God Grew Tired of Us

Last night, we watched the documentary that came out a couple of years ago on the story of the Lost Boys from the Sudan, God Grew Tired of Us.


God Grew Tired of Us tells the story, of the Lost Boys, specifically of three as they move to the US. The film contextualizes their stories in the larger story of the war in sudan, and perhaps more subtly, but with a more lasting sting for me, the documentary nestles their courage and magnificently human bonds of community against the abrupt backdrop of the American shove for individual success.

Watching these men describe the moments of chaos and moments of joy as they negotiate the United States gave me a renewed sense that our Creator did indeed endow us with rich gifts of compassion, connection, and fortitude that bears eyes for the weaker and eyes of hope. It again became clear, however, the mechanisms that we have developed as a modern, more “productive” society often times function to isolate and dehumanize us – not that these mechanisms are all bad. The men featured in this story rejoiced in education and medicine, food and transportation, but they grieved their separateness from one another as brutal work schedules kept them from rebuilding the community they knew – the community that sustained them in an hour of horrific savagery and terror.

We loved this film.