Are You a "Salty" Christian?

The next time you are at your kitchen table, face to face with the salt and pepper shakers, evaluate your life. Salt brings many great benefits to those things with which it comes into contact. Pepper is hot and it burns. Which are you?

Salt is a vital nutrient for life. Without it, our bodies would shut down for lack of proper nutrition. For the Christian, being salt is important. Jesus used it as a metaphor for our responsibility to the world around us.

Why would a Christian want to be "salty?"

1. Salt makes you thirsty. Did youever see the episode of Seinfeld that continually poked fun at the line, "These pretzels are making me thirsty?" While the humor of this was in the delivery of the line, it reminds us of the fact that the salt on pretzels makes you thirsty, no matter how you say it.

We were created with a need for a relationship with God, just as we were created with a need for water. Believe it or not, our day to day actions and attitudes can promote a thirst for God. Something as simple as how you react to a slow grocery line or a driver that cuts you off in traffic speaks volumes.

In John 7:37, Jesus says, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink." The sports drink Gatorade markets itself as "the thirst quencher." I think Jesus' drink brand of drink is even better than Gatorade! He says He will give "streams of living water will flow from within him." Imagine, never being thirsty again. Talk about a thirst quencher!

2. Salt gives flavor. I've always considered myself a bit of a salt-aholic. Oftentimes I find myself shaking the salt shaker above my food before I've even tried it. Why? I like the flavor salt brings to my food and, frankly, I just like the taste of salt. Even if I can't see the salt on my food, I know it is there. It has a lot of influence on the taste of things.