salt is good
Morning watch 8.12.25 6:02 am
Matt 5:13 - salt is good
I've been thinking about what Jesus meant when he called us "the salt of the earth." It's such a simple image, but there's so much depth to unpack here.
Salt preserves things - that's its main job. It stops decay, kills bacteria, keeps food from rotting. When I think about the world around me, I see so much moral decay, so much corruption seeping into every corner of society. And Jesus is saying that's where I come in. I'm supposed to be the preserving influence. Not to fix everything, but to slow down the rot, to be a force that pushes back against the corruption.
But here's what really challenges me - salt only works when it's different from what it's preserving. If salt becomes just like everything else around it, it's useless. Completely worthless.
I keep asking myself: Am I really any different from my non-Christian friends and coworkers? When people interact with me, do they sense something distinct about my character, my values, my responses to difficult situations? Or have I become so much like everyone else that I've lost my "saltiness"?
The Beatitudes keep coming to mind. Those aren't just nice spiritual ideals - they're the very qualities that make me effective as salt. When I'm humble instead of prideful, when I grieve over injustice instead of ignoring it, when I hunger for what's right instead of what's convenient, when I choose peace over conflict, when I'm willing to take heat for doing what's right - that's when I'm functioning as salt.
But when I just go along with whatever everyone else is doing, when I complain like everyone else complains, when I pursue the same things everyone else pursues, when I react to problems the same way everyone else reacts - I've become tasteless salt. Useless.
Lord, help me maintain that distinctive quality that comes from really living out the Beatitudes. Help me be the preserving influence you've called me to be in this decaying world.