Salt

I was reading Matthew 5:13 this morning that talks about being the salt of the earth..."And if the salt loses it's saltiness, what good is it?" I knew "saltiness" wouldn't be in my concordance so I did a quick investigate and found that the word was actually "savour" which, in the Greek, means "to become insipid"...Insipid is not a word I use everyday so I looked that up="tasteless", and "lacking in qualities that interest, stimulate, or challenge". Hmmm...

This week I was at a 2 day conference/training/workshop in Newark with the grant folks who help us run our program. At one point I was sitting w/ other program directors and 2 of the head haunchos. The headest hancho started talking and then paused, looked at me, and said, "I'm gonna say this carefully because I don't like to curse around Jen..." and then proceeded to say what she wanted to say. I found this interesting and when I read the passage about salt this morning and the related definitions, it made me think.

True, I find other ways to express myself besides profanity, as do most people on my team...well, all, actually. And it's not like everyone else at the training was dropping 4 letter words or being vulgar in regular conversation...So why the editing of speech around me? I found this similar to an earlier post I wrote when another staff member from the grant team apologized to me before playing a song for a few others because it had cursing in it.

Perhaps in some small way, I am saltier than I think. Perhaps the cross I wear every day prompts more conviction in others when they see it around my neck and know Who I represent. Maybe I do possess qualities that interest, stimulate, and challenge others. I would hate to LOSE that effect on those around me...Don't get me wrong--I'm quite aware that at times my own behavior causes the flavor of my salt to become bland and ineffective...and the cross I wear is a shame rather than a shine...But His mercies are new every morning and so I can assume that w/ confession and forgiveness, my saltiness is renewed and at the ready to interest, stimulate, and challenge others.

One of the best illustrations I ever heard along these lines is this: "One quarter of America claims to be Christian. If Christians are supposed to be the salt of the earth and if America were a pound of beef, surely you could taste a quarter pound of salt in a pound of beef", or something like that. As salt, my life is supposed to make others thirsty for Christ...I often wonder if I do that...or maybe my salt is more of an agitator for others...or, in the cases of caring for my kids, a preservative...Whatever the case, I would hate to become consistently insipid.