In Interview With Victoria Osteen, Matthew McConaughey Shares Why He is Grateful for ‘the Ritual of Church’ and How Solitude Has Helped Him ‘Become Friends With God’

Reuters

Academy Award–winning actor Matthew McConaughey, who recently released his bestselling memoir Greenlights, says attending church on Sunday is a necessity for him to stay grounded.

In a clip from an interview with SiriusXM host, Victoria Osteen, who’s also the wife of megachurch Pastor Joel Osteen, McConaughey talked about his faith journey beginning with his New Testament-style Methodist upbringing in Uvalde, Texas, where his mother wouldn’t allow them to take the fact that the sun rose this morning for granted.

“I need the ritual of church on Sunday to do inventory on my last week to learn something to take into the week, to propel me into that week that I can feel like I can apply in my life,” the father of three said in the interview which will air in full on Dec. 16 at 12 p.m. ET on Joel Osteen Radio.

“Just about a year ago I just giggled with myself at how beautiful the calendar is. The calendar week. God made it in seven days. And on the seventh day rest and go to church because come about Saturday, I need some Sunday church again,” he continued. “I’m like, it’s perfectly scheduled because I come out roaring on Sunday and Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, I’m like, ‘oooh I need to go do some inventory again.’ Go to a place where it’s obvious that I’m, at the highest level, No. 2. And to be humble.”

The actor also explained that he learned to appreciate God’s presence by becoming friends with himself through solitude.

“I’ve had times where, with great success and fame, where I’ve needed to strip all of my talismans of identity down to now where I just understood now who are you as just a child of God. Just that. Not an American, not a McConaughey, not a Texan, not Academy Award winner, not any of these things that you mortally gained along the way. But who are you when you are stripped down to nothing as a child of God?” he said.

“So I’ve had those times when I’ve gone off and had my sacrifices, I’ve had my sabbaticals. I’ve taken, solitude … Thomas Merton, Benedictine monk, spent a lot of time at this monastery where I go. And I’ve really learned the value of solitude. Sometimes by my choice, sometimes because it wasn’t chosen for me.

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SOURCE: Christian Post, Leonardo Blair