Jonathan Roumie Reflects on 6 Years of Giving God His Career
By Movieguide® Contributor
In a touching Instagram post, Movieguide® Teddy Award® Winner Jonathan Roumie reflected on the immeasurable blessings that have come his way since deciding to fully turn over his life to Christ and commit his career to God.
“Six years ago, on this date, May 12th, 2018 (a Saturday), I was at the lowest point in my life without any glimmer of hope or aspirations of change,” Roumie wrote. “All I would do in this moment was submit to Jesus my existence and my purpose. By the grace, mercy, and mystery of God, through an act of complete surrender, my life would be changed forever, mere hours later.”
Having already spent decades failing to make it as an actor and down to the last $30 in his bank account, Roumie fully placed his confidence in Christ and was met by a sense of peace from the Lord that he was supposed to continue working in the entertainment industry. Later that day, he received multiple checks in the mail for residuals that hadn’t been paid out in months.
“Little did I know that six months later, I would be in Texas four episodes of an obscure faith-centered, crowd-funded, historical streaming TV drama about the life of Jesus called @thechosentvseries with this insanely talented band of brothers and sisters,” Roumie said.
“Everything was in God’s hands, with no guarantees. And we were all OK with that,” he continued. “It’s still astonishing to see how far we’ve come in that time, but an undoubted testament to the power of submission to the Lord and how much further He will take you if you let Him into your life, and specifically, your trials.”
“Thank you God for the abundance – nay, the embarrassment of riches more like – You have provided me in these subsequent six years,” Roumie added. “I am nothing without You. With Your help, for as long as I am able, not a day (or an anniversary) will go by where I do not reflect and give thanks to You for this sacred transition, this watershed turning point granted to me, Your unworthy servant, by Your loving hand in Jesus’ Holy Name I pray. Amen.”
Roumie’s incredible story can now be experienced in intimate detail through his Prime Video mini-series JONATHAN & JESUS.
Movieguide® previously reported:
THE CHOSEN’s Jonathan Roumie has released a new mini-series documenting his journey to become one of the most prominent portrayals of Jesus to ever break into mainstream culture.
“This commitment, this responsibility, this gift that I’ve been given – while challenging at times – ultimately if for my greater good and for the potential for other people to find some sort of inspiration or some sort of connection or a return, in many cases, a return to faith,” Roumie said about his role on THE CHOSEN.
The idea for the series – JONATHAN & JESUS – came from a plan to create a one-off episode depicting the weight of playing Jesus on screen. However, the concept blossomed to include Roumie’s journey to faith.
“The series documents my experiences playing Jesus through the context of @thechosentvseries; the effect playing Jesus has had on its viewers (as well as the challenges it presents to me personally), and the monumental and universe-shifting impact #JesusChrist has had on history and culture throughout the world!” he said of the series.
Filming for THE CHOSEN Season 5 is underway, and Roumie is excited to be back.
“[Things] have gone remarkably well,” he said. “I arrived feeling like I don’t know how this is going to go, and praise God, it went really well. Day two [of filming] was even easier than day one, much lighter. We were able to have some time to kind of joke around a little bit.”
