The Man in Black Who Found the Light

In 1967, Johnny Cash crawled into Nickajack Cave on the Cumberland River in Tennessee, intending to die. Years of amphetamine addiction had cost him nearly everything — his marriage, his health, his dignity. He lay down in the darkness of that cave and waited for the end.

But something happened in that pitch-black hollow. Cash later described feeling the presence of God so powerfully that he knew he had no right to take his own life. He began crawling back toward the entrance, following a faint current of air he could feel against his skin. When he finally emerged into daylight, he said it felt like being born again.

Cash didn't become perfect after that cave. Recovery was slow. The road back was full of stumbles. But the man who walked out of Nickajack Cave was not the same man who had crawled in. He reconciled with June Carter, got clean, and spent the rest of his life singing about grace with the authority of someone who had needed every ounce of it.

The Apostle Paul wrote that anyone who is in Christ is a new creation — the old has gone, the new has come. But notice that Paul doesn't say the new comes easy. Transformation rarely happens under stadium lights. More often, it begins in a cave. In the dark. On your belly.

If you are in your Nickajack Cave this morning, keep crawling. The Almighty has not forgotten where you are. There is air moving toward you, and it leads to daylight.