How Salty Are You?

“Salt is good for seasoning. But if it loses its flavor, how do you make it salty again? Flavorless salt is good neither for the soil nor for the manure pile. It is thrown away. Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand!”

Luke 14:34

I grew up putting salt on just about everything I ate, except for breakfast foods. Even before I tasted something on my dinner plate, I would enrich it with a layer of salt. Then, some years ago, my doctor told me that I needed to be careful about my blood pressure. He recommended limiting my salt intake. The easiest way was to stop adding salt to food. And so I did, just as my doctor ordered.

For a while, my food tasted terribly bland, except for my occasional TV dinner which already had shovelfuls of salt added. Yet, after I got used to eating my food “as is,” I learned to appreciate the natural taste of the edibles on my plate.

Still, I can appreciate Jesus’ statement that “salt is good for seasoning” (14:34). If salt, for some reason, lost its saltiness, it would be worthless. Apparently, it wouldn’t even be valuable in farming, where it can sterilize the soil or help fertilizer to remain fresh. Unsalty salt should be thrown out.

In this short passage from Luke, Jesus is not teaching his disciples how to cook, but rather how to live. Saltiness serves as a metaphor for distinctiveness, for kingdom living that doesn’t “taste” exactly like everything else in life. As you think about your life in Christ, how salty are you?

QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER REFLECTION: Are you living in a way that is distinctive because you are a disciple of Jesus? If you became a “star” of a reality TV show, one in which the cameras followed every move you made, would your “saltiness” as a believer be evident to viewers?

PRAYER: Dear Lord, I want to be a salty disciple. I want to live my life in a way that isn’t just like everybody else in my season of life. Yet, I know there are many ways I tend to lose my saltiness. When I soak in the brackish water of this culture, it’s hard to maintain my distinctiveness.

Forgive me, Lord, for my lack of saltiness. Help me, by your Word and Spirit, and through the community of salty disciples, to maintain and even enhance my saltiness. May I live for you in a way that is genuine and honoring to you. Amen.