The Man in Black Walked Out of the Cave

In 1967, Johnny Cash crawled into Nickajack Cave near Chattanooga, Tennessee, intending never to come out. Years of amphetamine addiction had cost him nearly everything — his first marriage, his health, his dignity. He had been arrested seven times. He weighed 155 pounds on a six-foot frame. He later said he wanted to find a place so dark and deep that God Himself could not find him.

He crawled until his flashlight died and he lay down on the cold rock floor, ready to let the cave become his grave.

But something happened in that absolute darkness. Cash later described feeling the presence of the Almighty wash over him — not as judgment, but as love. He said he realized that God had not given up on him, even when he had given up on himself. Somehow, in total blackness, he felt directed out. He crawled for hours until he saw a faint point of light and followed it to the cave's mouth, where June Carter and his mother were waiting, having driven out looking for him.

Cash walked out of that cave and into sobriety, a renewed marriage, and decades of music that testified to the grace he had received.

Redemption does not always begin in a cathedral. Sometimes it begins in a cave. Sometimes the Almighty meets us at the lowest point we will ever reach, not to condemn us, but to say, "Follow Me back toward the light."