Cul-de-sac

 While working with Tony Board and Scott Gibson last Saturday we turned the truck and trailer around in a cul-de-sac.  That word came up and the only thing we could determine at that time about the word was that it was French.  Smart folks, huh?  Oh well, we are only human.  ANYWAY, I told the guys I would find out what it meant, and looked it up in an on-line dictionary (I don’t use paper copies of these much anymore because of the easy on-line tools).  It was indeed, French, and is literally translated as ‘the bottom of the bag’.  Interesting term to depict a street closed at one end.  This, of course, suggested to me, a possible Biblical lesson…so here goes.

 The very nature of a bag, gravity, and being at the bottom of one, suggests that in many situations what is found there would be less valuable than what is found nearer the top. (Except, of course, those two or three French fries which had fallen from the container and are delicious after eating the burger!)  And normally, things at a bottom of a bag could be more crushed, more broken or more distasteful than those above them. 

 That is how we are.  We are near the bottom of the spiritual bag.  On top of us are thousands, if not millions, of other things that crush us every day.  Some of us are so beat-down inside that bag that we never seem to see any daylight.  One thing right after another is dropped into our bag, right on top of us.  Sickness, poverty, hatred, stress, and fear are just a few of those things.  If we don’t do anything about all that weight above us, we will remain at the ‘cul-de-sac’ and die a horrible death.

 Wow, Mac, don’t be so melodramatic!  Sorry, but I want to bring home a very important point…..get out of that bag! 

 When Jesus walked this earth as a human being, He looked specifically for the types of people who were suffering the most.  He looked in the streets, in people’s homes, in crowds, and in the countryside.  His message, to seek and save the lost, was preached TO many, but was FOR only a few---the lost, the meek, the ones fullest of need; the ones at the bottom of the bag.  The Roman Empire crushed millions of people, casting them into societies where disease, poverty and horrible deaths were common place.  Those people needed to be picked up from the bottom of the bag. 

Today, Jesus calls us to get out of the cul-de-sac as well.  No matter how depressed and crushed we have become, He knows there is a way out. Him! But when He came, He didn’t say the crushed would automatically be raised from the bottom and be saved….no, He said that the oppressed, the weak and poor in spirit would be raised up IF they do something about their situation. As you turn to reread Matthew, Chapter 5, verses 1 through 11, you might notice that Jesus starts out by saying how blessed the ‘cul-de-sac people’ are (the merciful, the meek, the mourners, etc), but as you continue reading from verse 12 all the way through chapter 7, verse 20, you might also notice that Jesus tells us HOW to climb out of the bag in order to receive those blessings.  Notice all those ‘commands’ and warnings.  Then read verses 21 through 27 in chapter 7 and heed those words.  If you don’t attempt to climb out of the bottom of the bag (YOUR efforts), Jesus will not reward you (HIS efforts) when the final judgment day arrives.  I know there are arguments about God’s tremendous love, and that our works do not save us; but I want you to LISTEN to what Jesus is telling us.  But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash. (Mt 20:26-27)

 Jesus is telling us that we must climb out of the cul-de-sac ourselves.  He will be there to guide us, but our faith must be combined with deeds (James 2:14) in order to see the light at the top of the bag.  I challenge all you faithful readers to climb on top of all that junk that may be on top of you right now in your own bag.  Climb on top of that, and you will be at the “chevet-de-sac”, the TOP of the bag, and will once again see the light of Jesus.  

Mac