Fat video: Savannah Guthrie talks faith with TODAY co-anchors

first of all I want to say thank you because you all have been so supportive and this is a really scary thing to do super personal but I know faith means something different to all of you um and maybe that's a good place to start you know Hoda when you when you think about faith your higher power God what do you.

Think about I feel like my path to faith has been evolving throughout my life um and each day I have a a little Journal where I write you know they always say write a note to God and I write Dear God thank you for this precious day and I feel him all the time more so now than I think I ever have before it's a feeling of peace and calm he used to be someone.

I was mad at like when my dad died I was mad at him and this mad and then all of a sudden in due time here I sit with two kids and I think to myself God's been present sitting here I asked him and begged him on bended knee for Haley and hope and they came and I just feel like he's a friend like I feel like it's a conversation for me and I try to do that.

Teach my kids that they go I don't see him I said he's here just feel for a second just sit sit you know when I'm quietest I feel him so I feel like he's part of my morning my afternoon and my evening and I want him to take take over my kids lives in the best way that he can people come to Faith in all different ways some come in a really.

Traditional way Craig I know you grew up in the church but people find Faith you may you could be you could grow up in the church or a certain kind of Faith but you have to find it for yourself you do how did you find it for yourself well I didn't find it it it was it was forced upon me um when I was a small child at New Life.

Baptist Church my mother made sure that no matter what we were in church every Sunday for at least 2 and 1 half three hours wow and so yeah so when you spend that much time did you bring your Game Boy with that's before Game Boy but when you spend that much time in church at a young age I think you pick it up by osmosis plenty of people have that.

Experience and that makes them not want to have a lifelong relationship with God let's be honest sometimes that can be something that repels you I agree but fortunately for me it never did but what it did do as I got older my relationship with God changed my faith evolved when I was younger I I I treated God Jesus I.

Treated them like they were genies and at night I would I would pray for the things that I wanted to happen pray for the things I didn't want to happen and then as you get older you know wait is that wrong Cosmic ATM machine but as you get older you realize that's that's not what the relationship is is supposed supposed.

To be about and so for me as I've gotten older and I've gone on my faith journey I have um learned to walk with God in a different way and it's gone full circle because now my kids because Lindsay's Catholic and I go to a Congregational Church they spend about 3 hours of church on Sunday cuz they go to Catholic mass and then they come with with Dad.

And Mom to the to the traditional worship service at the Congregational Church but the hope is that they develop a faith Foundation as well um and they don't have to grow up and believe what we believe but grow up and believe something have have someone that you can lean on when times are hard because they will be hard there'll be valleys.

There'll be mountains but there'll be valleys and you've got to have someone walking with you um besides your loved ones to make it work I always think it's my job to tell my kids about the God that I know but then God has to do the rest when they grow up it's theirs to choose and for you you grew up Catholic right I.

Did I did although um I me an Episcopal Church this is the church Deborah and I got married in uh and and you know I think Mike much most of you my faith evolved but it really did again and I think for all of us when those children come you know that's when it it really I always remember my mother going God give me strength.

And and yes I I I hear those words but it's it's important to give them that that Foundation uh that that they can then have their own relationship and to watch their relationship evolve with God I mean Nick is probably one of the most faithful my son Nick is one of the most faithful people I know uh and and even and and Leela is looking at her face and.

Courtney now has had had uh baby sky and she and her husband are looking for a church uh and and that said okay I think I think we did the right I did I think we did okay here it's so important because there are hard times Carson and you know that better than anyone yeah and it's in those times that our faith is tested tested but also when we need.

It the most yeah for sure yeah I lost my dad when I was young uh my mom remarried uh when I was about seven or eight to a guy that was like a mystery man in our house uh Richard Caruso Dapper Italian strong figure who quickly told us I'm not trying to replace your father wanted to be there I love your mother and um and I right I think a lot of people.

Inherit their faith from their families from their parents my dad had a different approach he he always he led by example and Faith was a huge part of his world and his life but he never told us you got to get in the car and go to mass you got to go to church but eventually by watching him by his example I wanted to be like him so badly.

