Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson visited The Rock Church in San Diego on Sunday, talking about his relationship with God. He also made some surprising comments about his relationship with his girlfriend, Ciara.
In an interview posted on YouTube that lasts about 48 minutes in its entirety, Wilson discussed how God asked him to lead the pop star. According to Jimmy Traina of Fox Sports, the couple has decided to abstain from premarital sexual relations.
"I met this girl named Ciara, who is the most beautiful woman in the world," Wilson said. "She's the most kind person, the most engaging person. I could probably learn more from her ... everything that I could ever want."
Wilson recalled the first time he ever met her.
"I'll never forget: She was on tour, she was traveling, and I was looking at her in the mirror," Wilson said. "I was sitting in the dressing room, and she was getting ready to go, about 15 minutes before she went on stage. And she was sitting there, and God spoke to me and said, 'I need you to lead her.' And I was like, 'Really? Right now?'"
According to Wilson, God told him "to lead her."
"So I told her right then and there, what would you do if we took all that extra stuff off the table and just did it Jesus' way?"
Pastor Miles McPherson asked Wilson to clarify what he was talking about.
"Elaborate on what that means, because there's a lot of people out here, their minds are going a whole lot of different places right now, and we wanna know," McPherson said.
"Yeah, we're talking about sex," Wilson replied. "For me, I knew that God had brought me into her life to bless her and for her to bless me and to bless so many people with the impact that she has, that I have."
Wilson warned that he and Ciara are not going to be "perfect by any means."
"Life's not perfect," Wilson said. "Nobody's perfect, but he's anointed both of us, and I know that he's calling for us to do something miraculous, something special."
Wilson expressed relief that Ciara agreed to practicing abstinence with him.
"I said to her, and she completely agreed: 'Could we love each other without that?'" Wilson said. "If you can really love somebody without that, then you can really love somebody."
The quarterback admitted that staying abstinent with the pop star will have its own challenges.
"I ain't gonna lie to y'all now," Wilson quipped. "I need y'all to pray for us."
Wilson also took the time to elaborate on the outcome of Super Bowl XLIX, where the Seahawks lost to the New England Patriots. According to Mike Florio of NBC Sports, Wilson claimed that God spoke to him after "that fateful interception" during that game.
"The play happens, and they pick the ball off. And I take three steps," Wilson said. "And on the third step God says to me, 'I'm using you ... I want to see how you respond. But most importantly I want them to see how you respond."
Wilson admitted that his comments "may sound crazy to some people."
"The week before, it was a crazy game," Wilson said. "We played the Packers, and it was a crazy game; we came back with less than three minutes left, go into overtime and hit a big play, a touchdown in the end zone. We make that play, go into our second Super Bowl in a row, and I break down emotionally on national TV professing how good Jesus is."
Wilson recalled the significance of that moment.
"Over the past five or six months, I have been able to see how God's been using me. Everything is not perfect," Wilson said. "Being a Christian, I think sometimes as Christians we lose this idea that 'everybody's supposed to be perfect.' That's not it, because otherwise we wouldn't have to use Jesus. He wouldn't be there in our lives to help us do things."
