Grace leaned against a palm tree.
The man finished the song, then welcomed them to Waikiki Beach Church. “There’s no better place to worship the Lord than on the beach in Hawaii.”
Grace folded her arms.
“I know that for many of you, this is a dream vacation. Something you’ve saved for, planned for, hoped for over many years. I hope it has been—or will be—all you wanted.” He gestured to the ocean, the beauty. “But I’m here to tell you that you can find paradise without ever leaving your homes.”
Grace pursed her lips and started to walk away.
“Paradise is not what you see, but a relationship with the One who made it.”
She’d heard this before. And had no interest, really, in sitting through a sermon about how if she just trusted God more, she might find happiness.
She’d reached out—no, flung herself out—on this great adventure, and God had dropped her. Hard.
“The key to finding what God has for you is not reaching out for paradise . . . but letting go. Falling. Losing control.”
She stopped.
“But most of us are too afraid to truly let go, to hold open our hands and receive what God has for us.”
Maybe just another minute . . .
“Consider the journey of Peter, who left his nets to follow Christ and ended up denying Him. Peter believed in Jesus, followed Him, but hadn’t been transformed by Him. He walked with Jesus, obeyed Jesus, and called Him Messiah. But until that dark moment of denial, Peter hadn’t come face-to-face with his own heart, selfish and angry and afraid. It wasn’t until Peter saw the kind of person he was and regretted his sins that life began to change for him.”
Grace tucked herself back under the palm tree.
“John 21 tells the story of a repentant Peter who longs to make things right with his Lord. And when Jesus asks Peter if he loves Him, Peter heartily replies three times that he does. Peter is confronted with grace. Jesus doesn’t condemn him for his actions. Rather, He charges Peter with a new command: ‘Feed My lambs.’ Peter wasn’t just to follow his Lord, but to be so close to Jesus that he became Jesus to His people. Love, forgive, serve. Peter would share a relationship with God like Jesus has. This is the transformation Jesus intends for us, a wholeness, a closeness in our relationship with God that is beyond our wildest hopes.”
The preacher scanned the crowd. “So many of us come to Hawaii because we long for paradise. For more than our lives give us. That more is waiting for you right here.” He lifted his Bible. “You may be walking with Jesus, but has truth broken your heart? Have you been undone by the gospel in the face of your own sins? The truth is that you can follow Jesus . . . or you can walk with Him step by step. The Bible calls this abiding with Him. It starts with transformation and ends with the joy, the abundance, you long for.”
He gestured to the ocean, where a man and woman dressed in Hawaiian attire stood at the waves’ edge. “If you would like to experience more joy, more hope, more peace . . . abundance, I invite you to come forward and be baptized today. Repent—regret your sins and let Jesus forgive you. Fill you with His grace. His love. A new life. More than you could have ever asked for or imagined.”
Grace’s feet moved.
She looked down, seeing herself shuffle through the sand, her throat thick.
For years she’d been clinging to her own expectations of what God should be giving her. She had come to Hawaii looking for something, and when it hadn’t turned out just as she hoped, she let it burn a hole in her faith. But what if God had brought her to Hawaii for this one thing? To face her own selfishness, her own fears, even her anger?
What if He’d heard the silent longing of her heart and answered it, not with Max but with Himself?
Here, on the beach, if she understood right, God was inviting her into the more, the abundance her heart longed for.
Grace wiped her cheek as she headed toward the edge of the water. The woman standing in the shallows took her hand.
“I am a follower of Jesus already,” Grace said, the words like a breath inside her soul. “But I want more. I want to let Him transform me. I want an amazing, abundant life with Jesus.”
“Then today you shall have it.”
Grace walked fully clothed into the water, the salty freshness cool against her ravaged, burned skin. She waded out to her waist before the woman stopped her.
“What do you want to say to God?”
Grace looked to the scrape of cirrus clouds white upon the blue canvas. “Lord, I confess that I have clung to my own fears and even recently harbored anger against You in my heart. I want to do more than follow You. I want to be transformed . . . I want the abundant life You promise.”