He was such a greaty guy worked so hard he was so humble he was so quiet and soft even though he was this big strong guy but his faith was at the epicenter of his life and I wanted to be like that so I started going to church just to kind of see what was there that this this dude liked so much you know because I wanted to be like him and I really.

Kind of discovered my own faith that way and I was always appreciative of that that he let it he let me go to the faith and didn't force the faith on me there's a I don't know how to explain it there's like a practice where you can at the end of the day ask yourself where did I see God today and I think in our jobs we're so lucky CU we get to meet people in all.

Kinds of moments in their life sometimes their hardest moment and sometimes their moment of Triumph but I see Faith everywhere I see it every day even if it doesn't go by that name where do you see God by the way that's in your everyday life that is such a beautiful sentiment you just said I didn't think about it until is that in your book did you write.

That in your book no add that well that's going to be by the way by the way there are so many bits and pieces that are going to go in your next book but I no you know what I feel like I feel God's presence when I'm sitting with someone and the truth is between us do you know when you're sitting in an interview and you feel it.

Like this this incredible there's something unspoken but it's real your eyes well up their eyes do and you know what's happening is true because I feel like every time you tell the truth on the little and big things you're closer to God and I feel like it shows up that way for me and I also think when I see any kind of.

Kindness I don't care where it is on the street wherever I get that the feeling inside that shows you like God's over there and over there and over there and there have been some days this is very strange but I got out of the subway once and all I could see was goodness it was the Str and I remember it stop was that it was right at Rockefeller Center I kid.

You not Carson it was strange I got out and I thought I was being punked it was almost like did you see that I saw somebody helping this lady yes and it and I kept saying like I kept looking around going this and I actually called my best friend Karen and I was weeping I go something's happening in this little stretch so when I'm open I see it when I.

Get harder and all the stuff of the day weighs on me and your kids and all the things I don't see it yeah so I try to remember like put the backpack down it's it's there in front of you I remember watching an interview you did with some of the women that were at the Bible study in Charleston where a man walked in oh my God and yes killed parishioners.

People who came to pray and who welcomed this person into their Bible study and they forgave oh that was amazing and they sang Amazing Grace and when I see something like that I know I've just glimpsed God forgiveness kind that is the quintessential answer to that you're absolutely right that moment was incredible uhhuh are there.

Moments that you've had either at work or people you've met where you're like well there's something going on here that's just bigger yeah you know I I she just passed away U this woman Lena King who was a member of the 6 Tria postal Battalion uh they they were the first black female Battalion to serve in the World War II overseas and and they were.

Treated terribly but yeah they finally got their Congressional Medals of Honor over 800 women there only six left alive and she just passed away but when I was interviewing her she said something to me and it was she was again a churchgoing woman and she said we wanted to show that through love uh even though this country didn't love us we loved.

This country and I remember just sitting there and just like oh my God that's Divine that's right there and and and it's those little moments where people say things and I don't think they're thinking they're saying anything profound they're just speaking their truth which is their faith you know for me I I have.

My the closest I have I have been with God has has been when I have struggled mightily MH you know my family's experienced great loss you know we lost it my three-year-old niece and then you know my brother and and and and in those moments I I have found I I really go to Dark Places and and I've talked to you about.

This before and and and and you were there when I I got a call one morning before the show that my brother had slipped away and I and we sort of knew it was coming and I just but I convinced myself that you know maybe this wasn't going to be it and phone rang as soon as the phone rang I looked down and I I saw the number I knew who it was and I'm.

Sitting there and I'm just responding I don't know who to call and and Angela his wife is just she sobbing and and there I am in my dressing room and who comes in first y this one who wrote the book um and she comes in and and we.

Prayed and it was in that moment precisely what I needed I didn't know I needed it um but I knew I had to pick myself up and I had to help lead my family down this dark path and there you were and I don't even remember exactly what we prayed I don't remember the words that were that were that were exchanged but I do remember that that.

