” to His releasing His power on earth through our prayer. What a great role he has given us.  “The prayer of the faithful avails much.” (James 5:16)

For more info or to buy my books, go to BearsWave.Com

Until Next week Ride the Wave of the Spirit.

Aloha Kakou Malama Pono

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With Masters Tandem Surf World Champ Bear Woznick – Author of “Deep in the Wave – A Surfing Guide to the Soul”

Faith; one of the three the theological virtues

I suspended my Swedish wife, Talin, upside down over my head in a one arm back where she remained suspended upside down.  A couple, with two spritely teenage girls, walked slowly by us on the beach speaking Swedish and pointing at Talin. She heard them talking about her and it made her giggle because she knew that they did not know she could understand them. She called out to them while still in the lift saying “Heya Swedia”

That set off a flourish of Swedish dialogue. I could tell that Talin wanted me to bring her down but instead I held here there with one arm as she continued her excited upside down discussion.  I finally relented and brought her down and they all continued talking in Swedish, which of course is all Greek to me. I hurriedly made myself look busy by doing nothing until finally Talin turned to me and said “You are taking the two girls tandem surfing.”

The girls looked fit and blessed with athletic ability. They did great with their beach training, but one of the girls, Angellica Benggstom, was obviously a trained athlete.  She could easily call on her body to position itself as I coached her and when it came to leaping ability, she jumped better than anyone I had ever trained.  I remember her first lift. As she jumped I lifted her with all my might. But she jumped so high that I had to hold onto her to stop her or so she would not launch into sub orbital space.

I paddled out with each of them in turn but, Angelica excelled in the water as she had on the land.  As we paddled out I asked her “What is the tandem girls most important job?” And she gave the correct answer “To make you look good of course.” Surfing with her and lifting her was effortless.

We paddled back in and we both carried the board up the beach to her parents.  I walked up to her father and said. Both your girls are gifted physically but Angellica has developed her God given attributes to an incredible level.  “Oh yes” he responded almost blushing because the Swedes find it very hard to boast  “she is very good.  She is the world champion in her age group in pole vaulting. She will compete in the Olympics.”

You see it is the same with Faith.  We are all given it as God breathed gift but what do we do with it? Faith is the only thing the bible tells us is a gift as well as a virtue or a fruit of the Spirit.  Just like a muscle, if we exercise our faith through resistance training, it grows stronger. Faith in fact is the essential beginning point for the three theological virtues of faith hope and love. It is the leap of faith that propels us into all of the rest that God has for us.

1st Corinthings 12:9 Tells us that God gives us the gift of faith. God breaths into each of us this gift. We are born a spirit, that though wounded by original sin, yearns for God.  God planted a  seed of faith in the arid ground in each of our souls.  If we water it though, it will grow.  There is a Godward compass within each of us that draws us just over the horizon to him.  Even atheists, in their faith that there is no God, seem to have to constantly deny that he exists. Its as if they have to shore up their faith that there is no God.  They are like a miner busily setting up cross beams in a cave that keeps gradually and relentlessly caving in on him.

But gifts are given to be exercised.  Like Angelica, if we exercise the gift that God gives us we in time can take the gift of faith and develop the bountiful fruit of the virtue of faith. (1st Cor 13:13). Which in turn develops power and agility in the other gifts and fruits of the Spirit.

By the way, you can see Angelica tandem surf by clicking on the video links at my website BearsWave.Com.

Until next time Ride the Wave of the Spirit

Aloha Kakou Malama Pono

Until Next week Ride the Wave of the Spirit.

Aloha Kakou Malama Pono

Share with your friends by clicking social-media buttons below.

“A Surfing Guide to the Soul”

Faith; one of the three the theological virtues

The sign on the wall at the jump school said “I want to skydive but I can’t; I’m dead”. It’s the same with faith. You can only take your leap of faith while you are here on this earth, in this life.

Jesus challenged Peter to exercise his faith and to step out of the boat and even now
he challenges us to take the leap of faith and truly follow him. I can almost here
Peter’s thoughts as he stepped out of the boat “I sure am glad they haven’t invented
planes yet.” Faith propelled him out of that boat. Faith, by it’s very nature, means action;
it must leap. Faith without action is dead.

It takes more than just a mental assent to the aerodynamics of a parachute to jump out
of a plane. It takes that faith in action, that deed that propels you out of the plane
into a whole new dimension. If you want to get a sense of your own mortality, there is
nothing more real than the ground coming up at you at a rate of one hundred twenty
miles per hour. But, no matter how much fear jumpers may show before they jump, the
moment they leap, great exultation lights up their face.

