Posted on July 9, 2010 - by Jamie Wamsley
Pour Some Salt on Me
“Salt is what makes things taste bad when it isn’t in them.” – Anonymous
Sometimes I will read a passage of Scripture that will remind me of a different passage of Scripture, and as I consider those two semi-related ideas, they will turn my mind in a whole new direction.
Yesterday, I was reading Matthew 5.13 – a very good, if not somewhat familiar, verse – which says, “You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.”
Though I have often heard messages that explore the idea of salt, especially as a preserving agent, it was the word tasteless that caught my attention this time.
That word, tasteless, immediately brought to mind another one of my favorite verses, Psalm 34.8 – ‘O taste and see, the Lord is good.’
As I began to reflect on these two passages, I was hit by an amazingly obvious realization.
It is God’s presence in me that gives my life flavor.
When I read Psalm 34.8, I come away understanding that the presence of God is ‘good’ – meaning that it is a pure, powerful and wonderful sensory experience; better than a person can find anywhere else (up to and including drinking heavily, dropping acid, having sex, eating cheap pizza, winning the lottery, watching the Bears at Soldier Field, etc, etc…).
It is that same presence – that same ‘experience’ of God – made manifest in me that transforms an otherwise relatively dull and uninteresting life and gives it real taste.
Conversely, when I read Matthew 5.13, I understand that the lack of God’s presence in my life will render me relatively tasteless.
The passage says that God-followers are the ‘salt of the earth’. That is, they bear the presence of God within them and they are who should be flavoring the world with the overwhelming character of God – His joy, His goodness, His love, kindness, compassion, mercy, etc…
And yet, these same people can and do become… tasteless. And God asks the rhetorical question, “How can they be made salty again?”
In my mind, I wonder if God isn’t saying, “If my presence in these people doesn’t make them taste good, then nothing will ever make them taste good.”
And even as I write those words, I realize how often people fail to experience the presence of God through their interactions with me. In reality, the vast majority of the time, I am just not that flavorful.
Yet, I don’t want to manufacture it, either. I don’t want to force joy – or to put on the false mask of Cheerleader Christianity. Neither God nor the world have any need of even more superficial posturing.
I do, however, want a continual, daily supernatural experience of God so profound, so compelling and so overwhelming that people are caught up in its wake. I want my experience of God to be so palpable that others are drawn towards Him through it.
I want to be salt, and I want my life to have flavor.
God, I genuinely don’t know to what extent this kind of life is possible – but to the extent that it is, I am asking You to help me find it. I want to experience You in Your absolute fullness and I ask You to root out every sin and obstacle that prevents me from becoming the person You want me to be. God – and I say this with a significant amount of hesitation – be ruthless with me. Help me go where I can’t go by myself. Make me flavorful. Thank you, Jesus. I love You and trust You. Amen.
