Surfing and Arrogance

                  

I have recently returned from Costa Rica. It was my seventh time in 30 years and this time I was with my family who had never been to Central America. The waves were the best I have ever surfed in that country.

One day, I was surfing at Hermosa Beach, which has black sand and logs of driftwood. The day was stellar. The waves were perfect—like the best hurricane swell we could ever hope to get in St. Augustine Beach. The sky was tiffany blue and the sun warmed my brown shoulders as overhead waves pounded on the low tide sandbar. I was reveling in the moment. I felt close to God as adrenaline pumped through my veins and I slid down the face of thick clear walls that towered overhead.

I then recognized a man who was on our plane from Orlando. I paddled over to him. Introductions were made. Immediately, the guy launched into bragging about his second home that was nestled in the hills just above the break. He bragged and bragged about this and that and everything in between. I found myself wondering, “Is this guy for real? Does this man realize how pompous he is?”

The moment of stellar beauty and deep spirituality silently slipped away. I decided to catch the next wave and not surf with the man again.

Pomposity and arrogance are signs of insecurity. I’ll be the first to admit that I am not immune to being pompous or arrogant. I am human, less than perfect. Often, I recognize when I am being less than authentic, less than real, less than humble.

As with many things in life, arrogance is a condition of the heart. A spiritual condition. The more you feed the ego, the more arrogant you become. And the more arrogant you become, the more likely you drift from intimacy with God.

Arrogance is the desire to live in a world of fantasy—a self-made world of grandeur, rather than a God-made world of reality. If we think for a second that we are not arrogant or haughty, that is an arrogant thought itself.

There is an old and familiar story about a Cherokee grandfather telling his grandson about the struggle between good and bad that happens within us all. The granddaddy said the struggle was between two wolves. One wolf was evil: Anger, envy, greed, arrogance, self-pity, gossip, resentment, and false pride. The other wolf was good: Joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, generosity, truth, compassion and faith. The grandson thought about it for a moment and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?” The old Cherokee replied, 'The wolf that you feed.”

The next time you find yourself surfing with a stranger, or the next time you meet someone at a party, measure your words. Check yourself. Examine which wolf you have fed and become.