The Seabourns

Keith Seabourn

The problem of evil, pain and suffering

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I receive about 10 emails a week for seekers who are exploring what it means to know and follow Jesus. Some have just recently received Christ. Some are still on their journey towards Jesus.

Some of the recurring questions I receive are in the area of “How can a good and loving God allow pain and suffering and evil?”

This is not an easy topic for mature Christians and is sometimes a stumbling block for those seeking to know our God of love and forgiveness.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Letters and Papers from Prison:

It is a good thing to learn early that God and suffering are not opposites but rather one and the same thing and necessarily so; for me, the idea that God himself suffers is far and away the most convincing piece of Christian doctrine.

I’ve found several things that help questioners address this important issue. Here’s an email I sent today to someone asking this question.

Dear ________,

Hi, my name is Keith and I wanted to thank you for visiting our web site.

I appreciate your desire to investigate Christianity and the claims of Christ. This is definitely not a decision to be taken lightly and if there is anything I can help you with on your spiritual journey, please let me know.

My hope and prayer for you is that you will experience God’s peace and plan for your life.

I do not want to trivialize your questions about God’s existence and the deep issues of pain and suffering. Here are some articles that I think might help you think through this very important issue. Would you read these and write me back? I would like to know what you think.

Why Would a Loving God Allow Pain and Suffering?

Is there a God?

Deliver us from evil (This website was developed by a friend of mine)

Father of mercy and love, I ask you to reveal yourself to ________ as he works through the deeply painful issues in his life. Would you please show him your love. Show him your desire to help him make sense of the pain and suffering in his life.

I look forward to hearing more from you.

On the journey with you,
Keith

Ospreys

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Kay and I have been watching an osprey nest in our neighborhood. I took my camera out this afternoon and captured these photos of the birds.

Osprey nest in our neighborhood

When I first set up my camera and tripod. the birds would not return to the nest. So I sat down and remained still for a half-hour or so. Here comes the male back to the nest.
Osprey returns to his nest

I didn’t realize that the female had remained with the nest. She was down inside. When the male returned, she hopped up to take a look around.
Osprey stretches his wings

The male moved over to a branch. The female look on for a while, then went back down inside. Must be some eggs in there.
Ospreys in their nest

Overall, a great afternoon watching some of God’s amazing creation.

March Madness Beyond the Ultimate

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March Madness has struck our house. How about yours?

Kay really gets into March Madness — both women’s and men’s brackets. She has her bracket pages printed out and is faithfully recording winners as they advance. We’re watching more basketball than we do at any other time.

Campus Crusade for Christ is the #3 ranking among corporate networks in Facebook’s March Madness contest. If you have a Facebook account, log in then go here to see the updated rankings. I didn’t participate, but it’s interesting to watch others.

Back at Superbowl time, I mentioned the BeyondTheUltimate.org evangelistic outreach sponsored by Athletes in Action, the athletic ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ.

They are doing it again. This time it’s March Madness. Visit BeyondTheUltimate.org. Watch some videos and read personal stories from John Wooden (won 10 national titles coaching UCLA, including 7 consecutive titles 1967-1973), Clark Kellogg (CBS Sports broadcaster), Ruth Riley (center for Detroit Shock), Luke Ridnour (guard for Seattle Supersonics) and others.

But even better, tell your friends at work and at achool about BeyondTheUltimate.org. Oh, and they can also watch Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith talk about their personal faith journeys. Good stuff. God stuff.

Using our platform to influence others

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Have you watched the thought-provoking Web 2.0 … The Machine is Us/ing Us?

This 4 minute 31 second video clip on YouTube.com has become extremely popular. Warning: It’s really geeky, full of web terms like HTML, XML, Web 2.0, and other techie stuff.

But starting about the 3 minute mark, it turns philosophical and very thought-provoking.

I like it for another reason. It’s a great example of using free stuff to create and distribute content that has become extremely popular. He used a free screen recording toolsee below, video editing software (don’t know if it’s free or not), and free music from an Ivory Coast guy released under creative commons. It was created by an anthropology prof at Kansas State university (not your typical media producer!). As of today, it’s been viewed 1,947,333 times. It has topped the Super Bowl ad videos.

What I really like is the reminder that every one of us has a platform to influence others. This K-State prof is influencing millions of others. Have you used your platform this week?

Interesting note: I use a screen capture and editing tool called Camtasia Studio by Techsmith. I think it’s great. I’ve promoted the use of it in Campus Crusade for Christ to help educate and tech support our staff around the world. CamStudio (used by this K-State professor) which seems to be something like Camtasia Studio but in effect is the early version of Adobe Captivate which is a Camtasia Studio competitor!!! Go figure!!!

Ira Glass on Storytelling

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I just watched 4 short videos by Ira Glass on storytelling. If you write prayer letters, if you make presentations to supporting churches, if you teach Sunday School, or if you just want to improve your speaking and writing for whatever reasons, I encourage you to view these short videos. Here are my short notes for these short videos.

The basics of a good story
Two basic building blocks: (1) The anecdote. A sequence of actions. (2) The moment of reflection. Reflecting on the meaning of the story.

Finding great stories
The moment you write the story on paper or record it to video, it is trying to be a bad story. Get rid of the boring parts. Be ruthless in editing.

On good taste
The first stories you write and videos you produce will not be very good. You have good taste and want to do good work, but your skills are not honed. Persevere.

Two common pitfalls
(1) Be yourself. Don’t try to mimic others’ speaking or writing. (2) Don’t talk about yourself. Don’t turn someone’s story into an autobiographical time to talk about yourself.

I recommend these to anyone wanting to improve their storytelling, writing, or videos.