Month: February 2024

Be Salty

The other evening my family was finishing kitchen clean up when I remembered that bread still needed to be made. Technically this isn’t a necessity, but I have a mostly neglected sourdough starter called George that needed attention I couldn’t give. So my husband mixed up and kneaded the dough while I sat on the sofa. 

The next morning, I took a bite from that fresh loaf. Then I turned to my husband and asked, “Did you put salt in the bread?” He thought for a minute and said, “You know, I don’t think I did.”

The bread is fine – I’m still going to toast a piece of it every morning – but it lacks flavor. And with every slice of that saltless bread, I think of Jesus saying, “You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor?” (Matthew 5:13). 

Salt is distinctive – you know when it’s there, and it’s conspicuous by its absence. It’s always been tasty, but in ancient times it was vitally important because of its ability to preserve food and its usefulness in preventing decay. Salt was so essential that some people were paid in salt (as a matter of fact, sal is the root word for salary). 

So what are we to make of Jesus telling His followers they’re the salt of the earth? 

I think it means we’re essential. Bread is meant to have salt. Believers have a unique and essential role to play in the preservation and restoration of the world. But if the salt of the earth ceases to be salty – if it ceases to be what it was made to be – the world will lose its flavor for God. 

But salt that’s salty? It shows the greatness of God’s way of doing things by fully embracing His way of looking at things. Things are not what they seem. You’re blessed when you’re poor. You’re blessed when you mourn. You’re blessed when you don’t let your circumstances keep you from showing mercy, pursuing purity, and working through conflict. You’re blessed when you affirm that following God is worth whatever it costs (Matthew 5:3-12). Those who believe this add salt to the earth – salt that seasons, heals and preserves a world that’s hurting, grieving, and hungry. 

Salt without saltiness is pointless. But salt that’s fully active is singular and transformative. And incredibly precious to God.

Be salty.

Nothing Greater

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13

That’s it. That’s all there is to it. Flowers, candy, cards, candlelight and wine, spa packages, or even diamonds. Those are all delightful expressions of affection, but love finds its greatest – and truest – expression in the self-sacrificial pursuit of the beloved’s best interests.

People die senselessly all the time. That doesn’t require anything special. But to purposefully give up what is most precious to you because you care intensely for the well-being of another person and want to see good come about in their life – that is real love. 

Maybe you’d be willing to surrender your life in a grand heroic gesture. I hope you never get the chance to put your promise to the test. But there is a friend who has already demonstrated the depth and extent of His love – Jesus. 

He considers you a friend (John 15:15). He willingly lay down His life for you (John 10:18). That’s phenomenal. But what makes it even more incredible is that He felt this way towards you – He made this incredible sacrifice on your behalf – when you were not His friend. When you were disinterested, disdainful and downright disagreeable (Romans 5:7-8). He didn’t let any of that stop Him from loving you to the fullest extent.

The question is what will you do about it? What kind of friend will you be to Him now? No friend would ask someone to lay down their life for them needlessly. Life is too precious to cast aside easily. Once you know that you’re loved in that way, it should make a difference. 

When you have the opportunity to lay down your life, what will you do? I’m not talking about that heroic gesture. I’m talking about day to day when there’s no recognition and no applause. Will you loosen your grip on the remote control? Will you hand over the last piece of cake? Will you suspend judgment, withhold criticism, forego your right to get even? This is what it means to turn the other cheek and go the extra mile and take the last seat (Matthew 5:39-41; Luke 14:10). It’s about letting go of love of Self and catering to all its demands in pursuit of bettering life for the beloved. That is hard stuff. It’s holy work. And in the end you will gain far more than you ever lost.

“If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find true life.” Matthew 16:25