The Amazing Race

Every Sunday evening the wife and I like to watch one of our favorite shows together, “The Amazing Race.” If you are not familiar with it, it is about couples who race all over the globe and compete in different tasks; from selling sunglasses in New Guinea to repelling off a bridge in Sweden. It’s neat to see the different places they get to travel to and the people they run into, as well as entertaining to see how the couples interact when the situation gets stressful.

While watching last nights show my wife pointed out something to me that I never noticed before. When ever the teams go to a different country and get lost they are able to ask someone for directions in English. Now that doesn’t surprise me that much, that English is one of the more dominant languages in the world, but that had me think to last weekend when we were at our big garage sale. I can remember at least three times when I was trying to sell something to someone, what I was saying had to be translated for the person to understand. So I’m wondering if more people out of our country can speak our language than people who live in our country? Go ask for directions at a gas station our walk around Wal-Mart and it will make you think if you are the only true blooded American in your zip code. But I don’t want to get into a political discussion, just making an observation.

Proverbs 15:18
A hot-tempered man stirs up dissension, but a patient man calms a quarrel.

In an about two weeks my wife and I will be married for two years. I was trying to picture what we would be like on “The Amazing Race”. I mean we get frustrated if we take a planned road trip with a GPS, I would hate to think how stressed out we would get if we were lost in a foreign country. I would be yelling how much I hated the place we were at and that everybody that lived there was stupid. My wife would just continually be repeating, “Take me home. Just take me home.” Then when it came to a physical challenge, I would be mad at whatever equipment we were working on and probably try and throw it into the closest ocean or off a mountain, my wife would just continually be repeating, “I can’t do this. Take me home. Just take me home.” But, because we are both stubborn and competitive people we would complete whatever task we needed to and probably win the whole thing (my wife hates losing). Also, we would apologize to one another and tell each other how much we love each other and move onto the next day. The one big thing I’ve notice watching “The Amazing Race.” The couple who encourages each other the most and has the most patients with each other will normally win. That’s how our first two years of our marriage went, and that’s how we will be married for a long time. But I don’t think we will be applying to be on “The Amazing Race”, though I bet we would make for some good TV.

Colossians 3:12-13
Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.