'Stranger Things' Actor Explains How Important His Faith Is To Him: "I Pray Every Day And Every Night"
Stranger Things actor Caleb McLaughlin, who plays Lucas Sinclair, shared how important his faith is to him and how he’s coming back to it.
In an interview ahead of the fifth season of Stranger Things, McLaughlin spoke with Square Mile and discussed a quote he had on his Instagram, “We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
When asked to talk about it, McLaughlin said, “I operate through the spirit instead of the flesh. When we get caught up in the human experience and the ego, we lose ourselves. I have a personal relationship with God.”
“In the Bible, it talks about living through the spirit; not getting caught up in worldly desires. If you rely on external things, you’ll never be satisfied. I rely on my spirit so that I can love and forgive others,” he explained.
From there he shared his spiritual practices, “I pray every day and every night. I pray for my family, my friends, and the world. I don’t think about myself when I pray because prayer is needed for all. I grew up in the church. My father is a pastor.”
However, his faith hasn’t always been as strong as it is right now, and he admitted it was stronger when he was a kid, “It’s stayed quite strong, but of course, that happens. As a kid, it was way stronger than it is now. I’m getting back to that place now. Everything is optimistic as a kid. The grass is greener than it’s ever been. Nothing can go wrong. And then you get older and you see people deal with loss.”
“My grandmother passed away when I was in The Lion King. Life starts happening. Then there’s the news and politics. It gets more complicated, and that is when your faith is tested,” he said. “That is why I remain in the spirit. If I operated from the flesh, I’d always be disappointed.”
While McLaughlin describes himself as “more spiritual” rather than any denomination, what he’s describing is the practice of spiritual detachment or as Deacon Mark De La Hunt explains is loving Jesus Christ first and foremost before anything else.
In a practical sense, St. Ignatius advises, “In everyday life we must hold ourselves in balance before all created gifts insofar as we have a choice and are not bound by some responsibility [like earning money to pay the bills]. Consequently, on our own part we ought not to seek health rather than sickness, wealth rather than poverty, honor rather than dishonor, a long life rather than a short one, and so on to all other matters. Rather, we ought to desire and choose only that which is more conducive to the end for which we are created.”
Father Kevin O’Brien in The Ignatian Adventure explains, “Our only desire…should be this: I want, and I choose what better leads to God’s deepening life in me.”
Lionheart Catholic puts it another way, “Detachment means we are not attached to the material things of this world, including even our own lives.”
love that kid
Sounds to me like Caleb is walking in the Light. Amen, brother.