Christian actor Jesse Hutch, a Canadian-born actor who is best known for his starring role in “A Christmas Blessing” on Great American PureFlix, just spoke to the Christian Broadcasting Network News, or CBN News, about his faith and how his belief in God was strengthened nearly two decades ago when he survived a whitewater rafting accident that he believes would have left him dead had God not intervened.
Speaking about the situation and his life leading up to it, he described how he felt that there was a helping hand looking out for him and keeping him out of too much trouble, saying, “When I look back on my life, there was a definite hand that kept me out of trouble, in many ways. And in some ways, allowed me to get in just enough trouble to learn the lesson, but not walk away completely busted.”
Continuing, he went on to speak about the drowning incident itself, saying that he should be dead from it, or at least seriously disabled, but by God’s grace he survived. He said, “I drowned when I was 21 years old. That was another miracle in my life. I should be dead. I shouldn’t have lived. And if I did, I shouldn’t be able to speak; I shouldn’t be able to hear; I shouldn’t be able to talk.”
Setting up the story in more detail, he noted that he was a “professional” rafting guide when he ended up drowning and remaining underwater for far too long: “I was five years in, so you know, I was a professional at this. It wasn’t anything new. And circumstances all lined up and I ended up underwater. They guesstimate anywhere from 11 to 22 minutes. And eventually, somebody found me.”
Yet he was saved, and he credits God and God’s plan for him as being the reason why: “They brought me back. They got me to the hospital. They put me in a pressure chamber. And … I walk and talk and breathe and chew bubble gum, and that shouldn’t be happening. So again, just another reminder that God has His hand on my life and there’s a reason for it. When I have less tough days, I go, ‘Man, God’s got purpose here.”
Giving examples of the sort of things that should have happened due to his drowing but didn’t, he added, “My eardrums didn’t completely explode. They should have. They should have been wrecked. My vocal cords still have a few [issues], my voice will get really deep. Sometimes, people are like, ‘Well, I can’t hear you. What are you doing?’ I’m like, ‘Man, my vocal cords. They just wrapped together.’ They have a bit of a shift and … there’s a lot of pressure that happens.”
He then went on to talk about growing in faith and spiritual life, saying that he thinks people need to focus on developing in their faith and belief in God and see that reflected in their lives: “There’s a sort of spiritual growth that I think needs to appear there for all of us, no matter what we do. And I’ve really found that along the way. Prayer, and really leaning into my relationship with my wife and the two of us really sort of spearheading that direction of career.”
Elaborating on how he feels that in his own life, he said, “It’s not just my career. … You try to impact others. I want to change … I want to affect my marriage. I want to affect my children. I want to touch the community. There are a lot of angles that you have to think of. You really need direction in that. You have to have a base. You have to have support.” He added, “I can’t just wing it. Though sometimes, yes, you’re improvising, you’re rolling with it. But a lot of the time, you have a base. And as you mentioned, for me, that is faith.”
Continuing on that point, he went on to say, “Scripture says, ‘You should not be led by a reed in the ocean, going to and fro.’ You really need to run the raft of reason before you take that leap of faith. If you say you believe something, then live that out. Live it out in your marriage. Live it out in your workplace. Live it out in your community. Live it out in your finances, your parenting, like how you handle strangers. I mean just live that out.” He then added, “You won’t be perfect, but by no means does belief in a God mean you’re perfect. I mean if anything, it means you really recognize how messed up you are; and how you better make some changes.”
Watch him here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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