Was that was God that was God giving me the push and it's it's but it's been in it's been in those moments where I have um I have seen him up close you know it's funny you say that because I I was I think blessed in a sense to I was by my dad's side when he passed away and you know my sister was like God's going to heal daddy God's going to and he took.

That last last breath and I thought God just healed daddy you know wow this is this is where this is this is the ultimate healing uh and and it was like that gift it wasn't a loss you know it was a gift because uh peace he yeah he's he was at peace and uh and it it's at those moments you know look I it's no secret I went through hell last year and.

You guys were were God's gifts you know every one of you coming to see me and supporting Deborah and Leela the family and and strangers just coming up how are you we were praying for you and and you know sometimes you hear people say that you know they they meant it oh they did it's interesting because you know Faith becomes so.

Important especially when you are in grief and I you know I lost my father when I was 16 years old Carson you lost your dad young and you lost your parents close together and not many years ago and one of the things I talk about in the book is that even though when you're in grief some people think that's the moment you might turn away from God or.

Be mad at God I find that's when I need him the most and I also think that faith and a belief in God is how we hold hands with whoever is in the next life see God is our connection and I remember what I told you that morning when Lawrence passed I said to you he's not alone oh you did he knows someone there that's right he knows God mhm that's right yeah.

And I believe that I believe that's how we hold hands with those that we've lost you know it's funny because and you guys know the story we thought we thought Nick was going to be a girl we this test was wrong uh and my father had passed and he just before Nick was born and he wanted a grandson you know a Roker grandson and turns out oh it was a boy.

And my mother was convinced that was your father he was a labor negotiator with a Transit Authority he made a deal with god listen I mean why not why not yeah um so I I have I kind of believe that um of course believe that God speaks to us and I think that God can speak to us in a way that is designed specifically.

For us he speaks our language so when you see God or hear God or feel God how does that come across to you is it music is it a song is it wow it's it's it's constant to me you know my faith is really at the epicenter of my life it always has been I felt a calling when I was young I almost went to the uh.

To the Seminary out of high school um I felt God calling me there I felt a a moment when I was young that um a real sense of clarity that life the 80 90 years that we are here would be better served in service to others taking an oath of poverty and celibacy and all of the the giving up of the worldly Goods for the sake of humanity and helping I.

Really beli that that that was the PA could have been the path for me uh to inherit you know eternity in heaven as I interpreted it and ultimately it wasn't I wanted to be a parent and a father and so it didn't happen but I I've heard God speak to me and it does come now later in my life through different means and different people I think that's very St.

What you said about I think God works through you very well it's no joke that you've written this book you know my parents died you and Mike flew across the country and were there my mother's my parents died six weeks apart as you guys know it was a very difficult time my mother died um suddenly um in fact we were just at the Emmys and we had the.

Exact same room that when I got the call at 3:00 in the morning the night before the emms that my mom died my sister called me and um I had to sleep in that same side of the bed I was telling Siri I'm like this is so weird she's like are you okay and I said yeah and I talked to my sister and you can either be mad at God in that moment or you can for me.

Recognize there's no way I could have survived that without his strength it was just it's almost proof that there is a God because there's no way I can be sitting here going through losing my parents so closely without that but I do hear God in lots of different ways and sort of omnipotently and and daily no pun intended yeah so Hoda to me like you.

Just exude such joy and love and faith means different things to different people and not everybody believes anything MH um I think it's really about Hope and how you find Hope and belief and why that matters in life how do you hang on to hope that's a beautiful question I see it every day and I seek it I seek it because I feel like I feel.

Like God puts everything in front of you and he says you look at what you want you can look over here or you can look over here and some sometimes I do this weird thing in the mornings don't judge me um where I imagine all of the things in my life are outside of a glass window and I can see them including my kids my job good things bad things but I'm in.

This room alone and I'm sitting in this beautiful white chair and I'm being held and in that moment as everything's swirling around me it makes me feel at peace so I find Hope in the morning I find hope you know in the fact that my life turned out the way it did I can't you know we've had this conversation we can't believe it as if we're a couple we.

