Published on 04/18/2007

After I finish this essay, I'm leaving for a breakfast meeting at Dallas Baptist University, where I serve on the board of trustees and teach adjunctively. I will drive onto the university campus with a new appreciation for the tenuous and perilous nature of college life. And the knowledge that no student and no environment is completely safe.

Commentary

Such is one legacy of the horrific events at Virginia Tech two mornings ago. Details continue to emerge today. As you know, a South Korean student identified as Cho Seung-Hui was the gunman who killed 32 people before committing suicide. Today's New York Times carries a particularly moving story about the efforts of one group of students to prevent further bloodshed on that fateful morning.

Trey Perkins was a student in the German class meeting in Norris 207 when Mr. Cho calmly stepped through the door and killed 12 people. Mr. Perkins, a 20-year-old mechanical engineering student, was hit in the arm. Inexplicably Mr. Cho left the room, only to return a few minutes later. In the meantime, Mr. Perkins had gathered several students to hold the door closed. When Mr. Cho returned but could not force the door open, he fired as many as six shots into it, hitting two students. But the group's courageous action likely saved their lives and others in the room.

On a day like today, it's only human nature to ask where God was when Mr. Cho entered Norris 207. Why he allowed a troubled student in a maroon baseball cap to kill and wound so many innocent people. One answer is that he was on the campus beside every terrified victim. His grace enabled Trey Perkins and others to act with astounding courage. And his grace is available to every grieving, confused soul today.

The Bible seldom speculates as to why things happen, as such knowledge does not change the reality before us. If we knew why Mr. Cho acted with such cowardice and cruelty, we would not be able to change the fact that he did. Instead, God's word typically concentrates less on the "why" than the "how"--how do we face the uncertainties of life this morning? How can we try to redeem this unthinkable tragedy so that these innocent victims did not die in vain? How do we try to go on?

Isaiah 30:18 records the assurance that "the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion." He was up before we were today, ready with grace sufficient for our fallen world and troubled souls. Before we try to bar the door of our hearts against the suffering and tragedy of life, we will do well to open it first to him.