The Sleeping Giant (April 25, 2007)

Once again I find my self spending the mornings on my balcony. I am reminded this morning of another sight from yesterday. As the rain continued through the morning, I continued to sit on the balcony. I had noticed a note on our map of Kauai several times that indicated a location called sleeping giant. I finally decided to go online and see if I could decide whether it was a sight worth going to see or not. When I did, I found this interesting island lore to be fascinating.
The legend of the sleeping giant centers around a mountain on Kauai that when viewed from a distance appears to be the profile of a giant lying asleep on his back. One version declares that he was a kind and helpful giant and that the people of the island followed him around in order to plant fields in his footsteps. They planted "taro" (a plant similar to the potato and a staple of the Kauian diet at the time). One day the chief decided that he wanted a new "heiau" built. A "heiau" is a temple to the gods and was considered to be a place that became a source of divine power. The villagers were too busy farming to build the heiau, and so the giant volunteered to do it. When he had completed his task (after two weeks of work) the villagers held a luau to honor him. The legend continues that after the meal was finished, the giant was so full that he lay down and went to sleep. He has never awakened from that sleep. The Nounore Mountain ridge bears a striking resemblance to the sleeping giant.
As I finished reading the story and looking at the photo of the mountain ridge, I looked up and inward to the interior of the island. I wanted to get some idea of what direction we would need to travel to see this site. To my amazement, as I looked off the balcony I found myself looking directly at the "Sleeping Giant". As I watched, the clouds pulled back (just for a moment) and a bright shaft of sunlight fell to earth illuminating the "giant's" face. I realized the church is like this story of the sleeping giant. We have had so much to offer the people around us and we have been given the task of leading the way for them and to prepare the ground so that the spiritual fields that are planted can be harvested to provide life. We as the church have also be called upon by our Great Chief to build him a holy temple that is a source of divine power, yet we seem to have left that temple unoccupied. Rejoicing in what we have done in the past, we laid down and went to sleep. No longer were we preparing the ground, nor ensuring His power would be seen in the earth, but we have instead been slumbering. Just as that shaft of light shot out of heaven, I could hear the voice of my Chief calling out, "Wake Up" and show the earth my glory. No longer should the church be called a "Sleeping Giant", but instead we must become the Temple of the Holy Spirit and a source of divine power for all the earth.