The Aftermath

Do you remember where you were when 9/11 took place?
I remember waking up to start my school for the day (I was home schooled) and as I was doing my morning rituals of brushing my teeth and getting dressed, I heard the TV on downstairs. I walked down the stairs to see mom watching TV with there being a tower in flames. I thought it was odd that she would be watching TV in the morning (our family would only watch TV in the evening time) and an action film at that. Come to find out, what I was viewing with my mom was not a movie and was the news of terrorist attack.

Fast forward 12 1/2 years...do you remember where you were when 04/15/13 took place? I was in my office working on a project when someone from the security department came and informed my office that bombs had gone off at the Boston Marathon (hours later the public was informed how many people had lost their lives and were injured). Less than 24 hours before that moment, me, my mom, and some of the residents from my dorm had been in that exact place, visiting a historical church in the Boston area. Talk about surreal. Our office began to receive phone calls from concerned parents as to whether or not we knew if their children were at the Boston Marathon because they couldn't get a hold of them. Co-workers and I began to check in with our residents to make sure they were okay. A few days afterwards, Boston and many of the surrounding cities went on lock down and we know how the rest of the story unfolds.

What now?
What do we do?
What is the church called to do?
Do we shout out "hang the terrorist"? Do we wish for the worse for this 19 year old....boy? I mean, come on! He probably had a hand in killing innocent lives, harming over a hundred people, causing fear and unrest for many of the people I live life with, along with others.

The area that I live in has gone back to "normal" as normal goes. Yet there is still an unsettled-ness in my spirit. What of this boys family? How many people are turning their backs on them? How many people are now giving his mother and father "I told you so" advice? How many Christians have walked away from them? How many Christians are condemning them? "Oh that wouldn't happen", you might say. Yet I have been one of those people who has had a family member do legally wrong things and the time where my family needed people, aka, the church, the most, is when the church turned away and gave "solid advice" that did not need to be spoken.

Again I ask you, what are we to do? Prayers are priceless yet could more be done?