Today as I drove through the drive up at McDonalds to grab lunch on my way back to work, it was the first time I think I've ever had one of the attendants start a conversation with me.  It was short, it was pointed.  She relayed to me that they may have found one of the suspects for the bombing at the Boston Marathon on Monday.

"I hope they hang them." She said.

I hesitated, not liking the words, and finally said, "We need to pray for them."

I looked at her, gathered my money, and went to collect my food.

The conversation wasn't initiated by me, but I think may have been by one of the other customers.  The sentiment is a common one it seems - and it saddens me.  I live over 1400 miles away, and I didn't know anyone hurt or killed.  So maybe it's not fair of me to say that.

I came across something posted by a friend yesterday on facebook that was basically a string of twitter posts with varying slurs to the Muslim community, Koreans, and a few other ethnic groups speaking to all number of ways that those people were going to meet their death.

My heart breaks for that kind of hatred.  What will it gain?  Blaming them won't bring the lost back.  Blaming them isn't going to change what happened.  As a runner myself, preparing to run a half-marathon, I wonder at what it would be like to experience something like that.  I feel a camaraderie with other runners.  I still don't know what hating the bombers will do.  Instead...I think we should be praying for them.

We should pray for their hearts, for the hatred they have.  For the lives that caused the hatred.  For them to feel the same kind of love that now pours out to the victims of the bombing.  I don't know who did it.  Even when we do know - we won't know the person or people responsible - we won't know their hearts or their lives - all we know of them is that something in them led to an action that caused unspeakable pain to another.

I'm not condoning what they did.  We are all called to preserve life, not to take it.  Murder is horrific.  Murder causes incredible pain.  Murder erases a life in the blink of an eye.

It is painful to see the photos of the three lives that no longer exist - fellow runners who were led by passion, desire, the thirst to achieve - and those that loved the runners.  Pray for their families.  But don't stop there.  Pray for those that did it.  Pray for their hearts to change.  Pray for peace.