Our jump master greeted us to began running us through a short briefing. Because this
was his first jump, Jeremiah was going to tandem jump while attached to a jump master.
We watched the video with the attorney telling us all the ways that we could die, signed
the papers and then went into the jump room.

The moment that you put that jump suit on the for the first time you have that feeling
of reality kicking you in the gut and saying “this is real bro.” We walked out onto the
tarmac and entered the jump plane with about a dozen other jumpers.

I wanted Jeremiah and I to be the last two out of the plane so that I could cruise around
near him after the chutes opened and throw the hang loose sign at him. The door
opened and people started jumping out. I could see the anxiety and excitement grow
on my son’s face as a plane full of people gradually emptied out.

There remained only one tandem jump team in front of us but the his jump master
signaled us to pass him. As we squeezed by I understood why. I glanced in his face
and saw a look of shear horror and, just then, he lost his bowels. Even with the door

of the plane wide open, a horrible stench filled the plane. This man had hope that the
chute would open but he had no faith that it would.

Do we have a hope of eternal life with God in heaven that translates to a vibrant
compelling faith. Does our life reflect that faith. Faith and deeds go hand in hand.
“Faith without works is dead” and smells to high heaven. The stench of
deedless faith is worse than the stench of that man who did not jump.

After your death, you won’t need faith. Whether you are in heaven or in hell, you will not
need faith. You will know the certainty of the spiritual dimension that you find yourself
in. It will be more real than the ground coming up at you at 120 miles per hour. You will
know for certain that the God respects the dignity of your free will, for he will give you
exactly what you loved and longed for and put your faith in while on earth. He will give
you exactly what your actions shouted that your faith really was in.

If you longed for relationship with him and to abide in his will, the vibrant living faith that you put in Him will carry you to “live” with Him. Even for the times that you struggled and were unfaithful he will forgive you, for He is always faithful.

But, if you denied him and rejected him, then he must deny you for he “cannot deny
himself”. And you will get exactly what your actions shouted, louder then words, that
you wanted. Casual words of faith, with no fruit born out by deeds, is not faith at all. It
is just presumptuous and pretentious spiritual pride that mocks the heart of God and
his son’s sacrifice. You will “exist” forever but, because your faith is dead, you will be
forever separated from God’s love.

Faith by it’s very nature leaps. It takes action. So leap.

Until Next week Ride the Wave of the Spirit.

Aloha Kakou Malama Pono

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With Bear Woznick – Author of “Deep in the Wave – A Surfing Guide to the Soul

“THE THREE THEOLOGICAL GODWARD VIRTUES OF FAITH, HOPE AND LOVE

You know that I mostly bring you stories of adventures. Well just this last week, I experienced one of the greatest adventures of my life.

It was just after sunup. The cloudy, snow swept landscape made me want to nestle deeper into the warmth of the love of the family that surrounded me. Just below the window and below the frozen ice, the mighty Mississippi river flowed. Unseen and unheard, just like God, the river’s power surged just below the surface of the ice with the relentless power to sweep away anything in it’s path. Like God, it allowed itself to be contained by the very banks that it had formed. The river of God flows, always flows; hidden and unseen his will and his love always, always, always prevail.

The peaceful scene was suddenly interrupted by the abrupt and powerful appearance of a bald eagle sweeping by only a few feet from the window, it soared through a figure eight pattern and then, as quickly as it had appeared, it was gone.

The sight took the breath away from my whole family, and even more so, at that instant, we heard the breath of our mother change too. She no long labored and struggled for each breath. Her breath grew more shallow and then at times seemed to stop only to start again.

She had written once “You far seeing, clear sighted eagle, you creature of the sky, remind us of our creator and our high calling to excellence.”

My sister Cindy quoted at that sighting “He will bear you up on eagles wings”. She was quoting from the very psalm that I had sung privately to my mother in benedictine chant the day before over the phone. The night before we had played my parent’s song, as sung by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole; “You are the Wind Beneath my Wings.” My Dad had first had that song played for his bride at his ordination as a Catholic Deacon. Their home in the North Woods of Minnesota had a sign out front as you entered the property they called “Eagles Rest” It quoted the verse “He will renew your youth like an Eagles” To get to their property you followed the flight of eagles cut out of wood that pointed the way through miles of forest and lakes.

My father had been laying in repose, sleeping restfully on a cot next to her bed as he had done now for over a day. As he slept, the rhythm of his breath matched hers. It was if they were two birds flying in silent formation towards her new home. She had suffered through so many surgeries and through all of these, her beloved had sat next to her day and night holding her hand, praying and whispering in her ear, willing her to get better and she always had. But now he rested as she rested. There was no more need for her to fight for this was the time of flight, like two eagles, they were silently soaring heavenward. Even in death my father was helping her as she flew home.

