How we lost our families and movies in one move

Episode 24 | Movies lie & The rise of the machines – Anti-Modern

What is a story? What is its purpose? What does it convey? Let's find out.  Also, Mumbi and Mwansa discussed the concept of technological singularity, where AI becomes more intelligent than humans. They discussed how tools could be used to improve life, and how Christians should take the lead in this. Mwansa's Socials Twitter: https://twitter.com/MbeweMwansa Blog: https://mwansambewe.wordpress.com/ Mumbi's Socials Twitter: https://twitter.com/mumbichishimba

1. Episode 24 | Movies lie & The rise of the machines 51:19
2. Episode 23 | Making men without chests 34:41

Listen to the audio on Episode 24 of the podcast

Africa has a history of stories told by older people to the younger ones around food or fire. Stories of myth, history, war, love, rivalry, horror or humour. Sadly, that reputation is fading fast in exchange for screen-filled middle-class homes surrounded by wall fences where people barely talk to one another as they face the TV screen watching the latest version of whatever Hollywood is spewing out these days.

Somewhere deep down we thought we told these stories because we were poor but it was more than that. In reality we told these stories for the same reason Westerners wrote books and Hollywood initially made movies. Because there are ‘Angels in the Architecture’. God built the infrastructure of stories to communicate something true of the world that he made and connect us to it and one another. Sharing stories was about more than just entertainment and yet it was entertaining at the same time.

Don’t believe me, take it from God Himself, Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine among them, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians and what signs I have done among them, that you may know that I am the Lord.” Exodus 10:1-2.

God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, among other things because it would make a great story that would be passed down from father to son to grandson to great-grandson and so forth telling the greatness of the deliverance of God. He did it so that 400 years later Jesse would have some boerewors on the barbecue with his boys telling them of the deliverance of God from the hand of the greatest nation of that time. His youngest son David listening intently to his favourite story for the ninth time while chewing on a piece of sausage that was ready. A couple of years later those stories became a reality as he put a stone between the eyes of the largest man in all of Gath, the famous Goliath.

Tough times and good stories
Imagine for a moment sitting down with Moses and Aaron around the time of the second plague in Egypt and telling them that theirs is an amazing story of success that a lot of people will be encouraged by. They would probably laugh you out of the room within the first minute and if they did not they would have done so by the time they got to the fourth or fifth plague because tough times don’t feel like great stories while you are in them.

God knows this. He constantly encourages his people to be strong and courageous. To trust and obey, to have faith in him and not fear, even in the storm. God does not ask you to pretend the trial is not happening in the present, you can and should talk about it. He also encourages you to talk about trials in the past tense when they are over. In both cases, you must learn to talk about them the right way. In the present, you are not to give in to despair and blame God. You should not attempt to curse God and die; rather cast your burden upon him for he cares for you. Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there. Rely on him and his people. Take lessons from his word about how to talk openly about your trouble rightly.

In the same way, once the trial is over, talk about it. Tough times that God has taken you through make great stories. Take lessons from the bible where so many people were encouraged. Do not be so “Reformed” that you think testimonies of what the Lord has done in your life are beneath you. Tough times make great stories, just ask Moses.

The story of how your father and mother came together has been lost in time and replaced by a garbage Hollywood story of nerd name Leonard and a waitress named Penny who are intentionally fruitless. The story of your grandfather’s salvation late in life has been replacing a garbage Hollywood scene of Luke Skywalker throwing a lightsaber everyone expected him to keep. The story of your grandmother’s love for the family and how she kept everyone together has been replaced by a cross-dressing black man by the name of Madea and with that good stories have been replaced by bad movies.

Photo by Jack Cohen on Unsplash

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