Shawn Michaels: Born again

There are still people who think and say that Shawn Michaels is working us when he talks about being a born-again Christian.

“I don’t even know if you can work that. Can you?” Michaels said in addressing the issue in a 2012 interview with the Miami Herald.

That Michaels, a three-time WWE champion and WWE Hall of Famer, made his name in pro wrestling is a big part of the criticism, obviously. What is pro wrestling if it isn’t a work, after all.

But for Michaels, his walk as a Christian is sincere. The key to Michaels in turning his life around came when he was forced to step away from the business at the height of his career due to a series of injuries that forced him to retire.

He got married, had a child, and woke up one day and realized, he said, that, “Hey, this little guy is not going to know how to be a person, other than seeing it from you, and if you want him turning out like you, that isn’t going to be good. So that means there needs to be change,” Michaels said.

Michaels understands why some might question his faith.

“I mean, you can not be good at it. I would understand if somebody said, He’s a Christian, but he’s not a very good one. That would be OK, but the whole point of being one is recognizing that you’re not the end all, be all, and that’s really its foundation, recognizing your faults,” Michaels said.

He also understands that the criticisms that he faces are faced by others who are born again. His advice to others who face their own critics among family and friends: “Be true to yourself.”

“Look internally. Look at yourself in the mirror. Learning to say you’re sorry. Learning to say it was me. Learning to say it was my fault,” Michaels said. “This world right now everything is everybody else’s fault. I just found it better to take personal responsibility and hold myself accountable and go from there and not really give a, pardon my language, rat’s ass what everybody else thought.

“When I stand on my day of judgment, the Lord ain’t gonna ask Jim how Shawn was. He’s gonna ask me. That’s something between me and Him, not me and a bunch of people I shared a locker room with. He’s not concerned with what they think of me. He’s concerned about what He thinks of me. So that’s what I focus on,” Michaels said.

Shawn Michaels will be in Waynesboro, Va., on Saturday, Aug. 31, for the Shawn Michaels Experience. Tickets and more information are available online here.