Essential to the Recipe of Life

S - "You are the salt for everyone on earth. But if salt no longer tastes like salt, how can it make food salty? All it is good for is to be thrown out and walked on." Matthew 5:13

 

O - This dynamic described by of Jesus of Nazareth is admitted and admired by people of all ethnicities and cultural backgrounds (religious and nonreligious). In spite of all the diversity in our world, the actual composition of the "salt" is just about universally missed; religion, politics, social sciences, education, business, etc. included. It's not missed because the understanding begins with salt's flavor enhancing and preservative qualities.  It is not in the admission that salt is required for us to live. The miss isn't because the universally accepted observation of "a little goes a long way" is erroneous.  The miss is in identifying salt as anything other than love.  Love universally enhances the flavor of everything it comes in contact with and is a preservative like no other. It really is essential to life.  

 

A - Culture tragically and consistently misses this essential conclusion.  It describes salt in terms of things to not do, of opinions to hold or refuse, of conclusions which promote judgment of others in the harshest terms. Jesus and scriptures are unflinchingly clear on the point that without love it all becomes noise and nothing even it is true.  No love … no longer salty … thrown out and walked on.  Jesus, and according to him God as well, always starts at love. It is the only place he instructs those who follow him to begin every day, every circumstance every person.  In the thinking, living and teaching of Jesus the salt of the earth people are those who love.  If we love we cannot fail and if we do not love failure is certain.  

 

P - God who loves the world (7.8 billion),

I accept the instruction, encouragement and experience of the salt you're looking for us to be.  Love is the only dynamic which offers the hope of life's greatest flavors and a longevity which has no shelf life. I admit that it is not the concept of unconditional love but the activity of it. Yes to salt! Yes to love! Yes to flavorful and vibrant living,

Loving you back,

Steve