Honestly Thinking

Honestly thinking (& rethinking) about God, the universe, and everything in between

Author: Steve Baldwin (Page 4 of 6)

Wash

August 21, 2016 / / 0 Comments
Photo courtesy of Chiceaux Lynch

Photo courtesy of Chiceaux Lynch

It was the most demeaning of tasks, performed by only the lowliest of servants – often slaves in the households of the rich.

The roads were dirty and dusty and likely covered with animal dung.

Thus, with nothing but sandals to wear, one’s feet were often coated in filth.

The hosts would, consequently, provide a bowl of water for cleansing – particularly before a meal in which the guests would lean back on the floor and prominently display their feet.

In ordinary households, guests would wash their own feet; but in wealthier households the lowly servants and slaves would crouch before the honored guests and wipe the grime off for them.

Thus an extraordinary thing happened this particular day when the I Am –

…the very law that had the power to form an entire universe with numerous galaxies billions of light years apart

…the law that had existed since before the beginning of time and would be there to the very end

…the law that was responsible for light and energy and atoms and the creation of life itself

…the most authoritative law there ever was

– rose, removed its garments, wrapped a towel around its waist, bowed down before each of its disciples and proceeded to wash their feet. Continue reading

Honest Random Musings #1

May 29, 2016 / / 3 Comments

One of my biggest fears in writing this blog is that it would keep me from taking the time to complete my book.  Unfortunately, that fear has come true.  Therefore, to avoid spending an inordinate amount of hours writing major thesis points for individual blogs, I am starting a much simpler series I call “Honest Random Musings.”  This is the first as a begin to refocus some of my time on the book.

A major part of my job is to do pre-scheduled phone calls every week with well-known speakers, authors and occasionally celebrities.

As an extreme introvert, this absolutely terrifies me.

I really like people – I just don’t like talking to them.  Or more precisely, it’s very excruciating trying to come up with something to actually say.

And as my fellow introverts will attest, phone calls are the worst.

This is compounded by the very fact that the people I am talking to are known for their incredible speaking abilities.

It’s like sending someone into a real war zone naked and armed only with a rubber band gun and no rubber bands. Continue reading

One Big Potty Mess

May 13, 2016 / / 0 Comments
Photo by Mike Mozart

Photo by Mike Mozart

Sorry to dump this on you.  Perhaps you may even feel this is a waste of time.

The subject has become a bit draining after all and is sometimes defecalt to discuss.  Yet I feel like I can stall on this topic no more and that it’s my absolute duty to bring it up…

…because many people feel like our nation is going down the toilet.  The divisiveness over the issue at the very least runs deep.

Butt if you don’t chuckle just a little bit at the thought of it, I think urine denial about just how plumb silly the whole things sounds.

One of our biggest national conversations right now is…over where we should pee and poop. Continue reading

Why This Christian Won’t Be Plugging His Nose and Voting for Trump or Clinton

May 6, 2016 / / 13 Comments
Photo courtesy of DonkeyHotey

Image courtesy of DonkeyHotey

The nomad and his wife made their journey toward a dangerous foreign land.  Behind them a severe famine threatened to overtake them. Before them resided a people with a deadly reputation.

The man had heard stories before of their barbaric acts; he knew that if they found out this beautiful woman with him was his wife they would likely kill him in order to take her as their own.

To stay behind meant certain death by starvation for both. To move forward and tell the truth would seal his fate by sword.

Fearful of the consequences, Abram and his wife Sarai determined one small act of deception might serve to spare their lives.

What other choice did they have? It was the practical thing to do.

After all, these were desperate times.

And desperate times often call for desperate measures….and a little bit of compromise, right?

One of the things I’ve come to learn as a Christian is that many moral decisions are not always as clear cut as I would hope or as straightforward as the church would often have you believe.

The current political season is no exception in terms of complexity.

As the selection of final candidates winds down to two individuals whose rhetoric, behaviors and values often seem to contradict the message of Christ, many of my fellow Christians are asking what to do. Continue reading

True Story: The Case of the Missing Groom

April 17, 2016 / / 6 Comments

Waiting_Bride_at_the_New_Orleans_Museum_of_Art

Everyone has one of those stories: the kind of strange, true-life events you tell at a party that people find hard to believe.  This is mine.

Though I confess some of the specific details over the years have escaped me, I assure you the story itself is real.

