Alan Ritchson is the Christian actor who stars in Amazon Prime’s “Reacher” show, a role for which he received some backlash that he powerfully rebutted in a video about his faith, the Bible, and telling compelling stories that lead people to Christ, He’s also someone who saw the power of God as a young man, with his faith in the Lord saving him from suicide.
Such is what Ritchson told the Christian Post in an incredibly moving interview about his faith and how he has tried to recognize and overcome his flaws as a person. Further, he explained how staring what he thought was the end of his career in the face led him toward suicide, but that God’s grace led him to fail in his attempt and recover, not only physically but also mentally.
Opening up about how he sees his flaws, Ritchson, a married father of three, told the Christian Post, “I’m bipolar. I’m temperamental, I’m stubborn, I’m creatively a perfectionist, and I hold people to a ridiculous, ridiculous standard, and myself to an even higher one. And I’m hard to live with.”
Continuing, he explained why he sometimes struggles to believe God would have grace for him, saying, “The problem is, it’s less that I doubt God is real or that God cares. It’s more that I doubt that I’m worthy of the love that God gives or that I’m worthy of His attention.” He then opened up on his suicide attempt, saying, “I thought my career was over a few years ago. I had a run-in with suicide and tried to take my own life. Thank God I was not successful.”
Then, commenting on how he moved past those dark days and recovered thanks to God, his family, and the doctor, Ritchson told the Christian Post, “My family was there for me, some doctors were there for me, and I got help and pulled through. But I had to find what meaning and purpose look like after that, and it looked like serving others and having a real relationship with God.”
Ritchson didn’t just recover and build his own faith in God. He also realized after those dark days that others struggle with similar problems and could be benefitted by building their relationships with God. So he started trying to use his social media platform to speak about faith, God, and God’s grace in the hope that he could lead others away from darkness and toward God’s grace.
He said, speaking on his thought process and the gifts of God, “I just have to say something that matters; maybe it’ll save someone else from suicide, too. I thought, ‘I’m probably never going to work in the business again.’ And, lo and behold, God’s like, ‘I’m going to give you the most insane career you could ever imagine.’ I continue to try and honor Him, and it’s been a real gift.”
He added, later in the interview, “That Sermon on the Mountain, Beatitudes way of living, it’s not foreign to me, and it takes a lot of work, which is why I cling to it. The times that I’ve had the most trouble are the times where I am on my own, a slave to my own ambition. Realizing there’s really nothing there at the top when you’re just grinding away at building your own empire — I don’t belong in that camp. I belong in God’s camp.”
Watch Ritchson speak about Reacher and using compelling stories to introduce people to God here:
Featured image credit: By Super Festivals from Ft. Lauderdale, USA – file-storage_2022gcrichmond_1318220022, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=117295665