Praying for a Former Classmate

Working overnights in radio, one of my responsibilities is to make sure the news reports are ready to go by the time the morning shows hit the airwaves.  We get our news from a local TV affiliate, and then place the reports in our system for playback. 

This morning, the news was too real.

As I reviewed the reports, the story at the end had me in awe.  There was an incident that happened at the shopping mall near me which involved someone I went to high school with; he was the guilty party. 

The first thing I did after the shock wore off was check the news websites for a video of the report, as it could have been someone with the same name.  Once finding the video, I saw the photo of the guilty party who I have known since ninth grade.

Immediately, my thoughts did not rush to judgment, but rather to the need to pray… so I did.  I stopped what I was doing and said a prayer for this person.  I told God I forgave him for what he did, and asked God to show him the way.  I prayed for his family as well.  Then, I prayed for the victim, and for God to restore to her what he had taken (without getting into too much detail, I will say no physical harm was done.)

For those who know him and do not know what happened already, I know the news will soon spread.  It is upon hearing about it that the easy and natural thing to do will be to judge.  I thank God that I did not, as I am just as capable.  Prayer is an action we can all take for this person.  God loves both him and the victim the same.  Pray for the victim as well, and for the families of both.  Chances are, it is going to be a rough few months of this incident being at the forefront of their lives.

God will forgive if we ask Him, and He wants us to forgive those who have done wrong as well.