Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby

In chapter 4 we find the Bobby family gathered around the table to enjoy a meal.  As Ricky prays we are hopefully moved beyond our initial response of offense to one that shows our like ways in which we comprise a Jesus to our own liking and one that readily fulfills our wants rather than our needs.  Upon closer introspection, how different are our prayers if we can be brutally honest with ourselves?

Luke 11:2

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²And He said to them, When you pray, say: Our Father Who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come. Your will be done [held holy and revered] on earth as it is in heaven.

James 5:16

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¹⁶Confess to one another therefore your faults (your slips, your false steps, your offenses, your sins) and pray [also] for one another, that you may be healed and restored [to a spiritual tone of mind and heart]. The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working].

In chapter 18 we again find the Bobby family gathering for a meal, this time one that has high hopes of restitution between Reese and the rest of the family.  After Reese decides to spoil the dinner, Ricky has to come to grips that advice given him by his delinquent father has played a paramount role in the malformed ideals he has when it comes to life.  Faced with having to form a new philosophy in dealing with life, Ricky is left questioning all that he thought he ever knew.  

Romans 12:2

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²Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you].

2 Corinthians 3:18

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¹⁸And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit.

In chapter 22 we see a different Ricky Bobby, seeking to repair some of the damage that his prior life has caused by telling his once best pal Cal that he's sorry.  Cal, in pre-race mode, concludes that Ricky Bobby is using some tactic on him to get in his head.  In like ways the world fails to recognize the tactics that our savior uses such as grace, mercy and forgiveness to get into our hearts.  

1 Peter 4:8

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⁸Above all things have intense and unfailing love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins [forgives and ^[a]disregards the offenses of others].^(A)

1 Corinthians 1:21

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²¹For when the world with all its earthly wisdom failed to perceive and recognize and know God by means of its own philosophy, God in His wisdom was pleased through the foolishness of preaching [salvation, procured by Christ and to be had through Him], to save those who believed (who clung to and trusted in and relied on Him).