I've been feeling about a lot while we've been working through this very complex scenario between philemon, Onesimus, and Paul.

I've been thinking about it a lot, trying to put myself in Onesimus's shoes. And truth to be told,

I think I would have run away too. I like my freedom. I think freedom is really important. I think slavery is deeply unnatural.

And even though it might not be the shrewd thing to do, and I'm not sure it was shrewd or

strategically sound for his own well-being, for Onesimus to run away, but even if it wasn't

strategically shrewd, I think I'm with him.

I think I would have done the same thing.

It's hard to imagine.

I've never been in a situation that comes anywhere close to what this guy was living through

in his daily life.

But I know how I react when I'm in situations where I'm kind of stuck in something.

And how did this happen? Like, why am I obligated to this? I got to get out of here, stuck in a set

of circumstances I don't want to be in. That, I mean, I find myself getting really fidgety.

How much more so would I be constantly eyeballing the door and thinking about

ways to build a new life if I were in Onesimus's shoes? Again, I'm not saying that it was the best

idea for him to run away, given the circumstances of the ancient world and what he would be facing when he got out

there. But I cannot blame the guy. We've been doing this what-if thing where, you know, it's just

kind of a fun and sort of backwards way to work our way to understanding the circumstances

of the situation between Philema and Onesimus, and Paul,

and in this fun sort of work our way backwards into understanding it approach, what we're doing

is we're asking the question, what would have happened if Paul hadn't sent Onesimus back to Philemon?

What would have been the ripple effect of this alternate version of history.

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