“This virus, this time, might be the one time that brings us all together and unifies us like we have not been in a long time,” award-winning actor Matthew McConaughey posted on his Facebook page Tuesday. He urged viewers to “take care of ourselves and each other.” 

McConaughey explained that we’re all more dependent on each other now than ever before. “We have an enemy in coronavirus that is faceless, that is raceless, sexless, nondenominational and bipartisan — and it’s an enemy that we all agree we want to beat. We want to beat and we’re going to beat him.”

He added that there’s a “green light on the other side of this red light that we’re in right now.” That green light is going to be built on the values that we can enact right now. “Values of fairness, kindness, accountability, resilience, respect, courage.

“Let’s see if we can make some lemonade out of this lemon that we’re in the middle of. Turn a red light into a green light. Just keep living.”

Returning to the Church

While he was raised as a Christian, McConaughey’s quick rise to fame in the 1990s pulled him away from the church for a time. But then he met Camila Alves, a Brazilian model. Alves is a devout Catholic. McConaughey told Alves before they married, “Let’s go make a covenant, with you, me and God.”

His wedding band is inscribed with his favorite verse, Matthew 6:22: “The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.” That verse is what inspired McConaughey to name his son Levi.

McConaughey told Good Morning America that when his son was born, he and his wife thought of naming him Matthew Jr. They instead named him Levi. “Levi’s another name for Matthew in the Bible,” McConaughey said. “We find out he’s a boy when he’s born. You’re not thinking about the name, right? An hour later, the doctor comes up and he hands you that card to fill out: ‘Blank was born at 6:22 p.m.’ So we went, ‘It’s Levi.”’

Graced With Opportunities

In 2014, McConaughey won Best Actor for his role in Dallas Buyers Club. He thanked God in his acceptance speech. “First off I want to thank God because He’s the one I look up to. He’s graced my life with opportunities which I know are not of my hand or any other human kind.” God could answer all his questions and “has a hand in all of this miracle we call life, which I believe is a miracle.”

Nancy Flory is an associate editor at The Stream. You can follow her @NancyFlory3, and follow The Stream @Streamdotorg.