Salty Lives

Ever stuck your tongue on raw salt?  Wow!  Instantly, the brain recognizes the intensity of its flavor.  We then respond with two possible reactions; we either hate it or want more.   This aspect of salt; the affect of it, is crucial in understanding what Jesus means when He refers to us  "as the salt the world." Mt 5:13

We're supposed to be different.  We're supposed to cause a reaction.  We take our saltiness, or lack of it, into every aspect that makes up our lives.

Salt can do many things with the properties it holds.  It is a substance that can be both positive and negative in its affects.  It can preserve, heal, corrode, destroy, enhance flavor, and it is placed in practically everything these days.  It is in most of the packaged and prepared food we eat,  the things we drink, cosmetics, household cleaners and detergents, and for those of us who live in the colder climates, it's poured all over our roads during the winter.  It is simply and profoundly integrated into our lives in every way.

Think of the impact of one chemical element.

Jesus wants us to be like that.  Causing a reaction of some sort in the relationships and "oikos's" of our lives.   A spiritual reaction.  Something of eternal value and substance.

 To be agents of healing and restoration. 

To be those who preserve of what is good in one another.

To be ones to draw out and enhance the unique flavor of each of us.

To act in corroding and destroying unscriptural truths that permeate our lives, culture and world.

To be responded to with; "I want some more of that!", in our relationships.

Salt is meant to be used for a purpose.  It is to be cast upon something for it to have an affect.  If it sits and accumulates it becomes dead and toxic. Think of the Dead Sea. It has the highest salt concentration of anywhere on earth and it is completely toxic to anything living.  The only thing it is good for is to float upon it.  It is dead because it has no outlet.  It's salt accumulates but is never flowing out.

We are not meant to achieve saltiness for ourselves but to be in constant distribution of it for the sake of others and the Kingdom of God.

  The new and trendy low salt models we have as consumers may be good for our physical health, but Jesus means for us to be highly salty.  To loose any of our saltiness places us on the verge of being "usless".  His words, not mine.

We have workplaces, homes, neighborhoods, gatherings, hang-outs, clubs and all sorts of venues this week, this month and this year to be salt the world needs.  To cause some sort of spiritual reaction with lasting and enduring affect.