The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones

By Stephen Baldwin with Mark Tabb, published by Warner Faith, September 2006.

I came across the book in the bookstore last two weeks. It has a half face picture of the Baldwin I hardly know (I see Alec more often) and the book tells me why he's not visible in Hollywood anymore. I can't recall any of his movies, but I remember him being the more calm Baldwin. Reading this book is like reading an ego-maniac person who became an ego-maniac person who surrender to God. He still who he is, but he lets God performed in his life. He does great things now, and everyone would know it's the work of God, the God who is in him, not Stephen Baldwin himself.

The book tells profoundly about his conversion, how God orchestrated his life to come to Him. It was all dawn on him when a brazilian maid started to bug his wife's ears, and Augusta, the maid, told her that she came because God told the entire congregation in her hometown in Brazil that
the Baldwin will become Christian and has their own ministry. His wife responded to the story and started to search God. And Kennya, his wife, started praying for Stephen to come to Christ, an hour a day, in a year. Prayer is the most powerful thing that said we believe in God who make the impossible into possible.

And then Stephen tells us his sins, what he has done, although he said there's not any major conversion, knock on the head experience as in Paul. But he continues to show us the "coincidence" of how he founded his ministry "Livin' It", a ministry to the skaters, self-described tough guys in the world (Geezz, okay, tough guys). But, he is fruitful. His ministry is growing, and with prayer, it continues to grow and touch people's life, especially his target, the self-described tough guys who surf, skate, and do all the "I have no fear" activities.

The book tells me three things: God works miraculously in people's life when they allow Him to; there's no such thing in our life is a coincidence; and prayer is the next thing to connect with God.

The rest of the story shows me that Stephen is a human being, with a lot of sin and still living in flesh, but he is continue to work on the character, how his relationship with his o, so powerful wife (whom I admire better than Stephen) is growing, and how he's living his life because he surrender to God.

One thing I want to pointed out and I want to mention is the fact that he's not in the traditional way of evangelising. He's not one of those people who live by the "rules" of what so called a "Christian" way of life. That you should not say this and that if you're Christian. I met someone who recently told me that a Christian can't say "crap" for example, which is for me, when I had a bad day, that's the thing I want to say. Crap! So what? I didn't say God's name in vain, which is my definition of cushing. That's just the example. I don't think Jesus said these rules when he was on earth, only us, the self-righteous Christians who condemn other people instead of loving them, which actually, the main thing Jesus had to say. I agree with Stephen with that. I agree that we have to be relevant without being drawn into the culture. It is risky, but we can do it, when we have God in us. When we limit ourselves, we limit our God. Stephen mentioned about Christian rap music, which would be perfect to talk to the inner city kids, as the examples I've seen in CityCure, an urban ministry in Cincinnati. Yeah for not listening to additional what so called "Christian rules", Stephen.

--The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow Roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars." —from On the Road, Jack Kerouac