speed of work and presumptuous prayer

First and foremost, I feel I must shout a "Right On! Amen!" to Mike Cope's post from much earlier this week. Seeing as I have been working on a variety of different tasks at work, dealing with homeowner association issues, and generally trying to get a few contiguous moments to stop and catch my breath, I feel I can relate to his sentiment about just wanting to retreat to a place of solitude to relax. I can also feel that when I am less stressed, I tend to be happier and have more energy. On the flipside, when I am stressed out I tend to get depressed, irritable, and I lose interest in things I normally find joy in. Since I am writing now, I have obviously found time to unwind a bit from my latest marathon of life, otherwise things would have remained quiet. While my workload really hasn't subsided all that much, some other areas of my life have slowed down (by actions I took to make it so) and I have been much happier overall. So on to the next topic...

I don't know if any of you out there watch The Amazing Race, but this past week they started up the new season/contest. This time around instead of teams of two, they opted to make it a family affair. Teams comprising of 4 family members (in any permutation you can think of, not just the typical parents and kids) are all competing in a race around the world for a million dollars. Normally, we watch this show to see what kinds of challenges the teams face not only as part of the competition but also in how they handle the strains put on the relationships. Now the reason I feel this is particularly blog-worthy is not because of some particularly interesting destination or challenge, but rather because I feel that one team is being a bit presumptuous. A mother and her 3 kids (son and 2 daughters) are competing in the race, and part of their story is that 2 years ago they lost their husband/father in an accident at the Daytona speedway. I am not completely heartless, and I can understand their grief and am inspired by the way they have stayed close as a family in the wake of such loss. However, I take serious offense from the fact that they have a tendency to flaunt their Christianity on television as if Jesus is their 5th team member. The pinnacle of this behavior was while trying to find their way along the first leg of the race, they literally prayed for the Lord to help them find the place they were looking for so they could come in first. I don't know, but I don't exactly think that God is going to go out of the way to help a family win prizes along a race to win a million dollars. I'm sure this family is very nice and I do hope they do well in the race, but the portrayal of Christianity they are putting out there on national television is just a reinforcement of the stereotypes that Christians in the United States have earned over the decades.

Ok, next time I promise I'll try to write something that actually will be spiritually challenging or uplifting. I really don't like to rant, but this has been bugging me since Tuesday.