On Gisele, motivations, and the church

This is a great example of praying for something and then not getting it.

Tom Brady's wife Gisele Bundchen, who may be getting the gag order next time that joker plays in a big game, urged people to pray for her husband Tom to win the Super Bowl.

Unless you've been in a cave the last day or so, you probably know that the Pats in fact did not win the Super Bowl. As a result she did what any "normal" high profile Q.B.'s wife who had asked for national prayer via twitter would do: blast the F%#@ing receivers for not catching the balls thrown to them. An ESPN article says:

After her prayers for a Patriots' championship went unanswered, Bunchen lashed out at the team's receiving corps for failing to haul in her husband's passes. While waiting for an elevator at Lucas Oil Stadium, Bundchen was being heckled by Giants fans when she spoke to people in her group.
"My husband can not f------ throw the ball and catch the ball at the same time. I can't believe they dropped the ball so many times," Bundchen said in a video captured by theinsider.com, a gossip website.

The title of one article read "Gisele Bundchen (Mrs. Tom Brady) goes from asking for prayers to dropping the F-bomb in 24 hours!" Most people found this a little ironic, if not hypocritical. I did too.


Here are a few questions and takes:

1.) What God is she praying to? Probably not Allah, but was it the Judea-Christian God? Was it the impersonal force that we all know and love called Karma? Since she didn't just want "positive thoughts (I love that one, whatever thoughts can do....)" but actual prayers, I'm a bit curious who I was supposed to pray to. And if I did run into Gisele, I'd have to be straight up with her and tell her I did actually forget to pray. That's what happens when you don't write prayer requests down....I'll be ready for it next year.


2.) What to do with unanswered prayers? We often don't get a "That's why I didn't answer the prayer the way you wanted me to" from God. But He does give us a little bit of insider information in James 4:3: "You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions." Sometimes our motivation for specific things like a bigger house or better spouse can reveal an underlying selfish motive. God wants us to change even if our house doesn't get bigger or our spouse better.  What is often overlooked is that our behaviors and responses to things like "unanswered" (they were answered, just with a "no") prayers and desires often reveal the selfish motivations behind the requests. You can examine your heart till the cows come home, but often the only way to truly know the heart attitude is by how we respond when God tells us no.

We just had the blessing of a new building. He said yes. And so we thanked Him and will thank Him more formally in a few weeks with a thanksgiving service. However, how we responded when God said "no" along the way was in fact a greater indicator of our heart's true allegiance.



3) Gisele, like it or not, reminds us of the Church. How many stupid things have Christians said or done that has made her bridegroom look bad? We say and do just as many dumb things as Gisele, and we (I'm assuming I don't have any supermodel followers) aren't even models, much less supermodels. Yet Jesus still loves His bride. I'm very curious how Tom Brady is handling this situation with his own wife. Hopefully behind closed doors and not via the media, social media, or internet, as is often the case with high profile pastors and other Christians.