As a veteran of many Billy Graham crusades, Johnny Cash must have known the parable of the drunken airline passenger by heart.<\/p>\n\n
Here\u2019s how Graham told this old, old story during his1985 South Florida crusade.<\/p>\n\n
One day, the evangelist boarded an airplane at the same time as a fat, boisterous drunk who cursed up a storm and even pinched a stewardess. The crew finally wrestled the man to his seat \u2014 right in front of Graham. Another passenger leaned over and said he ought to behave. Didn\u2019t he know who was behind him?<\/p>\n\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t say,\u201d the man said. Then he turned and loudly said, \u201cAre you Billy Graham? \u2026 Put her there! Your sermons have sure helped me!\u201d<\/p>\n\n
After the laughter, Graham warmly introduced Cash, who added another punch line.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cI wonder,\u201d said Cash, \u201cwhy he thought about introducing me right after he talked about the rowdy drunk on the airplane.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Yes, Cash knew his role as a missionary to the backsliders.<\/p>\n\n
The man in black was a country kid who embraced his mother\u2019s faith, then flung it away, the hell raiser who got saved, and saved and then saved some more. Cash sang about the hope of heaven and the siren songs of hell. Time magazine put it this way: \u201cHere was a man who knew the Commandments because he had broken so many of them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
The gritty details filled 1,500 songs and a lifetime of work in television, movies, books and nights on the road. For years, Cash prowled the stage on amphetamines and wept as he sang \u201cThe Old Rugged Cross\u201d \u2014 often in the same show.<\/p>\n\n
Things got better after he married June Carter in 1968, a meeting of souls made in heaven, but worked out in the flesh under the parental gaze of Ezra and Maybelle Carter. These country-music pioneers not only prayed at Cash\u2019s bedside while he kicked drugs, but hung on through years of front-porch Bible study as he walked the line toward redemption.<\/p>\n\n
Cash was in a spiritual war and he knew it. Thus, he constantly quoted Romans 8:13 as his favorite verse: \u201cFor if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
The superstar also knew that millions of people were watching and waiting for him to fall. He lived in that hot spotlight until the day he died.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cI have been a professional entertainer,\u201d said Cash, at a 1989 Graham crusade in his home state of Arkansas. \u201cMy personal life and problems have been widely publicized. There have been things said about me that made people ask, \u2018Is Johnny Cash really a Christian?\u2019<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWell, I take great comfort in the words of the apostle Paul who said, \u2018What I will to do, that I do not practice. But what I hate, that I do.\u2019 And he said, \u2018It is no longer I who do it, but the sin that dwells within me. But who,\u2019 he asks, \u2018will deliver me from this body of death?\u2019 And he answers for himself and for me, \u2018Through Jesus Christ the Lord.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n\n
This language he used in his Graham crusade testimonies was loftier than his style on stage. But the words hit home because Cash knew that his listeners knew he was there flaws and all. So he talked about his struggles with drugs \u2014 past, present and future. He talked about the flaws in his family life. Cash named his idols and his demons and urged others to do the same.<\/p>\n\n
The man in black was on the same Gospel road throughout his life, even when he detoured into the gutter, said Steve Beard, author of the Cash profile in the book \u201cSpiritual Journeys: How Faith Has Influenced 12 Musical Icons.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThis was the real Johnny Cash. <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As a veteran of many Billy Graham crusades, Johnny Cash must have known the parable of the drunken airline passenger by heart. Here\u2019s how Graham told this old, old story during his1985 South Florida crusade. One day, the evangelist boarded an airplane at the same time as a fat, boisterous drunk who cursed up a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[121,198,270,305,324],"class_list":["post-1248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-billy-graham","tag-christian-music","tag-country-music","tag-drugs","tag-entertainment"],"yoast_head":"\n