The Roundhouse Kick That Mattered Most: Chuck Norris’s Fight for Faith
Martial artist, actor, and devoted Christian, Chuck Norris used fame not for himself, but to serve God and transform the lives of troubled youth.
At his first and only commencement speech in 2008, Carlos Ray Norris said, “Hollywood had a big part in him drifting away from God.”
Becoming Chuck Norris had eventually excavated a hole in his heart.
“I hope after you hear my testimony,” he told the Liberty University crowd, “you’ll see how instrumental God has been in my life.”
He meant it.
From Poverty to Hollywood Icon
Norris, who passed away on Sunday at 86, was a survivor, not just a faith and freedom fighter.
He survived extremes. Fame and fortune, poverty, insecurity, and the loss of his younger brother in Vietnam. This list of woes included financial betrayal, a divorce, and an alcoholic father.
After embracing iconic opportunities like training closely with Bruce Lee, to training Steve McQueen, Norris headlined ’70s and ’80s film classics.
He started taekwondo schools and would later join Lee in what became Norris’ breakout introduction to big-screen audiences.
“Chuck Norris”, the brand, was born.
Chuck Norris was a writer as much as a fighter.
He wrote for WND and Creator.
Both links in first reply, if interested.https://t.co/qLQqD0p4iC pic.twitter.com/rVC6cxDE9p
— Rod Lampard (@rod_lampard) March 23, 2026
His anthology of films ranged from punchy political statements like the veteran-friendly trilogy Missing in Action, to Invasion USA, and Delta Force.
His acting roles included lesser celebrated works, like the comedies Firewalker, Top Dog and Sidekicks.
Yet none of that, he said, was at the centre of “God’s plan for his life.”
Not even Walker: Texas Ranger, with its eight seasons of faith and family-centred themes, was able to give Norris the “joy and happiness that he said he should have felt and had in his life.”
“I couldn’t figure out why,” he told the commencement speech audience.
A Faith Rediscovered
“My family was very poor,” Norris said, but “my mom was an incredible Christian woman.”
She “would always say, ‘God has plans for you,’ and I always wondered what they were.”
“I always thought it was the film career, but God wasn’t a part of me during that.”
God’s plan wasn’t golden handshakes from greedy studios. His plan was for Chuck to minister to troubled youth through martial arts.
Hollywood was just the means.
Norris said, “Being a martial artist for 15 years, I was able to teach thousands and thousands of young people.”
A crucial part of this was being “able to help them through the philosophy of the martial arts.”
Extending this program to those who couldn’t afford it, Norris asked himself, “How could he reach them?”
From here, Norris said he “decided to start a program teaching the martial arts in the inner-city middle schools.”
He then funded the program from his own pocket.
“Martial arts turned my life around,” Norris declared.
“It’s turning thousands of kids’ lives around who are where I once was.”
As Proverbs 19:21 proclaims, Norris shared, “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but the Lord directs his steps.”
A catalyst for Norris’ own relationship with Christ was his wife’s Christian discipline.
Norris summed up Gina O’Kelley’s reacquainting him with the Bible as “The Holy Spirit renewing his faith.”
This was part of “The Lord directing his steps for many years and continuing to do so.”
A key fruit of Christ’s presence in Chuck Norris’ life was humility. He found the balance between taking what he does seriously and taking himself too seriously.
To paraphrase one of the many internet parodies that Norris ended up filling a 2009 book with, “Pride and Vanity took one look at Chuck Norris, then ran the other way.”
Upon hearing of his death on Sunday, Franklin Graham’s X tribute was brief, but apt: “He will be greatly missed.”
Norris never seemed to buy into his fame. He instead used it to serve God and others.
As Paul declared in Colossians 3:3-4, Norris’s life is hidden in Christ.
For that reason, “Chuck Norris doesn’t cheat death. He defeats it fair and square.” (Fact 2, Page 3, The Official Norris Fact Book)
The Daily Declaration team sends its prayers and condolences to the Norris family and to all who loved him.
___
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
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Wow. I had no idea. I look at this man differently now. And his faith in God was the basis of all that he was and all that he did. God bless him 🙏
Someone wrote that Chuck is needed by the Angel to roundhouse kick satan into the bottomless pit. Makes sense. :)
Rev 20:2 He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; 3a and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up.
BDE Chuck Norris