I like salt. It has to be my favorite spice. I salt heavily. Salt is a good thing. Yet I’ve often referred to the old adage “Rubbing salt into the would” when I’ve noticed someone making something uncomfortable, even more uncomfortable, which isn’t a very nice thing to do; thus rendering salt a bad thing. Now I’m sure many of you, or maybe two of the four that are reading this blog, have had the misfortune of having an opening in the skin touched by salt and felt the pain that goes along with that. For me this would more than likely be having a small cut on my thumb from peeling potatoes earlier aggravated by the salt from the potato chips I’m munching on while playing Candy Crush in my recliner.
I was reminded about salt aggravating an open sore recently when someone did something to intentionally cause even further aggrevation in a sore spot, and although I wasn’t the bad guy in the act, I found my pointy finger pointing right back at me. I was being a hypocrite, I have done the same thing, and I’m working on correcting that terrible habit.
The first reference I can remember to salt in the Bible came in the book of Genesis. Three men had appeared to Abraham, one being the Lord, while he was sitting outside the door of his tent. The Lord had come down with a couple of his angels to find out if Sodom and Gomorrah was as bad as He had heard it was. If He found it to be as evil as he had heard he was going to destroy it. Abraham’s nephew Lot and his family were living in Sodom so when Abraham found out God’s plan he asked God if he would destroy the righteous along with the wicked if any were found. Long story short, Lot and his family were declared righteous in the Lord’s eyes and instructed to flee from Sodom and not look back. Well, just like Eve disobeyed earlier in the book, Lot’s wife disobeyed also and looked back as they were getting away and was turned in to a pillar of salt. A bad thing.
When I decided to ponder about salt, I first went to google to find the proper definition, and for the purpose of this post I chose to share the noun definition:
Salt
– noun – a white crystalline substance that gives seawater its characteristic taste and is used for seasoning or preserving food
Next, I again went to google to find the verses in the Instruction book where salt was referred to and was surprised to find a site that listed forty. FORTY! I then had to copy the verses and paste them in a Word document, then adjust the fonts, add columns and a header, and space them so they ………………………… wait for it ………………….. looked nice. Then I had to fight with my printer and laptop because they weren’t playing nice together and after finally getting my nice looking document printed I wished I had used a smaller font. And no, I didn’t redo it, at this point I needed comfort food. Potato chips. Heavily salted crunchy bits of goodness. Now the chips are gone and I’m ready to look up the forty verses and find the perfect one(s) to complete this ponder, which I hope shows the best way to use salt, for good rather than bad, in a way that would make Jesus smile.
In looking over the verses, many refer to salt as a negative thing, for example Deuteronomy 29:23-25 which reads “All its land is brimstone and salt, a burning waste, unsown and unproductive, and no grass grows in it, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in in His anger and in His wrath” I don’t want to ponder on the negative and painful ways God refers to salt. I don’t want to rub salt in any more wounds, I want to use my salt shaker in a positive and good way. I’ve chosen this verse as the one I need to cling to, it’s found in Mark 9:50 and reads:
“Salt is good for seasoning. But if loses its flavor, how do you make it salty again? You must have the qualities of salt among yourselves and live in peace with each other.”
The study note says Jesus used salt to illustrate three qualities that should be found in his people: (1) We should remember God’s faithfulness, just as salt when used with a sacrifice recalled God’s covenant with his people (Leviticus 2:13). (2) We should make a difference in the ‘flavor’ of the world we live in, just as salt changes meat’s flavor (see Matthew 5:13). (3) We should counteract the moral decay in society, just as salt preserves food from decay. When we lose this desire to ‘salt’ the earth with the love and message of God, we become useless to him.
Again WHEN WE LOSE THIS DESIRE TO “SALT” THE EARTH WITH THE LOVE AND MESSAGE OF GOD, WE BECOME ……… USELESS ……… TO ………. HIM.
So I will continue to plaster Facebook with scripture, I will continue to write about the things I notice in myself when I’m using my salt shaker in a negative or hurtful way, I will continue to “wear my faith on my sleeve”. And as a matter of fact, to those who notice that I’m wearing my faith on my sleeve, and refer to in a negative way, I’d like to say “Thank you for noticing. I must be doing something right!”
In closing, be careful how you use your salt shaker. If you know clicking an ink pen annoys someone, don’t sit behind them and click yours. That’s not nice. That’s not helpful.
Perhaps next I will ponder yeast.
-dar
dar334 
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