Lent Day 2: Salt

How much salt have you had today? I had an appointment with a cardiologist this week. One part of our discussion focused on my high blood pressure. Next week I’ll have a stress test and after that we’ll discuss medication. Thinking about this got me to thinking about how much salt, sodium, I’ve been consuming. It also got me to thinking about Jesus’ teaching that the disciples were the salt of the earth.

Have you given much thought to how salty you were today? I have always attributed being salt to adding flavor (zest) to life, or being a preserver of what is good and right. It has also been suggested that a person who is worth their salt (by the way, that’s where we get our word salary from) is someone who can be counted upon. This concept, in particular, seems to ring true when you consider that Jesus
goes on to ask, “What good is salt that has lost its saltiness?”

Have you ever considered that being dependable is a sacrifice? Are you willing to make that sacrifice? I’m not suggesting that we be a doormat for the world to take advantage of, but it is important that we can be counted on—otherwise, we’re only good for throwing underfoot. I’m just not ready to be trampled on, how about you?

One of the other things that has always that stood out to me was the way Jesus TOLD them they were salt. He didn’t suggest it. He didn’t tell them that they were going to grow into being salt someday. They were salt. It was as if Jesus was saying, “This is what you are—what are you going to do about it?” Will you be what you were created to be?

While I was typing this Asher came in the office. I was reading my writing out loud. He heard me say that Jesus said we are salt. He wanted to know what that meant. So as best I could I tried to explain it to him. He decided he didn’t want to be salt. There are a lot of folks like Asher who just seem to have opted out of being who they were created to be. Sadly, some of those folks are hanging around the Body, the Church. They grumble about a lot of things, including that they don’t feel like the Church, the Body, does anything for them.

The more I thought about this the more I started to laugh. It seemed to me that this kind of thinking would be like eating French fries, popcorn, or potato chips so that my salt would taste good. It’s not the other stuff of life or other people who are to make us appreciate our saltiness. We need to get it right: the world is in need of our saltiness. So how about you? Can your corner of the world count on you to bring all the qualities of healing, preserving, seasoning, that are attributed to salt? Will you be who you were created to be or just be tossed aside? Consider Peterson’s translation of this verse in The Message: 13"Let me tell you why you are here. You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You've lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage. (Matthew 5:13).