God Grew Tired of Us

God Grew Tired of Us is a documentary following some of the lost boys of the Sudan as they came into America to make a new life.
We showed the Lost Boys of the Sudan in our "Reel Faith" a couple of months ago - and this was a similar documentary. It is powerful as we see the ordeal of their life in Africa - having parents killed and walking literally a thousand miles to a refugee camp in Kenya. They were absolutely
emaciated when they got to the refugee camp. They made a life there for years but there was no future but there was a family of men and boys that had been created over the years.

You saw their amazement of moving from third world into the first world as they learned about refrigerators and toilets and frozen foods. And you could see the loneliness and disconnection for them as they came into this completely different culture.

And I sit and watch all of this in wonder .....wondering about the disproportionate life on this earth. How is it that I sit comfortably in my family room wrting this on a laptop computer and others are born into poverty, oppression, warfare? I cannot ever make sense of this. We have this mythology of the "self made person" in our country - but it is so simplistic. I have always like the line that Ann Richards said about George Bush - he was born on third base and thought he hit a triple. But the truth is that this world is so out of balance that there are people who are born miles away from the game itself.

I worship and have experienced the presence of the God of love in my life. And like religious and non religious people, I cannot understand how we have become a world of such stark contrasts. And what is my role and my responsibility to others.

And ....I am writing this at Christmas as I am buying stuff for people who don't need it as they are buying stuff for me. And.....I am writing this right after our church had a rummage sale....and we get o see all the material things that are usable but not wanted because they are outdated or outgrown. Or we just get tired of it all. And....I am writing this after booking a cruise this next month.l

But what can be more irritating than a person who lives in this materialistic world and says "I am so conflicted" but keeps buying into the values and buying the products. That is me and I imagine that is most of us. (Well, I know there are people who don't buy presents for each other - they make donations to causes in their name - which I also find irritating. Maybe I should talk to my spiritual director about that!) Does God grow tired of us?

But make no mistake - I love Christmas but I struggle. With all of it. Watching a movie like this forces me into self examination, which I know is needed. We live in a city of immigrants - and this movie gave a face to those who are trying to make a life here. And my faith tells me that God wants me to do something more. May I recognize the call in whatever form it takes.