You know a hotel in Waikiki has stories to tell when it's been around since 1927.
This was 9 years after my father was born in Honolulu. In 2013, I had reserved a room for Becky and me at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in December of that year. Her battle with cancer had being going on for 4 years and I wanted us to enjoy one last trip to Hawaii, where we had spent our honeymoon. When Becky passed away in November, I was faced with the question: Shall I still go, or shall I cancel the trip?
I went.
For 10 days I celebrated the memory of my wife of 37 years. Here, in these pink halls, I learned a basic truth of Christianity -- that total self-emptying is detachment from all this world has to offer. We were not financially poor. But I had been asked to accept poverty of another kind. It was time for me to accept the situation as from his hands, to let go of the reins and place myself entirely at his disposal. I finally accepted the grace that God had been offering me all along but which I had never really had the courage to accept. I had learned to thank God for things I would never have learned to thank him for without the suffering itself.
And such thanksgiving, in the midst of darkness, clears a way for grace.