We touched him to awaken him, “Dad it’s time” and he came to her bedside. My brother in-law, Bruce, saw my mother’s countenance brighten and he said “She is checking in to the other side now.” A stroke, 20 years earlier, had left mom unable to complete a sentence, but now she communicated to us more clearly and beautifully then ever. As she let out a breath, she vocalized for the first time in days. With voice of wonder and awe mixed with joy, we heard her say just the word “Oh!” and then again another breath and again the exultation “Oh!” and then with here last breath “Oh!” In three words of wonder she proclaimed to us the glory and love as she saw the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

And the two wings of the eagle, faith and hope were enfolded for no longer were they needed for they had carried her to love itself. These wings of the virtues of faith and hope had carried her to the One who is love. And as the clock shone 8:11 the same as the month and day of their wedding 62 years earlier she alighted in heaven.

Of the three theological Godward virtues of faith, hope and love only love remains in heaven. All that mom ever had faith in or hoped for now stood before her fulfilling her every desire. Faith and hope were no longer needed to see as if through darkened glass. Now she sees Him face to face.

Her will, now fully healed, is one with His will as His perfect love burned away any impediment to receiving all of him. She is now gazing on Him who gazes on her.

“For we know that we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as he really is.” Adam and Eve were created in His image, but we are born anew with a saving faith not to just be in His image but to be in His likeness. A child can be the “spittin” image of a parent but not be anything like them. But as we cooperate with God’s grace to make Hi will our will we become like Him. As we die to self, we become more and more alive in him and at the birth of our death we shall see him as he really is.

Let the mighty rivers flow and let the eagles fly and let God be praised for “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.”

This is dedicated to my mother Mereece Lavone Woznick part of the Mock Ohana. She flew away on March 10, 2013

Until Next week Ride the Wave of the Spirit.

Aloha Kakou Malama Pono

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Brought to you by Bear Woznick, Masters World Champion Tandem Surfer and Author of the bestselling book “Deep in the Wave – A Surfing Guide to the Soul”

TEMPERANCE – SELF MASTERY THROUGH SELF DENIAL

I drove up the dirt road through the crops that grow year round on our island and then up the curving road looking down a few miles to the north shore where monster surf broke. I was heading up to the Benedictine Monastery to ride a different kind of wave; the wave of the Holy Spirit. I was hiding out for a couple of days of personal silent retreat. I know that is hard to believe because I usually talk at 60 miles an hour gusting to 90. It was on this retreat, though, that God clearly laid out for me the pattern that I was to write in the bestselling book, “Deep In The Wave – A Surfing Guide To The Soul.”

I had skipped breakfast but remembering the good “local kine grinds” (that’s Hawaiian pidgin for food) at the mother Monastery up Holy Ghost Canyon in Pecos, NM made me even hungrier. I was sure that this Monastery would have the same quantity and quality of food.

I parked the car and pulled out my back pack stuffed with the writings of St. Aquinas, St. Theresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross. The two guardians of the Monastery ran up to meet me barking and wagging their tails as Sister CiCi came out to point me to my room.

“Oh by the way” she casually mentioned, “today is one of the two days a week that we do the Madgegorie fast But you don’t have to fast if you don’t want to.” That’s like Crazy Todd telling me “Bra, you don’t really have to get me a birthday present, unless you really want to.”

The thought came to me to make a mad dash down the hill to Haleiwa and grind out at “Killer Tacos” but, I just could not think of a graceful way to do it. I was trapped. I just responded to SiSt.er CiCi as my Stomach growled, “Well I usually only fast on days that end with the letter ‘Y’ but I guess I can make an exception.” She looked at me with that kind of funny curious look most. nuns usually do when they see me, and she pointed me to my room.

Fasting is a very practical proactive way of saying to our own soul and body the word “No”. “No” is a very important word. I never used that word more than when my children were little. As their hand would reach out for the hot burner the first, “No” would come out followed by twenty more faster and louder “No’s” as I ran to save them.

The word “No” Is a powerful word that we need to say to our appetites and our ego. It is my will saying, “I have the mastery over you.” Giving something up for Lent is exercising the muscle of the virtue of temperance. It is a denial of self. Our appetites and cravings for pleasure and ease cry out to our will like my children did, “You’re not the boss of me.” But Fasting is our will saying “No” to our appetite and to our pride. As St. Paul said, “I Buffett my body like a fighter preparing for a fight”

If we Buffett our appetites instead of buffeting then by saying “No” to food for just one meal a week or one day a week, we will toughen the power of our will so that we can say no to excessive drinking, to pornography or to having an affair and we can tell our body “Man up body. Whether you want to or not, you are going to get up a half hour earlier to pray the Liturgy of the Hour.”

