DK’S BLACK FRIDAY HONOREM

On OCTOBER 30, 1979, hours before I was to take my life on Halloween Night having come to the bottom of it as a hopeless, manifestly depressed alcoholic who had found no reason to live, I read a book. It was written by JOHNNY CASH, titled ‘Man in Black’ (1975).

It saved my life.

Which I would subsequently give to Christ later that morning in Stockton, California’s nondescript little Lincoln Neighborhood Church around 10:00 am, after having read it.

MAN IN BLACK. The book is Johnny Cash’s candid, personal autobiography outlining his journey from a poor Arkansas childhood through his meteoric rise in country music, debilitating drug addiction, and subsequent spiritual recovery. The book centers on his Christian Faith, his miraculous and sometimes grinding Redemption, the Tragedy of his brother’s death, and his devoted relationship with his Christian wife, June Carter Cash, offering an intimate look at his deepening Christian values.

And why he was to Dress in Black for the rest of his days.

I recall one event described by Mr. Cash during which he was high on drugs and drove his Jeep so fast it rolled as he was thrown out upon the ground. My recollection is that he got up, shook off the dust, and got right back in the Jeep to risk it again!

The reason I related to that event so personally is that I did much the same thing one drunken night when I was speeding on the sands of a South California beach in my white ’67 VW Bug, got too close to the water and sped straight into the Pacific Ocean. There was a popular commercial back then claiming that Volkswagens floated.

It was a lie.

THE POINT. Given what I can only describe as the very Death of Church and State in America, and in honor of Johnny Cash’s later in life devotion to Jesus Christ as the only Hope of Mankind, I began to do something I believe was led of the Lord.

Each Friday, I now DRESS IN BLACK.

While I am not trying to start some kind of formal movement, I sensed that it’s a means of a quiet yet visible ACT OF HONOR in relation of all those who labor against the forces of a Fallen Nation, a deeply compromised White Church, and a Generalized Cruelty that now plagues our land, ‘From sea to shining sea.”

THE SONG. Johnny Cash wrote a song titled “The Man in Black” to explain why he forever Dressed in Black, to explain just why he did so. It is a deeply personal expression of my own heart grappling with the Dark Shadow over all of  Today’s America. It is more pertinent and piercing to the marrow of our Present Crisis now than when he wrote it in 1971.

“Well, you wonder why I always dress in black
Why you never see bright colors on my back
And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone
Well, there’s a reason for the things that I have on.

I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down
Livin’ in the hopeless, hungry side of town
I wear it for the prisoner who is long paid for his crime
But is there because he’s a victim of the times.

I wear the black for those who’ve never read
Or listened to the words that Jesus said
About the road to happiness through love and charity
Why, you’d think He’s talking straight to you and me.

Well, we’re doin’ mighty fine, I do suppose
In our streak of lightnin’ cars and fancy clothes
But just so we’re reminded of the ones who are held back
Up front there ought to be a man in black.

I wear it for the sick and lonely old
For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold
I wear the black in mournin’ for the lives that could have been
Each week we lose a hundred fine young men.

And I wear it for the thousands who have died
Believin’ that the Lord was on their side
I wear it for another hundred-thousand who have died
Believin’ that we all were on their side.

Well, there’s things that never will be right, I know
And things need changin’ everywhere you go
But ’til we start to make a move to make a few things right
You’ll never see me wear a suit of white.

Ah, I’d love to wear a rainbow every day
And tell the world that everything’s okay
But I’ll try to carry off a little Daarkness on my back
‘Til things are brighter, I’m the Man in Black.‘”

CODA. Beloved, if it seems good to the Lord for you to also ‘Dress in Black each Friday,’ then I invite you to join this quiet yet touching method of demonstrating our Love for Christ, our Deep Concern for the many “Least of these” being brutally assaulted, arrested, detained along with their children, sometimes to never be heard from again.

“And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’” – JESUS CHRIST, Matthew 25:40

‘Til things are brighter.”  Selah.