What The Amazing Race Taught Me About Prayer
Source: www.ntng.gr
Is there a connection between The Amazing Race and prayer? There was during one recent episode.
If you’re not familiar with the show, The Amazing Race pits 11 teams in a race around the world. The winning two-person team is awarded one million dollars. Each leg of the race ends at a “Pit Stop” with the last place team being eliminated. To make things interesting, contestants are faced with detours and roadblocks throughout the race. The roadblocks are activities that involve mental or physical tests that must be completed by one member of the team before continuing the race.
Near the end of the most recent season with only four teams remaining, the show travelled to Thessalonica, Greece. A roadblock had been set up at Theatro Dassous, an outdoor amphitheater, where a member of each team was tasked with finding a gold coin underneath thousands of rocks at the base of the theater. It was a daunting challenge best illustrated by the first-place team shouting, “Welcome to hell!” as the other teams arrived.
After an eternity of searching and many bloody knees and scraped hands, three teams had found their coins and were able to continue with the race. That left one coin and one team, Dusty Harris and Ryan Ferguson. Dusty and Ryan had been best friends since junior high even through the 10 years of Ryan’s incarceration when he was wrongfully convicted of murder and ultimately exonerated.
Dusty was desperately trying to find the coin while Ryan sat helpless in the stands only able to offer encouragement. As time ticked by and the coin became more elusive than ever, you could see the anger and frustration building in Dusty. With each passing minute, the race was slipping further and further away.
Just when Dusty was at his breaking point, Ryan did something truly remarkable. He told his friend to stop for a moment and come to the top of the theater to see the view. As they looked out over gorgeous Aegean Sea, Ryan praised his friend’s efforts and reminded him to enjoy the moment and all they had experienced thus far. Dusty said that this was the one thing that kept him from “blowing the gasket”. Shortly after, he resumed his search with the same determination but visibly calmer. Eventually, Dusty found the coin and they completed that leg of the journey finishing in last place. Fortunately for them, it was a non-elimination round allowing them to stay in the race. In a post-race interview, Dusty revealed that he had trouble managing his anger when he was younger and that he did not want his son to see this side of him when the show aired. He was extremely grateful that Ryan intervened when he did.
The episode made for great television with its combination of emotion and inspiration. Something profound had happened in this seemingly insignificant reality show, and I kept coming back to it over the next few days. I knew that Ryan had offered a great example of friendship. I thought about how each of us needs a friend like this during life’s crazy moments. But in reality, not everyone has a friend like that, right? Or even if we do, that friend is not always available when we need them. Then it hit me! We do have that friend. Jesus desperately wants to be that person for each of us. He is available 24/7 through prayer so that we can turn to Him for help in the small and large crises of our lives.
In our moments of need, praying to Jesus is exactly like Ryan walking Dusty to the top of that theater. It breaks the spell that our troubles have over us, allows us to see things more clearly, and if we’re smart, enables us to put our trust in Jesus to get us through whatever difficulty we are facing. So, the next time you’re at your breaking point, take a moment to pray and ask for Jesus’ help and then let Him do just that.
Sources:
https://screenrant.com/amazing-race-ryan-ferguson-wrongful-murder-conviction-reason/