famine psalm

We wrote psalms in church last night. This is mine.

Father in heaven, I have a matter to raise with you.
I read it on the guardian online this week, and I know you did too.
It concerns the land of Kenya, a place that is near my heart,
And I know that you and I share a love for its people.

As you will be aware, without the help of the guardian,
there has been no rain,
and much of East Africa is in the grip of drought.

The land has dried up and hardened,
The earth is warped and cracked.
The riverbeds run dry,
And no water is found in the well.

The trees are shrivelled like driftwood,
No grass, no leaves, nothing green.

The dogs lie panting in the shade,
And the goats stagger in the sun.
The cattle drop to their knees in the wasteland.
Their bleached bones lie white in the sand.
The sheep are led out to graze and find only dust,
And the wind throws it back in their faces.

How much worse it is for the people,
Who know of cities and supermarkets,
Who have seen in movies and magazines,
McDonalds and KFC.

God, how is it that I can choose from a thousand places to eat, while others scratch among the rocks?
How is this fair? How is this right? God, where is your justice?
It makes me angry, and yet, I am angry that I am not angrier.
I am familiar with the images of famine.
The starving children no longer move me.
I am saddened at how de-sensitised I have become,
Even when disaster strikes a place I know and love.
Lord move me, break me, show me what I must do,
For I feel so powerless in the face of such a system.

But I digress. For Kenya Lord, send rain.
Send a harvest.
And until then, Lord, send food,
with honest distribution and good government.
Aid with no conditions, a gift to those who can give nothing in return.
Stir up those who have to provide for those who have nothing.

And again Lord, send rain, and revive the land.
Coax grass from the desert plains
And fields of maize from the windswept hills.

Bring life from the dust,
for you are a God who specialises in life out of death.

Hear my prayer Lord, from this your well-fed servant,
and feed the hungry.

article: killer drought threatens east africa
article: only god knows how we will survive