The Virtue of Temperance is the Self Mastery to do what our purest will tells us is God’s will. This self-mastery, to buffet our appetites, Strengthens our spiritual core muscles so that we can move like an athlete and flow with the Spirit.

After his disciples failed in their mission to heal someone, He said, “This kind comes out only by prayer and fasting.” It’s time for us men to Man Up by saying “No” to ourselves and “Yes” to God. He challenges us men “Deny yourself. Take up your cross daily and follow me.” God gave us the dignity of a free will, but it is wounded and enchained to our lower passions and selfishness and laziness. How do we break those chains and heal our wounded wills; by suffering, by fasting, by going to confession, by going to communion and through putting God first.

UNTIL NEXT WEEK “RIDE THE WAVE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT”

YOU CAN SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE TO BEAR’S “DEEP IN THE WAVE WEEKLY” AT BEARS WAVE.COM

ALOHA KAKOU. MALAMA PONO.

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Brought to you by Bear Woznick; Masters World Tandem Surf Champ and the author of the bestselling book “Deep in the Wave – A Surfing Guide to the Soul”

After a day of surfing the icy waters of early spring at “Ventura County Line” (made famous by a  Beach Boys song), we had grabbed our usual tables near the back of the deck at Neptune’s Net that were tucked in a bit from the onshore breeze.  My friend Cap lit up a cigar as if it would warm him a bit. We all liked to think of ourselves as pirates,  but really we were just a bunch of scalawags.  Duck diving under the waves as we paddled out had frozen our brains with the pain of ice cream headaches, and now we sat huddled together chilled to the bone. We all had our sweatshirts and blue jeans on but as I looked down I saw that, being the rebels that we thought we were, none of us wore shoes. We were all freezing in our flip flops.

That’s when a tremendously deep insight hit me, and I decided to drop my sage pearl of wisdom on them and said, “That’s all a man really needs you know.” I paused for emphasis and they turned to give me their full attention, but the look they gave me was more of a “Did you just burp?”

“That’s all a man really needs you know; new socks.”  It was a gradual sort of illumination.  I fired off that wisdom and they all kind of looked up as it shot up and up in their minds like a fireworks rocket until it finally exploded into their souls as one of the greatest insights of all time.

There was a delay and then a chorus of “Yes! Yes! Yes!”

“I never wash my white socks anymore.  I throw them away.  This is true luxury.”  At first they looked at me like I was a mad man; but then as if I was the wisest man they had ever met. They all jumped on this revelation.

The next weekend, as we pirates gathered again after a surf, we pridefully looked down and showed off our new socks. We were all so pleased and so contented with our new found joy until someone said. “You know besides new socks, you really need a bucket. You never know when you are going to need a bucket.  Besides you need something to put your socks in.”

The next weekend we all seemed to arrive at the parking lot at the point at the same time. As I got out of my car a girl ran up the cliff yelling.  “Please does anyone have a bucket!”  Instantly we all reached into our cars and grabbed our buckets like we were superheroes. We seemed to shout in unison; “Yes! I have a bucket!”

She shouted “There are a ton of starfish all in one place. I want some for my aquarium.”  We were underwhelmed by her emergency, but we still felt proud of the wisdom we had all had in having a bucket at the ready.

We all went for a surf and then later sat at our back table. Cap took a puff on his cigar “Yep that’s all we need–socks and a new bucket.”

Then a voice spoke up “Yep and a surf board.  Yeah that’s all you need–new socks, a bucket and a surfboard,” to which someone added, “and surf wax.”  “Yes! Yes!” We all agreed, so smug in our wisdom.

Then someone said, “Yep that’s all we need.  That and a sailboat.”

“Of course, of course,” we all agreed, “That goes without saying.”  In the next half hour our list of bare necessities expanded to a list of hundreds of things; a powerboat; a Harley and on and on. Finally I summed it up.  “A man’s true happiness can be measured by the total of the number of fins and pistons he owns; twenty of course being the minimum number.” This principal seemed to settle everything, and so we all went back to talking about how great we surfed.

We had moved from temperance to temptation.  From contentment to greed.  We had fallen into the trap of “More.”  Always wanting more and never being satisfied. The virtue of temperance is the self-mastery to enjoy pleasure without craving it. It is moderating our appetites so that we control them instead of them controlling us.

It isn’t things and it isn’t pleasure and it isn’t fulfilling our appetites that bring us happiness and joy.  It is abiding in God’s will that feeds our real needs.  As Jesus Said “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me.”  Unless a man first be filled with God everything also he tries to fill himself with breeds more emptiness. ,

Until next week “Ride the Wave of the Holy Spirt”

Aloha Kakou Malama Pono

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