Johnny Cash, the Gospel, and an Empire of Dirt

Dr. Russell Moore surmises one of many reasons why I really like this country artist.  In his article for the Henry Institute, Dr. Moore discusses the cross-culteral viscerality of Johnny Cash’s music.

Where contemporary country music often peppers Christianity (a quick reference to Sunday Meals and Jesus) with a host of other shallow references like beer, trucks, and lost love, Cash’s music deeply explores the pangs of death and the hope of Jesus.  While I would never assert that all of his music does this, his songs do always ‘feel’ black with a small light of conviction (often gospel conviction).  Of course, he was called ‘the man in black,’ but it is the poetry and weight with which he carried this persona (it was simply a persona) that communicates a profound understanding of pain, death and loneliness.  His characature was a reflection of his heart.

In his later days, this came through so vividly.  One can’t help but identify with a man suddenly finding himself alone and facing death asking–What is all worth it?  Has it all been real?

While others were doing commemorating performances of their past songs, Cash was singing about Revelation such as in ”When the Man Comes Around” or warning people that “God’s Gonna Cut You Down.”

This was a man coming face to face with death and the weight of judgment.

Did Johnny Cash make it to heaven? I can’t say.  He professed Christ frequently, and he recorded some of my favorite southern gospel songs.  But was it all show? I hope not for his sake.

Here’s an excerpt from that article from Dr. Moore about Johnny Cash:

King Solomon never won a Grammy but, like Johnny Cash, he discovered the vanity of fame and finance as death approaches. The faith in American V is less like a celebrity testimony at a Billy Graham crusade and much more like the desperate faith of a crucified robber, sobbing as he drowns in his own blood: “Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom” (Luke 23:42).

Here’s the song that echoes with a lonely man looking back at it all as an empire of dirt:

Hearing this song, I am reminded of John Piper’s echoing cry: “Don’t Waste Your Life.”  I recall the haunting story of a lonely man coming down to the front in his old age, bawling the words “I wasted it! I wasted it!

This morning I read Acts 20.  Verses 24 and 25 captured me.  Paul, addressing the Ephesian elders, is about to leave them, and he says:

But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.  And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again.

In the previous verses (22-23), Paul said he did not know what was going to happen to him, but he was sure by the Holy Spirit that imprisonment and affliction awaited him.  He was right.  Paul, for the sake of Christ’s gospel, was martyred.

I was close to tears much like those Ephesian elders who cared so deeply for him and what he did for them for the cause of the gospel.

I was shaken because I thought of my life.  Will I look back and think I wasted my life?  Can I stand with as much conviction as Paul in my farewell and share in his words.  He accounted his life of no value or as precious to himself for the sake of the gospel of the kingdom.  Will I?

Oh God, create that heart in me! Your gospel is just too powerful and your kingdom is just too glorious for silence and passivity.  May I not look back on my life as just an empire of dirt.

Working with you for the cause of Christ’s Gospel,

Vince R.