SALT

“You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless." - Matthew 5:13 (NLT)

Two weeks ago, Sioux Falls Young Life was having a little shindig at Culver's. I decided to act like a 6th grader and threw some salt at my friend Morgan. So juvenile, I know, but it seemed like it would be fun. Her reaction was worth the childish behavior. Oh, gratification.

Shortly after our game of throwing salt, we began talking about Young Life Bible study/Campaigners this summer. We want a great name. No, not great, epic. We want an epic name for Bible study. Morgan suggested "Salt." It may have been a joke about the evening, but it is truly an epic name.

Salt flavors things. If your soup sucks, add salt. If your meat isn't cutting it, add salt. If your mashed potatoes have no taste, add salt. When you add salt, it changes the food. Your soup, meat, taters will never be the same.

Salt not only adds delightful flavor, but it does so without trying. Salt cannot help but be salty. It doesn't try to change your food; the change just happens. It naturally changes everything it surrounds. How great is salt sounding right now?

Salt is tasty, attractive, and makes an impact. And it does all of this while still being set apart. Salt changes your food, but it remains salt. It isn't engulfed by the grub. It adds to your meal, you can't separate it out, but it still remains salt. Salt in the unsalty.

Those who follow Christ are salt. The salt of the earth. That is such a big deal. We are called to add flavor, to change what surrounds us, to remain set apart. What good are we if we lose that flavor though? What good are we if we aren't naturally changing what surrounds us? What good are we if we're totally fitting in and losing our saltiness?

Over the past few weeks, I've become more aware of what surrounds me. It's a broken world. Sex is everywhere, and it's distorted. It's no longer what it was originally intended to be: a sacred covenant. No, it is a game, entertainment, a trivial past-time. And friends, that's just one example of the brokenness of the world. I could literally blog rant for at least 80,000 words on sex, vanity, jealousy, gossip, slander, etc. All of this brokenness, is stuff that I've been accepting. I watch, listen to, say, and do things that conform to the world's thoughts. I was losing my saltiness without even realizing it. The flavors of the world can so easily engulf us if we let them.

But I've seen and listened to enough crap. I've said enough hurtful things and held onto to enough garbage in my heart. I choose to be set apart. Today, I purged my movie collection. I got rid of the things that glamorize our world's brokenness. I now have fewer movies, and I probably need to do a second round of cleaning later to catch what I continue to want to buy into. That's just the outward thing that needed to change. I also need to be joyful rather than jealous, encouraging rather than slanderous, and examine my heart more than my image in the mirror.

Why am I now purging my life of all of this crap? I mean, if we're playing the comparison game, I'm sure I could find someone who could make me look and feel good about what I think and do. But that's not how being salt works. You're either salt, or you're not. Sure things can be more or less salty, but if you're meant to be SALT, you really are either salt or not.

I want to be salt. I want to be set apart. I want to add flavor. I want to be who Jesus calls me to be. I'm giving up the things that have kept me from being pure salt so that I can better serve my God and allow him to flavor the world through me. He has lots of food He needs to flavor. Let's be His salt.