Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?"

—Romans 7:15–24

Reflecting back on his life and the awful period of substance abuse, Johnny Cash said in 1975, “I know that the hand of God was never off me, no matter what condition I was in, for there is no other way to explain my escaping the many, many accidents I had.”

By his own estimation he had wrecked virtually every car he ever owned, totaled two jeeps and a camper, and overturned two tractors and a bulldozer. He sank two boats in separate incidents and once leaped from a truck just before it went over a 600-foot cliff.

After long, frenzied drug binges, just before he drifted off into unconsciousness, Cash sometimes heard a quiet voice say, “I am your God. I am still here. And I am still waiting. I still love you.”

Not every drug addict or alcoholic wants to leave that life behind. Some actually find a form of comfort in that darkness.

God was ready to change the singer’s life, but Cash was not quite ready for the Lord to do that. So, the struggle continued.

Cash often vowed to change, to go back to church and be the kind of man his brother Jack would have been and would want him to be. But he always relapsed. His body’s craving for amphetamines overruled His heart’s desire for righteousness. It was a true Jekyll-and-Hyde existence.