Johnny Cash by Greg Laurie

Author:Greg Laurie
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Regnery Publishing
Published: 2019-08-20T05:00:00+00:00

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LET’S TALK ABOUT JESUS

“That’s one thing that people like me have to learn to do, that after you’ve straightened up and stopped all that, and you know that God forgave you, then the big sin would be not to forgive yourself. So I’m not ashamed of all that rot that I did. I don’t like to think about it. Some of it I’ve erased from my mind, so I don’t think about it, and some of it I refuse to admit that I remember.”

—JOHNNY CASH

The cancellation of The Johnny Cash Show marked the end of an era in many ways. It was Johnny Cash’s most fruitful professional period, the apex of his global fame, and the time of his most prodigious and commercial output as an artist.

More importantly, it was also the true beginning of his spiritual life, engendered by a genuine desire to seek God and get right with Him.

To be sure, by then Cash was an old hand at petitioning God and hailing Him as the author of his salvation. But the fact is that he usually ran to God when a crisis was at hand and he needed rescuing, the same as the rest of us mere mortals. Also like some of us, Johnny was a natural backslider who kept God’s number on speed-dial for emergencies but otherwise sought direction and fulfillment through earthly channels.

A lot of people live this way.

But God is so gracious. He both hears and answers our prayers when we call on Him. But the most miserable place for a person to live is in a compromised life.

Johnny had been in that ditch far too long.

This time, it was different. Cash was actually on top of his game and not on his heels. His show was cancelled, but he was a huge international star, and his concerts were sellouts. His movie career had been revived, his marriage to June was blissful, and the birth of his longed-for son John Carter Cash rejuvenated him. Earning a reputed $3 million a year, Cash lived in a custom-built, luxurious 10,000-square-foot home on a 146-acre tract. He had purchased a nearby home across the street for his parents and visited them daily when off the road. He wanted for nothing during this period of his life—except maybe peace of mind.

Ever since he left Dyess, Cash’s attendance at church was sporadic. On the road, he would sometimes creep into the back of a church on a Sunday morning; at home, he’d visit different churches in Hendersonville and Madison, hoping to find one that felt comfortable. The trouble was that when word got out Cash was regularly attending a particular church, wannabe songwriters and singers would show up there in droves and slip him demo tapes or ask for introductions to record labels and executives.

Cash once recalled that, while out on the road on a string of one-nighters, he stopped in a small Ohio church on his way to Wheeling, West Virginia, for a Sunday night service. As soon as he walked in, all heads turned towards him, and the congregation started buzzing.

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