Dennis Quaid Says ‘Red Words of Jesus’ Brought Him Back to God
By Movieguide® Contributor
Dennis Quaid shared with Andy Erwin how he found a relationship with Jesus and that his faith saved him from destruction.
Quaid managed to land major movie roles only a few years after moving to L.A. from his home state of Texas. As his fame grew, he began chasing drugs and alcohol to fill a growing hole in his heart. However, he never found peace and was constantly crying out to God for help.
After years of yelling at God, he was met with an image of himself at rock bottom, dead, alone or in jail.
Movieguide® reported:
“I remember going home and having kind of a white light experience that I saw myself either dead or in jail or losing everything I had, and I didn’t want that,” he recalled.
Addiction forces people to “fill a hole inside us,” the Movieguide® Award nominee added. “When you’re done with the addiction, you need something to fill that hole, something that really works, right?”
This image shook Quaid and drove him to seek real help. He checked himself into rehab and, after months in a recovery center, began attending recovery meetings as he moved back to real life.
“I was going to meetings back then, which were basically alcohol anonymous meetings and I just did everything they said, which in AA they said, ‘You have a spiritual problem is really what it is,’ and that’s true.” Quaid told Erwin.
To address this issue, Quaid began to seek the truth and searched every major religion to find a solution to his spiritual problem.
“I started meditating again, and I went back and read the Bible cover to cover. I had done it when I was twenty, and I was now thirty-eight, and I read it cover to cover again,” he said. “And I read the Dhammapada, the Bhagavad Gita, and I read the Quran. And then I came back and read the Bible again, and it was the red words of Jesus, what really struck me – was real to me – was what Jesus said and what Jesus did. And that was the start of my personal relationship with Jesus.”
Quaid realized that Jesus’ teachings were the only ones that led him to actual answers rather than left him with more questions.
“That’s when I started developing a personal relationship,” he told PEOPLE. “Before that, I didn’t have one, even though I grew up as a Christian.”
“[The holy texts] all point to the same thing, that which has no words, which is God. Jesus actually has the answers to all that. You know, I had heard about having a personal relationship with Jesus…I came to know what having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ was,” Quaid explained. “Like any relationship, it’s something that grows and grows and grows. It sometimes feels distant, but then it comes back. And at the same time, it’s who I am.”
In the decades since, Quaid has grown more bold in his faith, and it has shown through his career. He’s taken on more faith-based roles and even released a gospel album last year.
During its first week, the album “Fallen: A Gospel Record For Sinners” debuted “at No. 1 on the Top Christian/Gospel Albums chart. ‘Fallen’ had a landmark first week on the Billboard Top 200 Christian/Gospel chart, too: It landed in the Top 15.”
“It’s been the easiest, most gratifying period of my life. Happiest – you experience the wonderful feeling of being alive,” the actor said. “You know, Jesus said, ‘The kingdom of heaven is spread out on the earth,’ and, the way I see it, I think Jesus was actually, in His message, besides heaven, He came to tell us how to have heaven on earth.”
Movieguide® previously reported:
Actor Dennis Quaid recently revealed how finding faith in Christ saved him from addiction and has continued to be the foundation of his life since then.
In an interview with PEOPLE, Quaid revealed how his struggle with addiction early in his career motivated him to return to his Christian roots.
“I was in a band,” he added, “and we got a record gig… They broke up the night they got it, and they broke up because of me, because I was not reliable.”
“I remember going home and having kind of a white light experience that I saw myself either dead or in jail or losing everything I had, and I didn’t want that,” he recalled.
Addiction forces people to “fill a hole inside us,” the Movieguide® Award nominee added. “When you’re done with the addiction, you need something to fill that hole, something that really works, right?”
The actor decided to read the Bible. While he also read the Bhagavad Gita, the Quran and other religious texts, he returned to the Bible.
