Carlos PenaVega is an actor, singer, husband, dad, and believer. He has recently released both a kids’ book, “Ocean’s World: An Island Tale of Discovery and Adventure,” and a memoir, “What If Love Is the Point?: Living for Jesus in a Self-Consumed World,” alongside his wife Alexa PenaVega. In an interview with CBN’s Faithwire, he shared his story of coming to faith.
PenaVega grew up Catholic but said that it never meant anything to him. He knew of God but did not have a relationship with Him. He started to turn his life around when he was in college, dating a Christian girl who took him to church. Even then, he felt that he was just checking boxes and not really connecting spiritually.
It wasn’t until he hit rock bottom when he was smoking and drinking and sleeping around, that he knew that something more was out there for him. He said, “I locked myself in my house and I was ordering food and I was just miserable,” PenaVega said. “And I knew that there was something more for me.
He ended up calling a friend, Andrew, who had recently sold him a house and started opening up. When Andrew told him that he had Jesus, PenaVega went to church with him. There he heard a sermon from a bishop who spoke of his own experiences with drug use, sleeping around, and depression. PenaVega realized that the bishop was speaking directly to him, and he accepted Jesus into his life.
“He preaches his whole sermon, literally directly into my soul,” PenaVega said. “And after it finishes, I was just [like], ‘This is what I want. … I’m on this Jesus high now.’”
After church, he called everyone he had ever wronged and apologized to them. That night, he went to a Bible study Andrew invited him to, and there he met his future wife, Alexa. The two have since married and have three children and have built a life based on their Christian faith.
“I always tell people that acting, singing all this stuff to me, producing writing, it’s a hobby, right?” PenaVega said. “My job is to spread God’s love to everyone … That’s my job. Everything else is to hobby.”
