How Savannah Guthrie Finds Hope in Faith: Help from ‘God Himself’
By Movieguide® Contributor
TODAY news anchor Savannah Guthrie almost threw in the towel on her journalism career, but after a few small-town gigs, she ultimately became a successful author, anchor and lawyer.
She implements her faith in each of her roles.
“When I’m nervous about a big interview—which is almost always—and I’m stressed out, I always pray, of course,” she said on the “Jesus Calling” podcast. “I pray for protection.”
“I pray that things will go okay,” she continued, “but I also do a prayer that is directed internally, where I pray that I’m sincere and that what I’m trying to accomplish from the interview has to do with the people that are listening, the viewers eliciting information, revealing something that was before unseen and not about trying to score points or do something that I think will make me look good or look tough or something like that.”
As a news anchor, she’s constantly aware of sad and heavy topics all around the world. But she tries to look for hope and light in the darkness.
“I think of this verse often: ‘I look to the hills. Where does my help come from? It comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. [Psalm 121:1-2]’ And I really focus on the first part of that, “I look to the hills,” she said.
“When we are consumed by the grief of the world, our own griefs, we are usually looking inward, and sometimes we need to look up and out for help, for help coming on the horizon, for perspective, for sunshine, for a belief that not only is help on the way, but help is coming from God Himself, who is all-powerful and all-seeing and has a perspective that I cannot possibly have as a human being,” she said.
“We need that. We need that, we need hope. I’m here for hope,” Guthrie said.
Guthrie recently launched a New York Times Best Seller: “Mostly What God Does.” It explores faith and God’s existence.
Actress Drew Barrymore hosted Guthrie on her show to chat about her book. Guthrie shared that the book displays how she would rather spend her life “hopeful” about God’s existence and intention rather than cynical.
Movieguide® reported:
Guthrie explained that vulnerability is part of the process of writing a book.
“I mean, if you’re going to write a book about faith–and it is in any way authentic–then you’re more or less putting your heart out there,” she said. “And in this world, which I don’t have to remind you, that’s really terrifying.”
“So, for me to put it out there like that, I’m certainly not holding myself up as any kind of model of behavior or anything,” she added. “I’m not any kind of theologian or biblical scholar. It’s just reflections from a real person, a real life. More learning, more setbacks at any time.”
On the “Jesus Calling” podcast, Guthrie shared how she almost quit her career twice.
“I was kind of a slacker in high school and ditched class and hung out and was always getting grounded for smoking or staying out past curfew or something. I just wasn’t highly motivated, and I didn’t have some great vision for myself as a young person,” she said. “When I got to college, I kind of drifted around for a little while, but about halfway through, I discovered journalism. I love to write, and I love to speak.”
“I started working at the local public television station just as a part time job, and by the time I was graduating from college, having worked at this PBS station for several years, I had talked the producers into letting me do a story, and I started to do little things on air here and there, like those PBS fundraising drives on a Sunday morning at 6 a.m., they’d let me host them, and that was my first taste of live television,” she shared.
She landed her first job out of college in a tiny town in Montana.
“I had never lived away from home, packed everything into the back of my car, and drove up to start my big journalism career, and then two weeks later, they closed the station. So it was kind of a short-lived career launch.”
“I almost gave up right then and there, almost just said, ‘Maybe this dream is kind of silly and I should just go get a ‘normal’ job and get on with it,’ she said. “But I sent a few more tapes when I got home and ended up landing a job in another small town in Columbia, Missouri. And I worked there for two years, and then I was kind of on my way in terms of local news.”
After five or so more years in local news, she wondered if she should stick with it.
“Partly, I knew that it was time to move on and try to get into that bigger television market in a big city, and I was nervous that I wasn’t good enough, and so I dreaded the whole process of having to send out those audition tapes again and be rejected time and time again,” she said.
“I didn’t have much belief that I could get a job like that, and yet I knew it was time to try or leave. And then I had been covering a lot of trials and legal cases and politics and got very interested in Washington and public affairs,” she said.
Guthrie spontaneously decided to take the LSAT to have something to rely on in case she needed to explore another career.
“I wasn’t really done with TV, and that dream was still percolating inside me. And I can’t say that I suppressed it, but I just went a different way, and I decided to move across the country and go to law school. So it’s interesting, my path to network news and my path to national news and what really ends up being my biggest dream of all came by leaving it for a time, and going off to law school, and then practicing law for a short time,” she said.
“After I practiced a few years, I ended up deciding, I’ve got to go back. I’ve got to go for this,” the anchor said. “This dream is still within me. So I started working at Court TV, which is a legal network covering trials all across the country, and they wanted someone who was a lawyer but also had on-air experience, so it was the perfect job for me.”
After Guthrie started to pop up as a legal analyst on various news networks, NBC recruited her, and the rest is history.
Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.
What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.
You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.
Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.
Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.
What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.
You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.
Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.
