DON’T LOSE YOUR SALT
“Let your speech always be gracious, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how to answer everyone”Col 4:6
Salt is savory spice that makes food taste better. It is medicinal. It creates an antibacterial environment to allow healing and absorbs fluids to help dry out the wound. It cures meat and fish to keep it from rotting. Salt also makes you thirsty. This is a clear sign that you need water. When you ignore your bodies cry for water, you become dehydrated and lose critical electrolytes. The primary electrolyte that is lost, is salt. The most significant symptom is rapid or irregular heartbeat. When the ticker begins to flicker, serious trouble is ahead unless you STOP and replenish your fluids and salts.
When you begin to dehydrate spiritually, you begin flicker in and out of grace. If you don’t stop and replenish your spiritual fluids, the loss of graciousness will most likely manifest itself in the words you speak and the actions you take.
APPLICATION
Life presents many unsavory circumstances and challenges. Nothing reveals this more than a bad day travelling. And nothing is sharper than a tongue that’s lost its seasoning. You’re tired, need a shower, feel like you have a mouth full of fur, and you have plane hair. These issues, coupled with airport melee, provides a breeding ground for frustration, short-tempered responses to either your companions or the people you encounter along the way. The anticipation and excitement of the trip planned, or the hopeful anticipation of smooth sailing on the journey home, dissolves into irrational behavior. As if the time, the moment, and the people you encounter were waiting just for you to show up so they could ruin your day. Thing is, once words are spoken, they cannot be unsaid. The rat is out of the trap and the salt shaker is empty, and we leave wounded souls in our wake instead of souls who experienced God’s grace. Remember, a little salt on the tongue makes for well-seasoned and gracious conversation.
So, if you find yourself in baggage staring at an empty luggage carousel and your last ounce of grace begins to flicker, replenish it. God makes us thirsty for a reason. So that we will move in and draw from His well, whispering His name in prayer and praise. When we say his name, we give up our bitterness, our anger, our frustration. So, run into the shelter of his name until the storm has passed (Proverbs 18:10). And in that quiet place, pray, continually and with thanksgiving (Col 4:2). And as his name fills our heartwell, so does grace, and our thirst is quenched.
“There is none like you, O Lord; you are great, and your NAME is great in might”Jeremiah 10:6.
IN CONTEXT
We are a walking, talking, personal witness for Christ. Our words and actions present the gospel without preaching. Practical, street-wise Christianity lived out in the everyday pockets of life. The Apostle Paul, who was in prison in Rome, wrote the Epistle of Colossians instructing the church at Colossae to be vigilant in prayer and conversation so that doors would open to speak Christ to the world. The Greek word used for “vigilant” means “wakeful.” Stay awake. Be mindful of the balance between salt and grace. How we speak is the ‘tell’ of our hearts. Not hell-fire and brimstone, but in gracious everyday conversation that reflects the truth of God’s word and human graciousness. William Barclay, a Scottish theologian and author, expresses Col 4:6 this way: “Let your speech always be with gracious charm, seasoned with the ‘salt of wit’, so that you will know the right answer to give in every case.” The “salt of wit” infers a conversation seasoned with grace and humor. I like that. Find the humor in in every situation and God’s grace will follow. #besaltandgrace
© Baggywrinkle 2019
