LIFE Today will feature Actor Stephen Baldwin on Thursday, March 8, talking about his new show on RT called The Great American Pilgrimage. 

Stephen Baldwin is the richest guy he knows. But it has nothing to do with money. 

From a farmhouse he shares with his wife and three dogs in upstate New York, he recently talked to The Stream about what makes his life blessed: faith, prayer and following the calling God has placed on his life.

A ‘God Guy’

Baldwin said he’s always been a “God guy,” but the turning point for him was when he started to pray and read the Bible. “It was when I started to pray and read the Bible and asked God to show me the truth, and I did that every day for a year, that’s when the rubber started to meet the road and my understanding of the experience changed. Therefore the truth of it started to sink in and I became a born-again Christian.” His wife, already a Christian, prayed him “into the moment of decision … relentlessly for years,” he said.

“The most important thing about my walk of faith is waking up every day and knowing that it’s real because I always get that moment of grace where the Lord invites me to remember He’s with me. For me, the choice every day is, either it’s ‘yes, Lord, your will,’ or it’s ‘no, Lord, my will.’ That’s the most important part of my walk of faith — the submission to that, authentically, as best I can.” Baldwin believes that we need to make the choice daily. “I believe that He’s there for us, waiting with open arms every day. And we get to make the choice.”

He also recognizes that God is in control. “I’m taking the steps and the measures each and every day to get closer to Jesus, because in this life in this world, I realize there’s a couple of basic keys to that and the one most important key for me is just recognizing it’s not my life. God owns me, to do with me whatever he wishes.”

Learning to Say ‘Yes’ to God

It wasn’t always that clear. Several years ago, Baldwin was approached to take his Livin’ It skateboard videos on tour. He believed he was supposed to go back to Hollywood and take Jesus there. Then Luis Palau’s finance manager asked him to tour with skateboarders across the country as a ministry. He responded, “Do me a favor. Never say my name and skate ministry in the same sentence, that’s going to be a problem for me.” He believed his career in Hollywood would be over.

The manager asked him to pray about it. He might say no when God wanted him to say yes. “You should read your Bible a little bit more, Stephen, about folks that tell God ‘No.'”  

Baldwin prayed. He told God he thought he’d have a greater impact for Him in Hollywood if God would give him the tools, money and power. He says God asked him, “Are you done?” God reminded him that he said he’d go anywhere and do anything if he knew it was from God.

It was the moment of decision. “And isn’t it for those of us who understand Jesus a little bit, that what he does usually is the opposite of what you think he’s going to do? So the more powerful testimony isn’t that I went back to Hollywood and tried to be this great ‘whatever’ for Jesus. The more powerful testimony is that I chose to follow in such a way that it’s called me out of Hollywood. And for that I’m truly grateful. There’s no way I would have the clarity that I have now if I was still in the Hollywood game the way I used to be.”

The Great American Pilgrimage

Now God has led Baldwin into another project, one of healing the country of division and anger through dialogue. “We arrived at this place we’re at now because everyone’s talking and pointing and yelling and no one’s listening,” he says.

“No one is doing that relational thing that Jesus talked about, where perhaps we could actually go into a place where there is opposition or there is rebellion and sit and offer that person something to eat. Or offer them a drink of water, first. And then say ‘Hi, my name is Stephen, what is your name?’ And actually do more listening and or do unto that person as I would hope they would do unto me.”

So that’s what he’s done with his new docuseries on RT called The Great American Pilgrimage. Baldwin rented an RV and took his three dogs and his friend Max Keiser on roadtrips around the country, filming as he went along.

“So I’m a journalist having a conversation in an environment of entertainment. So I wanna make you laugh, I want you to have fun, and then we’re going to have these conversations and sometimes it’s going to get real and serious. Because the environment is more lighthearted, people’s hearts and minds will be more open to receive those conversations because I’m not creating something that’s so judgmental and doom and gloom.”

The one reaction that Baldwin’s getting from the show is that both sides of the cultural divide sees a necessity for conversations to find a solution. “I’m just trying to be part of that solution,” he said.

‘What Jesus Wants is Stephen’

Baldwin won’t let others sway him to do what he believes God has asked him to do. He realizes that it isn’t his job to tell other Christians what to do. It is his job to tell those pushing him to do other things that “What Jesus wants is Stephen, not all of these things Stephen thinks he can do for the kingdom.”

“What Jesus wants is you. What Jesus wants is me. He doesn’t want all these things I think I’m supposed to do for Jesus. He wants me to get up and say, ‘Good morning,’ and sit and pray and read His word and make the time to have the relationship with him. I don’t have to do anything. I can sit in this house until I’m dead and just pray with my wife for the will of Jesus Christ and that would satisfy him.”

The interview has been slightly edited for clarity.