Matthew Perry may be best known for his role in the popular show, ‘Friends’, but beneath the smile and successful acting career is a man who struggled to overcome addiction and how he finally turned to God in desperation.
Perry shares a candid look at his success and failure in his new book, ‘Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir‘. Perry opens up about his prayers, struggle, and growing relationship with God. In a behind-the-scenes look, Perry opens up about the hit sitcom and his struggles with addiction in a fun, honest, and insider look that ultimately shares a message of hope and persistence.
The memoir walks the reader through Perry’s struggles including 14 rehab attempts, multiple surgeries, and over 60 detoxes, and how it finally brought him to cry out to God at rock bottom. Perry describes crying out to God in desperation: “’God, please help me,’ I whispered. ‘Show me that you are here. God, please help me.’”
Perry goes on to share what happened when he finally did turn to God. “I started to cry. I mean, I really started to cry – that shoulder-shaking kind of uncontrollable weeping. I wasn’t crying because I was sad. I was crying because for the first time in my life, I felt okay. I felt safe, taken care of. Decades of struggling with God, and wrestling with life and sadness, all was being washed away, like a river of pain gone into oblivion.”
At this moment Perry knew something had changed and he had experienced the presence of God.
“I had been in the presence of God. I was certain of it. And this time I had prayed for the right thing: help,” he continued.
Perry’s first-ever prayer request was for God to make him famous, he also revealed in his book.