Friday, August 16, 2013

Buying a lei in Kailua (as in Kaneohe, not as in Kona)

Aren't you glad I didn't title this "getting lei'd in Kailua"?

Suppose you're a young newlywed and you want to buy a lei for your honey, and you're staying on the windward side of Oahu. You type "lei" into Google maps and you notice this entry.

Well, it doesn't work. First, 776 Kailua Road isn't where google maps says it is. Second, 776 Kailua Road actually has a surfboard shop and an Arthur Murray studio. So what's a young lei-seeker to do?

Well, it turns out that Walgreen's has leis. At least an orchid lei (a "vanda lei" as I would call it). The folks at the Portuguese Bake Shop told me that Foodland, 7-eleven, and Long's (yes, it's still called Long's here in the islands) all have leis.

But not Lavender Lei, and not at 776 Kailua Road.

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

A Praying Life

The younger ex-teen got this book, A Praying Life by Paul E. Miller (NavPress, 2009). My first comment: Wow!

Chapter 1 is titled “What good does it do?”—something we've asked in the quiet (or noise) of our hearts, but the author recounts a time when he said to his then-teenager, “Let’s pray” (about a missing contact lens). In response she

… burst into tears. “What good does it do? I’ve prayed for Kim to speak, and she isn’t speaking”

Kim struggles with autism and developmental delay. …[S]he is also mute.

page 15
Indeed. What good does prayer do? Doesn't God already know what we need before we ask?

The author does address that question, and many others. I'll tell you about this other part from chapter 4, “Learn to talk to your father”—related to Matthew 7:11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

Kim got her first speech computer when she was five years old. … We explained the keys to her and waited. She leaned over and pressed the key with little McDonald’s golden arches on it. It was two o’clock in the afternoon, and we’d just eaten lunch. We dropped everything, leapt into the car with Kim raced off to McDonald’s, and got Kim a hamburger and a soda. We were thrilled.
page 58
What a lovely picture of our heavenly father's delight in giving good gifts to his children!

Another thing that's impressed me so far: when Jesus says we need to become like little children, we also need to pray like little children. Quiz: How do little children ask for things?

Well, messy might be a good word. They ask distractedly, repeatedly, annoyingly; they ask with abandon, without pretense or consideration. I used to hang around with a guy who said his default method of praying involved listing a dozen or two things he wanted from God. And he talked about that as though it were a bad thing.

But really, if that's on our minds, that's what we should talk about. I'll chew on that one for a while.