Chemistry. Sodium. Na. A silvery, soft metal that you could cut with a knife. Sodium reacts exothermically with water. It’s more fun to say that it BLOWS UP!
Chlorine. Cl. A greenish gas. Smells like bleach. No wonder, bleach has chlorine in it! We use it to disinfect things. Why? it’s kinda POISONOUS! Which leads me to oatmeal. I mixed a little of both of these into my oatmeal the other day, hoping for a bacteria-killing explosion! Just kidding. I was hoping that in it’s NaCl, sodium chloride, salt form, it would add flavor to my too bland oatmeal. That morning, I mixed some with the water in my cup and dumped in some oatmeal. After waiting for it to settle down, or in the case of oatmeal, to set up, I took a bite. BLAH, BLAH, BLAH! I added more salt and tried to mix it in.
As I worked my way further down, the oatmeal became salty, saltier, saltiest! The last bite cured my tongue like a piece of meat. What happened? In my haste, I didn’t get the first salt mixed well and it settled to the bottom of the cup. It was saltier than the Dead Sea! What good did that salt do?
What good do I do? Jesus said:
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.” Matthew 5:13
Apparently I’m salt. If I’m a Christian who carefully sits in the church pew, holding my Bible tightly, hoping that no sin will rub off on me from touching others, I’m like salt that never gets out of the shaker. If I’m a Christian who barges through life like a bull in a china shop, smashing my beliefs into whoever I meet, I’m like the unmixed salt in the bottom of the oatmeal. disgusting and worthless. If I’m a Christian who becomes so like the world around me that I cause no flavor change, I’m like salt after water runs through it. Dissolved and without flavor. All that’s left is a little dirt, ready to be discarded and walked on.
God, help me to be salt today, mixing thoroughly through my world, blessing it with the flavor that only Your love can bring!
shared 10/29/09