Prayer, Bible reading keep actor Matthew McConaughey grounded in his faith

Academy Award-winning actor Matthew McConaughey, like most Christians, has experienced his share of ups and downs in his faith journey.

“I’m a believer. I believe in God,” he told “Relevant Magazine. “I had a time where I had a couple of very agnostic years. It wasn’t as much as disbelieving as it was more about telling myself, ‘Hey, quit chalking things up to fate. You have your hands on the wheel; you’re responsible for your decisions.’”

Learning to keep things in perspective was part of the process.

“God’s laying out the highways, but we each have our hand on the wheel,” McConaughey said. “I look at Earth. I look at the little dot that we are on the planet. The world’s turning. And we’re that little individual on the planet. That smallness can make you go, ‘Oh my gosh. I’m nothing. None of what I do matters.’ That place of humility is actually where I realized, oh, it all matters.”

READ: Matthew McConaughey on being a Christian in Holllywood

Still, a big part of humanity that McConaughey is still trying to figure out is the topic of free will.

“I’m eternally fascinated with trying to get to what are the decisions we can make that are selfish and selfless at the same time,” he said. “What is our relationship with responsibility and freedom? Understanding the responsibility of freedom and the freedom that comes with responsibility? Where do we make the decisions? The ultimate place — I call it heaven on earth — is when we want what we need, and we actually need what we want.”

Regularly connecting with God is keeps McConaughey, 54, grounded. “Prayer is inventory for me,” he said. “It’s why I love the schedule of church. I mean, you know, it’s time to go. It’s been seven days — I go to church once a week, so Sunday, I go, and I pray and I do inventory.”

He also relies on the Bible, even though he doesn’t always understand it. “I don’t know what to do in my daily life with the burning bush,” he told Joe Rogan, referring to the story of Moses in the Old Testament. “I do know what to do with ‘love your neighbor like yourself,’ and I do know what to do with some Proverbs that I can take into daily practice.”

The actor recently celebrated his 12th anniversary with wife Camila.

–Dwight Widaman | Metro Voice