Mike Edmisten Follower of Jesus. Husband of Nicki. Father of Ryan & Brock. Communicator of the Word.

Walk the Line

My wife, Nicki, and I watched the movie Walk the Line this past weekend. The movie chronicles the life of Johnny Cash. If you know any history of "the man in black," you know that his life was filled with hurt and pain, largely self-inflicted through his addiction to amphetamines.

I won't sugarcoat this. The movie was very well-done…and fairly difficult to watch. It's hard to watch lives destroyed through someone's stupid choices. It was harder to know that the movie was pretty true-to-life. It's not a documentary. The movie did take some artistic license. But on the whole, it accurately portrayed Cash's life, deriving much of its content from Cash's two autobiographies.

At one point in the movie, Johnny declared that he was "nothing" because he had hurt everyone around him. The film is a great reminder that our choices don't just affect ourselves. They affect everyone around us. Even the stuff that seems harmless, the choices we make in secret, have a very real and long-lasting effect on the other people in our lives.

Just so it's clear, this movie has some rough stuff in it. Some rough language. The graphic effects of illicit drugs. The death of a marriage due to neglect, drug abuse, and adultery. You may not want to show this one to your Sunday School class.

But the movie is real. It portrays real people, real mistakes, real consequences, and real grace. If you're wondering about the grace part, you need to know that Cash recommitted himself to his faith later in life (not portrayed in the film). Even with all that he had done, all the people he had hurt, and all the mistakes he had made, he wasn't beyond the reach of God's grace…and neither are you.