Actor Denzel Washington recently told members of the University of Colorado Boulder football team coached by NFL legend Deion Sanders that “God put me on this planet to preach” and shared his journey from being a hater of God to a follower of Christ.
A video posted to YouTube Thursday shows Washington speaking via video conferencing to the University of Colorado Boulder football team months after he was baptized and received his ministerial license.
Washington began his remarks by stating, “In all that I say, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in God’s sight.”
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Washington, who grew up in church, described himself “as a man of God who’s been through every machination of faith, from faith to ‘F it.'” He recalled how, at one time, “I rejected God. I hated God.”
“I loved God. I appreciated God,” Washington added. “I’ve had no patience with God, and God has had nothing but patience with me. That’s why they call it grace.”
Washington, 70, said he wrote down the words “platform, purpose and potential” before speaking with the team: “We all have different platforms. Some will be stars. Some will never be stars.”
“We all have a purpose in our life, and I’m here to tell you, God did not put you here to play football,” he asserted. “He gave you that gift, but that’s not your purpose in life because one knee, one shoulder, one ankle, one Achilles, one concussion can end that.”
Washington assured the students that they all have “that God-given potential to be great.”
After recalling how he bounced around from major to major during his time in college, Washington said he found his way to acting during his junior year.
“I never wanted to be an actor. I never thought about acting. I didn’t know any actors, but I found out very quickly that that was my God-given ability, and I found out over this 40-50-year career that it was my God-given purpose,” he stated.
“God did not put me on this planet to act; God put me on this planet to preach,” he assured.
Washington looked back on a conversation he had with a patron at his mother’s beauty parlor after he flunked out of college 50 years ago: “She said, ‘Young man, you’re going to travel the world and preach to millions of people.'”
Washington suggested that his remarks to the college football players constituted a fulfillment of that prophecy. He stressed the “One thing we all have in common is God-given ability” and assured the athletes, “You don’t have to know it now.”
Discussing his upbringing further, Washington said the “only reason” he is not speaking to them from prison is by the grace of God.” He recalled how three of his closest friends served time in prison.
“Only by the grace of God I didn’t go,” he said. “I did what they did. I shot dope when I was 13 years old. I sold dope, sold reefer, sold heroin, sold cocaine. I was shooting dope at 13 years old, but it wasn’t God’s plan for me.”
During a question-and-answer session, Washington said, “God found me long before I found him.” He told another story from his childhood that he saw as an illustration of “how much God loves me.”
“The one time I shot dope in my arm, I was in private school and we were in the bathroom. The guy was showing me how, and the headmaster of the school came in, and literally, the needle was dangling in my arm, and we could hear him, and we said, ‘Is he coming here? I know if he’s coming here, it’s over for me,’ and he didn’t come in.”
He provided additional details about his “70-year journey with the Lord.”
“I was filled with the Holy Spirit in the 80s, and I still wanted to go party, I still wanted to chase women and do all of those kinds of things. I don’t do any of those things now,” he added.
He stressed to the crowd that “It’s not a competition” and declared “There’s nobody closer to God than the next person.”
Washington concluded the talk with advice for the players: “Get up in the morning and be quiet, I’m not talking about prayer, I’m just talking about be quiet, put your feet on the floor. Try to take two minutes and just be quiet. Breathe. Listen.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
