Walk the Line

This past week we watched Walk The Line. (With three young children we usually have to wait until a DVD is available at the library.) A while ago a friend had told us how it wasn’t a good movie to watch because it spent too much time on the negative aspects of Johnny Cash’s life and not enough on the good news. After seeing the movie though I wonder if this is what the gospel (the good news) is all about.

Walk the Line is definitely not a nice clean Gospel film, but neither is the Gospel a clean story in our lives. Like another friend of mine said, “You can’t know the good news until you know the bad news.” This film presents the story of man whose life had spiraled out of control to a disastrous low point. All his self-effort had failed to hold things together. Still, God gave him a second chance to redeem his life.

The scene (perhaps dramatized) where a soaked Johnny is looking up at June Carter after she rescued him from a lake is very telling. He whispers, “You should have left me.” We need to come to a place in life of realizing we don’t deserve to have anyone rescue us from drowning before we are ready to accept the unmerited offer of a second chance. This is the Gospel.