Former “Growing Pains” actor Kirk Cameron says that he was moved to ask Jesus into his life at the tender young age of 17 — when his child acting career was at its pinnacle.
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Cameron, who starred on the hit 1980s sitcom, said that he began acting at 14 years old — and it didn’t take long for Hollywood to get its narcissistic hooks into him.
Luckily for the longtime entertainer, he was moved to ask Jesus Christ into his life and lived the rest of his life thereafter as a changed man.
During a recent appearance on the PragerU “Stories of Us” series, the actor said that a note written by his daughter prompted him to consider his former Hollywood superstardom.
The note said, “It’s the same boiling water that softens potatoes that hardens eggs. It just depends on what you’re made of.”
“So the same difficult challenges and influences of Hollywood that turn some people sour and make them narcissistic and bitter and joyless and afraid to not fit in is the same pressure that actually softened my heart and caused me to embrace gratitude and be thankful for the life that I have and want to use a platform and this Hollywood industry to advance the good,” he explained. “I really think it’s what you’re made of. And if you don’t know what you’re made of, don’t look to your environment or your industry or other people to give you an identity. There was somebody who made you — ask Him. And you can be sure that the ending of the story is gonna be fantastic.”
Cameron said that by just 17 years old, he was living the life that most child actors dream of: riding around in high-priced sports cars with fellow ’80s staples like Michael J. Fox and receiving more attention than any young, impressionable teen could ever want — but he was worried that it wasn’t enough to sustain him for all eternity.
Cameron said that the moment shines clearly in his mind’s eye.
After dropping off a female thespian at her acting class, Cameron said that he began to wonder if there was more to life than simply living most every teenager’s dream.
“I knew that if there was a heaven, I wouldn’t be going there,” he admitted, adding that he was convicted of living his life with an attitude of arrogance rather than the heart of a servant and a spirit of faithfulness.
He said that he realized right then and there that he would need to ask Jesus into his heart for forgiveness and to turn over a new leaf.
“God, if you’re there, would you please show me?” he recalled praying.
“Would you forgive me for the wrong things I’ve done and make me the person that You want me to be?”
Cameron, now 51 years old, is living life with faith at the forefront — with his wife, a fellow Christian, a woman he met on the set of his beloved ’80s show.
While certainly the most important, coming to Christ wasn’t the only way Cameron changed, thanks at least in part to Hollywood. He was also introduced to his wife on the set of “Growing Pains.”
“I found a girl,” Cameron said. “She’s beautiful on the inside; she’s beautiful on the outside. I married her and we’ve been married for 30 years. You have no idea how much more valuable that is. I’ve got six grown children who love God and still ask me my opinions about things, who still love to come home and be with me and my wife, and I’m on PragerU’s ‘Stories of Us.’ I mean, the story doesn’t really end much better than this.”
Stories of Us: Kirk Cameron www.youtube.com
(H/T: Faithwire)