TV host extraordinaire Steve Harvey recently detailed how God forced him to surrender control of his entertainment career before he became a household name.
Harvey opened up to George Janko about how at the beginning of his career, he was living in his car, trying to convince God that he learned the lesson God intended.
“‘Whatever you’re trying to tell me, I got it,'” Harvey remembered telling the Lord. “He said, ‘I know, man. Stay a little bit longer.'”
After two years in the car, Harvey told God: “‘Hey, man, I got it. I’m listening to you. I’m paying attention to you, God. Hey, dog, you tripping? I said I got it.’ He said, ‘No, I hear what you said, but I really want you to get it.'”
By year three, Harvey reached rock bottom. He told the Lord that he was done with pursuing his entertainment career and would return home to live with his father for six months until he could get his feet under him.
That’s when the Lord intervened.
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“[God] said, ‘Okay, now you got it. Go make a phone call,'” Harvey said, so he called his answering machine to find a message from Chuck Sutton of SHOWTIME AT THE APOLLO. Sutton wanted Harvey to join the show, but Harvey couldn’t afford the trip from Florida to New York.
Harvey said he was crushed, but the Lord prompted him: “Pick up the phone again.”
There was an offer for a local gig where he made enough cash to fly to New York.
“I went on SHOWTIME AT THE APOLLO that night, and I’ve been on TV ever since. But I was at the give-up moment, and we all have a turn-back moment.”
He said the Lord told him, “Oh man, I just needed you to get to this point so you can see that it’s really Me that’s in control of this whole thing. Ain’t got nothing to do with you, your time frame, This is really Me, man.”
Harvey is very open about his faith, continually pointing back to God for his fame.
“That’s what kept me going in those pivotal moments, because when I wanted to quit, and I was just sitting on the toilet crying, clear as a bell he said: ‘If you don’t quit, I’m gonna take you places you never dreamed you’d go,'” Harvey said.
Harvey said its the same advice he gives to people who want to pursue a path in comedy or entertainment:
“I say: ‘Well, you’re not going to be me…but you can be who God made you to be. And that’s going to be plenty sufficient, if you just get on the path that God has designed for you,'” he explained. “And then you also got to realize that your timing and God’s timing are two different timings. The problem with people coming to Christianity is they think that God wants everybody to be down there Bible thumping, sitting on the front row, joining the choir, the deacon board and the usher board. But he’s got different paths for all of us. My job is not to sit inside of a church building. God made me international, he made me global. He put me on a platform where I can spread his message in ways that other people don’t have the opportunity to. I talk about God on Family Feud and I don’t care what you feel about it.”
Thank you, Steve Harvey, for your unabashed faith and desire to see God’s plans unfold around you.
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