Back in the 90’s I worked as a freelance cameraman for a company that videotaped weddings.  One weekend my fellow freelancer David and I set out for what we thought would be a typical day of: capture the bride and groom individually getting ready, front and back camera setup for the ceremony, tape the photography session without getting in the still photographers’ way (or on their nerves because you’re taking away from their business), capture the bride and groom entering the reception, first dance, cutting the cake, interviews with sometimes obnoxiously drunk people congratulating the bride and groom, and get the final moments of people pelting them with rice or bird seed and watching them drive off.

In and out…boom…we’re done.  I hate to admit it, but what was often a very special day for some was pretty formulaic for us.

But this day was different. Continue reading

Rethinking God’s Wrath

April 15, 2016 / / 0 Comments

The following is a direct excerpt from Rethinking God, Chapter 3: Bigger

Rethinking God’s Wrath

Often God is thought of as a blood-thirsty dictator, perpetually pissed off at mankind, continually seeking opportunities for punishment and revenge.  But is that really the God who exists?  By understanding God and existence to be one and the same, it gives us opportunity to re-evaluate exactly what we mean when we refer to God’s wrath. Continue reading

The Barabbas Choice: 5 Practical Reasons for Voting for the Lesser of 2 Evils & Why They Won’t Work

April 3, 2016 / / 16 Comments

GiveUsBarabbas

 

This article has been revised and updated here.

The nomad and his wife made their journey toward a dangerous foreign land.  Behind them a severe famine threatened to overtake them. Before them resided a people with a deadly reputation. The man had heard stories before of their barbaric acts; he knew that if they found out that this beautiful woman with him was his wife they would likely kill him in order to take her as their own.

To stay behind meant certain death by starvation for both of them. To move forward and tell the truth would seal his fate by sword or some other horrific means. Thus, one small act of deception might serve to spare his life. What other choice did Abram and his wife Sarai have? It was the practical thing to do. After all, these were desperate times.

And desperate times often call for desperate measures….and a little bit of compromise, right? Continue reading

Must Our President Be Christian? What Even Evangelicals Get Wrong About Separation of Church and State

March 6, 2016 / / 16 Comments

Bible and flag

“Separation of church and state.”  Few phrases have caused such division and controversy.  From the famous Scopes Monkey Trial to battles over the Ten Commandments on public display to stories of high school coaches praying with their teams, there is no shortage of opinions.

Recently, the phrase has even become part of the dialogue in Republican presidential primaries.  After, I questioned the faith claims and behaviors of one of the leading candidates, several objectors decried, “What about separation of church and state?”

Surprisingly, evangelical Christian supporters of the candidate – ones who in the past have traditionally defended this is a “Christian nation” – have begun using a slight variation on the phrase when they proclaim that we are electing “a commander-in-chief, not a pastor-in-chief.”

But all of this is symptomatic that even evangelicals have become victims of a great misunderstanding about God. Continue reading

Yes, Virginia, There is a Supreme Dictator of the Universe … and You’re Okay With It

February 28, 2016 / / 0 Comments

I hate to break it to you but it’s true.  Though, thou may protest much, and though the idea of it may defy every notion of freedom you believe in, there is, in fact, a supreme dictator and that dictator has complete control of your life. 

What’s more is that even though we dislike the idea of our individual freedoms being taken, we protest very little of the actual rules that this dictator imposes on us and, in truth, often welcome them.

And I’ll prove it. Continue reading

The Political Correctness of being Politically Incorrect

February 14, 2016 / / 13 Comments

Back in high school, my best friend Mike and I were riding in my oh-so-cool blue 1978 GT Toyota Celica, most likely with Phil Collins music blaring in the background (because that’s pretty much what we always listened to in those days – if not Peter Gabriel, Bryan Adams, or anything from my “Miami Vice” soundtrack).  I don’t remember the exact context of the conversation, but most likely as a wanna-be-filmmaker I had been dreaming up another idea for one of our many VHS camera recorded mini-film adventures, when I proposed,

“And then one of the Japs comes flying down with his plane…”

Mike suddenly turned to me with that wry half-grin of his and said, “Japs?”

“What?” I responded, clueless at what he was getting at.

“Japs, Steve?  Really?”

You see, a little background here: Mike was (or I guess still technically is) half-Japanese – his mother, an immigrant from Japan after marrying Mike’s American military dad.  If anything, Mike somewhat more favors the Japanese side in terms of looks.

But to me, Mike was just…Mike.  My best friend. Continue reading

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