From Fox News:

LEXINGTON, Ky. —  Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity has suspended its University of Kentucky chapter after a prank involving fire. WKYT-TV in Lexington reported 19-year-old fraternity member Shaun Dunn wrapped another member in toilet paper and set it on fire. The carpet caught fire and the smoke detectors went off. Dunn is charged with first degree arson, wanton endangerment and tampering with physical evidence. The incident early Saturday also disclosed fire code violations, so the house was closed for the semester. Members were given 24 hours to move out. Fraternity member Joe McKinley is charged with assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest — accused of hitting the officer in the face when told to leave his room.

This simultaneously disgusts and saddens me. I am an SAE alumnus and am proud of that fact. My fraternity overall is an honorable one. I did my fair share of crazy things as a “frat rat” when I was in college. My fellow pledges and I looked like walking cornflakes after hell night. But this goes beyond crazy. This isn’t harmless fun. This is vicious, mean-spirited, and just plain evil. It is another example of the increasingly lawless behavior I read about in the news. I cannot imagine what the families of these students are thinking or the grief, anger, and embarrassment they probably feel. I also worry that this kind of behavior is becoming more indicative of the kind of society we are becoming, one in which these kinds of behaviors are becoming increasingly common and which tends to trade in respect for life, the value of community, and traditional values and structures for the sake of individual freedom and autonomy.

I hope someone loves Mr. Dunn and his fellow perpetrators enough to introduce them to the One who can heal them.

Biblical teaching and personal experience combine to teach that suffering is the path to holiness or maturity. There is always an indefinable something about people who have suffered. They have fragrance which others lack. They exhibit the meekness and gentleness of Christ. One of the most remarkable statements Peter makes in his first letter is that ‘he who has suffered in his body is done with sin’ (4:1). Physical affliction, he seems to be saying, actually has the effect of making us stop sinning. This being so, I sometimes wonder if the real test of our hunger for holiness is our willingness to experience any degree of suffering if only thereby God will make us holy.

—Dr. John R.W. Stott, The Cross of Christ

When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” So Jesus went with him. A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”  But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?” Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.” He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him. After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.

—Mark 5:21-42 (TNIV)

Here we see a picture of people following Jesus, desperate to touch him or have him touch them or their loved ones. But why? Because they have seen or heard about his healing power and they want in on the benefits. They want him to heal them or their loved ones. I do not say this critically because who among us does not desire Jesus to touch and heal us of our sicknesses? But this is not ultimately the stuff that makes for a healthy relationship because it tends to be one way in nature, not bi-directional.

Jesus has something much better to offer than physical healing. He offers us life forever. He offers us the opportunity to live directly in the presence of the Source and Author of all life. As I grow in my own faith, I am realizing slowly that this is a much better reason to want a relationship with Jesus. I want to enjoy his presence, to love, worship, and obey him. I want to bring glory and honor to his name. I want others to know him the way I am learning how to know him. There’s a healthy dynamic to this kind of relationship. There’s nothing better in this world.

When my parents were living, their last years were not easy ones. They were growing sick and infirm. They were dying. I prayed for their healing but it was not forthcoming. But now they are well. They are healed. They will never get sick again or suffer again. They are reunited with loved ones. They are living directly in the Lord’s presence. I think that is a much more satisfactory answer to my prayers for healing than the superficial answers for which I prayed. Sure I miss them but love always desires the best for its beloved, even if it is desired now in faith, and I can think of nothing better than to be able to live with this God of ours who loves us and gave himself for us to make that possible.

Think on these things during this Lenten season.

You have heard guarded against great sins like adultery or murder. You do not steal other people’s goods. You do not blaspheme. You do not give false testimony. All these are mountainous sins. But what about the small ones? You have gotten rid of the mountain; take care lest you be buried by the sand.

—Augustine, Commentary on Psalm 39, 22

Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

You will find it a great help [to] say over and over to yourself and to your God, “Lord, I am yours; I do yield myself entirely to you, a I believe that you take me. I leave myself with you. Work in me all the good pleasure of your will, and I will only lie still in your hands and trust you.” Make this a daily, definite act of your will, and many times a day repeat it, as being your continual attitude before the Lord. Sooner or later, you will find in practical experience that he has affirmed you to be one of his peculiar people, and will enable you to keep all his commandments, and that you are being made into “a holy people to the Lord, as he has spoken.”

—Hannah Whitall Smith, The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life

In the Canticle (5:1), the bridegroom invites us, his friends, to “drink deep and get drunk”. That is the context for all our discipline, our ascetic efforts, our self-sacrifice. God himself, like a shrewd taverner, has come to us first, to seduce us from the narrow path of worldly duty, to know the sweetness of his love. Are we ready to be the prodigal come home, welcomed with a party? Or are we going to insist on being the good boy, the elder brother, prepared only to do his duty, but not to celebrate the feast of love?

—Simon Tugwell, Prayer

Listen, O Lord, to my prayers. Listen to my desire to be with you, to dwell in your house, and to let my whole being be filled with your presence. But none of this is possible without you. When you are not the one who fills me, I am soon filled with endless thoughts and concerns that divide me and tear me away from you. Even thoughts about you, good spiritual thoughts, can be little more than distractions when you are not their author.

Every day I see again that only you can teach me to pray, only you can set my heart at rest, only you can let me dwell in your presence. Let me wait patiently and attentively for that hour when you will come and break through all the walls I have erected. Teach me, O Lord, to pray. Amen.

—Henri Nouwen, A Cry for Mercy