Can't believe what happened in our lives but it's so true we get to do all these things so I just think you know for all the tough times that came like you know we wound up here so I feel hope um almost daily I think Hope's kind of hard I don't know how you guys feel you know we're so blessed that you know us the five of.

Us I I struggle sometimes with it because I'm so conscious about how much people are struggling MH I think about it all the time maybe because of what we do you guys all went to journalism school and you're you're maybe prepared for this but I you know our emails every day The Rundown we get on the show every day I mean the world.

Is s i mean people are hurting parents mothers kids it's I find it harder to pray at night I pray every night and it the long and I can't even pray pray for like my own kids cuz we have it so good it's like I can't even get to that part the the front part of my prayer is getting longer and longer it used to just be like Pray for Peace pray for the.

Hungry the kids in the hospital now it's just like I I really am hyper aware of like how big the world is and how many people are in who need help um mental help physical help yeah um globally that's it's daunting it's a lot and it's hard to find God in all of that I think the suffering I think the that's the emotional part of it.

Uh our our mental fragility I think you know faith is really I think so important that to help bolster people because you know when you look at this you how could God allow this to happen and you know there's he didn't allow it to happen we allowed it to happen and we're supposed to if we're more like him we hopefully fight them it's these are.

The hardest questions you know and there are no answers not in this life anyway no when I look at this world and I see the suffering I too ask those questions why do good people suffer why does evil persist why are we all still here why doesn't he just say the heck with it it's it can't be redeemed and all I can remember is that this is not the world.

That God intended and this story is not over yet but that's why I think it's so important and one of the lessons that we we preach in our house Faith should galvanize faith without works is dead so we when we pray with our children one of the things we always start with gratitude like what are the things that we're most grateful for and.

They each have to name something small sometimes large that they're grateful for um and we've also do you make that list no no but maybe I should maybe I should Daddy um but one of the things that one of the things that attracts me or one of the things that attracted us most to the church where we worship now is they.

Spend so much time outside the four walls of the church they spend time uh working with men who struggle mightily with addiction they spend time working with women who um live in this this the Sheltering town because most of them are abused and I I think I have always found for me personally and now as a family when we are acting on our faith.

When we are giving generously of our time of our resources of our Insight that's when I find I'm not just like my happiest that's when I also find I'm closest to God because that's what he calls us to do he calls us to act on our faith not just say oh we're Christians no that's that's that's not enough um and so it's one of the lessons that we.

Teaching to the children but you know Lindsay about a year ago my wife came to me and she's like you know I I I think I want to become a a religious ed teacher this is the class that the young Catholics she's teaching religious ed yeah she's like she's the CCD teacher now so it's but but our our brand of Faith isn't just you know showing up to.

Beautiful churches on Sundays it's it's going out and and actually spending time with the least Among Us it's Faith and Action that's that's God's love yeah the book is called mostly what God does and the rest of the sentences mostly what God does is love you and the idea is if we could really yeah the Bells Are Ringing when you say that the Bells Are.

Ringing if we could really feel God's love Not only would it transform us but it would it would be contagious and we'd want to share that love everywhere and I think that's what we're talking about we are but I also think and I don't know how to say this but you know we talk about this and whatever you whatever higher belief but and I think God wants.

Us to reach out to others yes who may not believe as we do but that those General precepts are are the same I mean they are different roads right to get to that one point but the pillars of all of them are similar to love each other to be there and support there's a famous saying let God be as creative with others as he was with you and I think.

That makes so much space for the different ways people come to Faith and come to God and find him but more importantly how he finds them and I love having this conversation with you thank you for being so caring and tender with me as we head out on this journey together it means so much to me you WR a beautiful book it is I don't know if my.

Colleagues have read it yet but I am in the process of reading it we've read it yeah and it is fantastic it is fantastic beautiful read uplifting you can just read a little bit put it down then pick it back up it's beautiful but it's no surprise I love you guys we love you we love you SG hey thanks for watching don't miss.

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