The salt of the earth

My wife recently spoke in church. Her sermon was based on becoming the salt of the earth. What follows is my digested and regurgitated attempt to summarize her remarks.

Jesus used this phrase in the Sermon on the Mount and we still use it today. We associate salt-of-the-earth people with those that are fundamentally good, those that are honest and those that are caring and compassionate.

As followers of Christ, we go about salting the earth by following the admonition He gave just a few verses later. We can ‘let [our] light shine before men, that they may see [our] good works, and glorify [our] Father which is in heaven’ (Matthew chapter 5).

I feel like this is a challenge issued to all of His followers.

Well, challenge accepted…now let’s go about salting the earth.

I asked my wife for specifics on how I might go about doing this. Her response was simple. ‘Reign it in old man, you’re salty enough!’

I wasn’t really sure what to think about that, though I think this was a warning that too much salt can be a bad thing. Ask anyone who has mistakenly put salt in their cookie dough instead of sugar. The fact is, that when we refer to someone as being salty, it’s really a slang—a bit of an insult, meaning they are being irritating or annoying.

I gave that some thought. I have decided that this means that I need to treat people as Christ did. I need to be genuine and not phony. I need to be honest rather than self-serving. I need to be caring and kind, rather than self-seeking. In a nutshell, I need to be more like Christ.

I think I can work on this. I vow to look for opportunities to practice developing this trait. You know what they say about practice?

I suspect this will be easy to do initially. Making it a habit, making it a part of me, making it part of my character, might be a bit more difficult. In essence, I need to be careful not to let my salt lose its savor. ‘Ye are the salt of the earth; but if the salt have lost his savour, were with shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men’ (verse 13).

We lose our savor when we let our daily trials chip away at our character.

A wise woman once said (yep, quoting my wife again), “I have learned that I can’t always control the trials I face, but I am the keeper of my ‘salt.’

Will I let this make me bitter or will I let this make me better? Less seasoned or more flavorful? In the end, what good am I if I’ve lost my flavor?”

Good advice from a good woman. Thanks Hon!