No Cul-De-Sacs for Me!

Uber and food delivery service drivers tend to miss the driveway to our house. They somehow end up in the cul-de-sac immediately adjacent to our home which is not accessible to our driveway.

‘Why this visual’ you may ask?

Well, this morning I read Luke 11:36 (NLT): “If I am filled with the light, with no dark corners, then my whole life will be radiant, as though a flood light is shining on me!” (emphasis mine). I immediately stopped and prayed ‘Lord, I want you to be able to shine a spotlight on my life. Let my life be clean and shiny and sparkling with all the beauty and goodness of who you are and who you’ve called me to be. Please Lord please! Keep my mind and my heart pure. “Keep steady my steps according to your promise and let no iniquity get dominion over me" (Psalm 119:133, ESV, a verse I’d memorize earlier this year for this exact purpose!).

Again…’Why this visual’ you ask?

Years ago I read “The Three Battlegrounds: An In-Depth View of the Three Arenas of Spiritual Warfare” (Francis Frangipane). How’s that for a title, eh?! Anyway, the first third of the book addresses the “battlefield of the mind” and how, if we’re not protective of what goes on in there, it’ll become nothing but a playground for the Enemy. Why? Because our Enemy, the devil, loves secrets, and darkness, and dead ends.

As I studied this section of the book I remember picturing my life like a highway, a long, straight highway with a series of intersections which represented choices. Each time I came to an intersection I was faced with a central choice: Do I stay on the straight and narrow path that leads to godliness (Matthew 7:13+14) or, do I choose another direction which could take me to a “slippery slope?”

The dictionary defines a “slippery slope” as a course of action that seems to lead inevitably from one action or result to another with unintended consequences. A slippery slope could also take you to a cul-de-sac…and oh how the devil loves cul-de-sacs. He loves to wait for you at the dead end and trap you in a secret, a trick, a sin. And when you’re all the way down a cul-de-sac, it’s often SO hard to find your way back out to the highway.

So back to my desperate prayer this morning. ‘Please Lord please! No cul-de-sacs for me! No secrets. No dark corners where sins or potential sins may lurk. Keep your floodlight on me so that my Enemy can’t get a foothold in any area. Then, I can be radiant with your goodness and be a shining example of who you are and what you’ve done for me! I love you Lord. Amen.’