Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson’s son Chet is sharing his story of when he stopped being an atheist and began to believe in God.
The former atheist encountered God during a hike as a teen while at a camp for behavior issues.
Chet is an actor and musician. He’s also a Christian and he’s proud of that.
At age 17, he was a self-professed atheist, but that all changed during a tumultuous time.
“GOD IS THE GREATEST” is even part of his Instagram biography and he often includes the hashtag in his videos.
Chet Hanks’ Journey From Atheism To Christian
Chet discussed his faith on the “IMPAULsive Clips” podcast.
He was sent away to a wilderness camp in Utah by his parents because his behavior needed a serious check.
He was sitting on the edge of a cliff looking over the landscape when his life changed forever.
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“As I was looking out at that view and I was looking at where I had been from an elevated perspective — because I’d been stuck in this desert for 12 weeks and it just looked ugly and boring, and there’s nothing to look at,” Hanks said. “But now I’m looking at it from an elevated perspective of the top of this mountain.”
There wasn’t a person to be seen. It was all God’s perfect beauty and this experience was solely his to enjoy.
“So I’m looking around, and I’m so overcome by emotion. It felt like I was touched by the hand of God. It was at that moment God revealed Himself to me,” he continued. “All that anger, and that hate, and that resentment flipped. It inverted to just infinite hope, gratitude, peace, love.”
“It just flipped on a dime, like that. And I was so overcome by emotion, I just sat at the edge of that cliff and I wept. I wept for an hour, uncontrollable weeping for like an hour. It did not cease, but tears of joy,” he testified. “Tears of everything, feeling every emotion at once, all the pain and all the joy.”
Recovering Drug Addict
Chet Hanks is a recovering drug addict. He said his encounter with God is far better than any high he ever received from even psychedelic drugs.
“Any experience I’ve had on psychedelics doesn’t even come close to this,” the actor said on the podcast. “It was at that moment, that was the birth of my spiritual life, that was when I was overcome. I knew, ‘OK, no, there is something else out there. There is a higher power, there is a higher intelligence because it felt like it just tapped me on the shoulder.”
You can watch this discussion about Chet Hanks’s faith journey in the video below. Be aware there are curse words.
Chet’s been in and out of rehab over the years. He sobered up when his daughter, Michaiah, was born in April 2016.
He has said his parents have been with him the whole way through his addiction giving him love and support..
“They couldn’t be more supportive,” he shared. “Every step of the way… They’ve always been there for me and I’m really lucky.”
Hanks also admitted that he “could easily be dead or in jail right now” if he hadn’t put in the work to change his life.
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