"Saltshaker City" finds new meaning

WOW. I am still SHOOK from the things I learned today, that made me understand something on a much greater level than what I had once perceived it to be.

And it goes hand in hand with the name of this blog so I've decided to share it here.

For those that haven't yet ventured as far as the "About" page, "Saltshaker City" is I name I just made up mostly because it sounded nice. But it had basis in this scripture from Matthew 5:

"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 by men."

Our conventional table salt, made...unsalty can't be used as a flavour enhancer, can't be used as a preservative - it's lost it's purpose. And yet, here in Luke, we see its parallel:

"Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it e made salty again? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out."

What's this connection between salt and soil? Jesus spoke all his parables in a way hat best related to his audience, here a crowd of working class fishers and farmers, the main occupations of this period. All this time, we've been looking at this analogy from our own perspective, salt's present day conventional use, which is that of culinary arts. However, salt, in this time, was actually a common fertilizer, a compound of chloride, magnesium and potassium. It had its use agriculturally and it helped develop healthier soils for growing crops.

Salt of the earth, can thus be interpreted as fertilizer of the soil.

What can we take away from this then? This salt that we are called to be isn't actually to produce flavour or to preserve a material or a way of life, it's a calling to be thrown into toil and into the thick messiness of things, into the dung, to mix into the places that need nourishment and revival, making the unsuitable ground a space for the growth of life.

In this world where soil comes in five forms, solid, shallow, rocky, thorny and "good", where do you fit in? Does the word not plant roots and instead have you convicting others? Is there a lack of forgiveness and full surrender? Is your heart divided, its desires too weak to seek a greater glory and have become content with not seeing a toilsome harvest?

The thing is, we are all good soil. It's not what is in a soil that makes it good, but what is not in it. We have the capacity for growth but if we get crowded with rocks and thorns, if we are swept up and carried by birds, if the roots cannot be set because the ground is not yet deep enough, then that doesn't change the fact that without these factors, the soil is capable of growing something beautiful.

Getting rid of these from the soil takes hard work and effort, but to take this salt and fertilize these dry, dead places not suitable for growth today, can bring about something completely different tomorrow.

You are led to believe you are broken and filthy and not undeserving. But the thing is, God has brought us into his presence and we are forgiven. We are good soil. We can do so much good.

So go on. And keep going. You are right where you need to be today.

- r.k.

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