Actor Alan Ritchson explained why he thinks God allows us to wrestle with Him and how in that struggle we can find a deeper, more enduring faith.

“The act of wrestling with God, there’s an invitation there for everybody to do it,” Ritchson said. “I think that’s where God knows, now we can begin. Like, you know, now we can have a conversation and now you’re listening; now you’ll see where I show up. But I think so many of us skip over that and go right to unbelief, and we miss the opportunity to engage with God in a very real way.”

Photo from Alan Ritchson’s Instagram

“In this movie, we see Ed, really, I think, struggle in that moment,” Ritchson continued, discussing his character in his faith-based movie ORDINARY ANGELS, which was released in February. “And, you know, the wrestling match begins, and so I think that’s where the life springs forth in his faith, you know, which seems like, he gets there.”

This was certainly true for the first wrestling match with God as well, when Jacob physically wrestled God through the night. This encounter caused his name to become Israel, and his offspring were forever blessed and set apart as God’s chosen people. This story from the Bible makes it clear that God wants us to wrestle with him because it allows us to know Him more deeply.

Ritchson is right, however, that many people write God off without giving Him a chance to speak to them by questioning Him and seeking His answer. And while we may not always receive an answer to the questions we ask, like Job, the encounters that we have with God do fulfill us and inspire us to continue to pursue our Lord.

This important part of faith in ORDINARY ANGELS exemplifies why Ritchson loves to act, both in Christian and non-Christian roles. He believes that all characters pose questions or set examples for audiences that can lead them closer to Christ.

Movieguide® previously reported:

After facing backlash for playing the titular character in REACHER, Alan Ritchson explains how he takes on non-Christian roles to spread the Gospel.

“I love playing Reacher. I love telling this story. I love playing a character who creates a kind of moral ambiguity that we should struggle against as we consider whether or not what he’s doing is good all the time or morally right,” Ritchson said in a YouTube video.

“A lot of people, supposed Christians especially, criticize me for playing Reacher as if the only TV that should exist is seeing people silently folding their hands in the pew of a church. I mean, what kinds of stories are we supposed to tell?” he continued. “If we look at scripture, what do you find? You see a thousand years of an infinitely holy God holding tension with human beings as He tells the story of who He is.”

“[God] reveals who He is through an imperfect people, so we get stories of paganism and war and bloodshed and ghost stories, mysticism,” he explained. “We see miracles and magic; we see life and resurrection and death; and we see this incredible canvas where God is completely unafraid to tell the story of who He is through less than morally ambiguous characters: through pure evil sometimes.”