In a week devoted to the Virginia Tech tragedy and the grace of God, it seems fitting to close with the story of a man who will long be remembered for his sacrificial heroism. By now you've seen the news accounts of Dr. Liviu Librescu, the Holocaust survivor who died Monday protecting his students from Cho Seung-Hui's shooting rampage. His is a story of commitment to others which we should each hope to emulate today.

As we have seen this week, the Lord made us with free will so we could choose to love him and each other (Matthew 22:34-40). When we misuse our freedom, the consequences are not his fault but ours. It seems fair and just to expect him to prevent the misuse of free will when innocent people will be killed as a result. But once God starts intervening in our freedom, where should he stop?

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.

On a morning like this one it is only natural to struggle with the Christian doctrine of an all-powerful, all-loving God. If he were omnipotent, surely he could have prevented this tragedy. If he were all-loving, he would want to do so.

It's a dog-eat-dog, general manager-eat-coach world out there. When you're judged by perfection, perfection usually wins. Most of us know the feeling. As the Bible says, "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).

Our celestial problem is a parable for a spiritual issue much closer to home. We might call it the "spiritual Kessler syndrome": sin produces more sin.

Jesus sees past your surroundings to your heart this morning. Whether you won or lost your last game, you can count on his compassion and grace.

Management expert Peter Drucker once said that 50 percent of all management decisions will be wrong. A crucial key to leadership success is responding well to mistakes when we inevitably make them. We remember Moses more for parting the Red Sea than for killing the Egyptian soldier.

As frustrated as I can get with the cashew-sized intelligence of my fellow humans, I need look no further than the mirror to find that I am at least as culpable as anyone in the news..The good news is that our Father forgives every act of stupidity we confess to him.

Just when human history couldn't get more bleak, with the pagan Roman Empire in control even of God's Hebrew people, his Messiah came to set us free.