Salt and Light: The Salt

Listening to Andrew Peterson the other day, as I do most days, got me thinking. There's a song on the Love and Thunder CD called "Let There Be Light" that talks about all of our different talents and how "we're the salt of the earth/ The music we make is the light of the world so let it shine". The second verse talks about all of his friends having different talents or vocations: "Aaron's a preacher, I play guitar, Jim he can tune up your Ford. Dave is law school for 800 years for the sake of the sick and poor."
Salt and light is something that's often talked about from a pulpit and it's been done so many times there can't be anything new to say on the subject, but I really like this passage. It's one of my favorite analogies for living the way Jesus intended us to.
The passage says this:
13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Now, salt has a lot of different uses. I once read that we will consume 29,000 pounds of salt in our lives. That's pretty ridiculous. But it's because salt is so good. It adds flavor. It was also used to preserve foods, and sometimes still is for some delivery companies. It's also used to keep icy and snowy roads safe to drive on. Wars have been waged, revolutions fought for the sake of salt. It's a benefit to our lives in most ways. In fact, there are an estimated 14,000 benefits of salt. On the other hand, have you ever rubbed salt in a wound? I have, just out of curiosity. I can assure you that it's one of the worst ideas you will ever have.
We have the opportunity to either flavor the world, make it better, purify it... or we can make it hurt like nothing else. We've all encountered Christians who either enhance your life, or makes you wonder why you hang out with Christians at all. I'm sure I've been both of those things.
The interesting thing is that Jesus asks if we loose our saltiness, can we get it back again? It's interesting because can salt really loose its saltiness? Only by one way: deluding it. If you add water to it, or any other chemical compound really, it will not have the same effect. It will still be salt, but it won't protect food the same way, or add flavor probably at all.
Don't delude yourselves. Too often, we justify Scripture to meet our needs. We water down what Jesus has to say so that it's easier to live by. This is not what Jesus wanted from us. His words are hard to sallow sometimes, but that's what iron sharpening iron means. We're not alone in this. We not a single grain of salt, we are together being the salt of the earth. Iron sharpening iron is not pretty; it's dangerous, and ugly. There's sparks and fire. But at the end, it's something beautifully created with a purpose by the Master.

And then there's light.