Sunday night about 11pm, just after we’d fallen
asleep, somebody broke into the little house we are staying in on
Kauai. They grabbed some cash from my wallet and Stasi’s purse, took
the keys and stole the rental car.

Pretty crazy.

I mean, this is a small island. Where are they going to take a stolen car??

We didn’t realize the theft had occurred until about 6:30 the next
morning. We’d gotten up early to head out to the Napali Coast, and
couldn’t find the car keys. I thought, “Maybe I left them in the car,”
went out to have a look, and there is no car! Then we find the window
broken into, and the missing cash. At first, we were kinda shook. Not
big time, but geez – to be broken into in a really small little cottage
while we were barely asleep. Creepy. And the morning was filled with
stress as we had to call the police, tell Hertz somebody stole their
car, do the reports, get a ride back to the airport and get another
car, all that.

But here is what is really cool – about an hour after noon we decided
to just put it all behind us and go for a family outing. Thanks to the
prayers and support of our friends, who really rallied around us, we
were so free to just let it all go, don’t let it pull us down, and take
the high road of walking with God through the rest of our vacation.

I was so struck by what a difference it makes in how we respond to the
thief. Yes, sometimes he does steal, and there is no question he is
trying to wreck a desperately needed vacation. But the thing is, we
don’t have to let him then steal our joy, too. We really do have
options on how we will respond. We really can take the high road, give
it all over to God, and in the end we win because we hang onto our
perspective, and our joy.

Somewhere in a cane field there’s an abandoned Mercury Mountaineer.

Meanwhile, we’re going for a swim.