Be Blessed: Salt and Light

"You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its tastiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to the Father who is in Heaven." (Matthew 5: 13-16)

After resetting the way we think about blessedness, the Good Life, Jesus goes to tackle our identity by calling us salt and light, a pair of potentially random things packed with redemptive meaning. Redemption from what? When Adam and Eve sinned (and when we sin), they separated themselves from God. Without that relationship, humanity is left to find meaning on its own, and history shows that we struggle to do this effectively. This new identity Christ–salt and light–gives us the opportunity to deeply and positively affect the world around us. Embracing this identity helps us avoid shrinking into ourselves and falling apart. I can pull stories from the Bible that demonstrate this, but I'll share one from my own journey with identity.

Imaginary Expectations

I might bring basketball up in every entry of this series, but it's because I'd learned so much from my relationship with it. In this case, it controlled the way I saw myself. I used to spend hours trying to learn everything I could to increase my chances of making the school team. I studied, I trained, I would "envision success." In my mind, I did everything right, but come tryouts each year I'd fall apart and fail to reach my goal. Hindsight is 20/20. I realize now that I hadn’t done everything I could because I was afraid of facing the fact that I wasn’t as good as I thought. I held back and subconsciously self-sabotaged myself.

I only ever trained and studied by myself. I'd play a lot of pickup games, but I believed that the only parts of my game worth anything were my jumpshot, my passing, and my defense. At my best, these absolutely were strengths, but I would never test them in organized setings. I believed that playing in a rec league was an unacceptable form of settling, that playing there instead of on the school team meant I was no good at basketball–something I couldn't accept. This mindset held me back more than anything else; I wouldn't realize just how much until I got to college and began following Jesus.

Until then, I'd unknowingly placed my meaning and identity in my basketball ability. A good day at school with friends or at home with family would be overshadowed by a poor performance in a pickup game, a bad training session, or not making the final cut. Many of us do this to some extent. We place our identity in our performance in school, work, or athletics. We build ourselves up to be what we think others want us to be and we're disappointed when we don't meet our own expectations. Jesus offers us a new identity as Christians: we're the salt and the light of the earth. But what does that actually mean?

Salt: Life-Giving and Multi-Purposed

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions." (Galatians 5:22-24)

At the mention of salt, I assume most would think about its uses in the kitchen–adding flavor and extending shelf-life. These are among the most common uses of salt in the audience that Jesus spoke to, and they're the uses that would have meaning to them (and, by extension, for us). What "being salt" looks like for us is being a people who work to show the world something different from what they're used to, opening the door to curiosity and, in the end, to relationship with Jesus. Our families, our friendships, our work places, our school, cities and villages around the globe: each of these places is a mission field, whether it seems like it or not.

We're meant to improve the spaces that we're in. The beautiful thing about this is that it isn't just what we do as Christians, but we're encouraged to make it who we are. As we spend time in the Word, in prayer, and in strong, Christian community, practicing and sharing our gifts, we develop habits and a connection with the Spirit which enable us to step into a space and change it for the better, like salt does to a bland meal. Salt doesn't show up on a plate without making a difference; nor should a follower of Jesus. But, again, this goes beyond what we do. Salt is multi-purposed.

"For by the grace given to me I say to everyone not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgement, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. " (Romans 12:3-5)

Salt is useful for many things. It maintains hydration, exfoliates and soothes skin, whitens teeth, removes stains, and even rust. Its versatility extends to many other areas. Salt comes in many shapes, sizes, and colors. It has multiple purposes, and I want to make a concerted effort to point this out. In the biggest picture, every single one of us is called to the same thing: spread the Gospel. But a layer beneath that is how we're all meant to do it. Though each should hope to exhibit all the great characteristics of Jesus, we're not all called to do so in the same spaces or with the same methods. The letter to the Romans continues on to list some of these.

"Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness." (Romans 12:6-8)

Each of us is given gifts according to the grace given to us–the space to keep it up even in imperfection. I can't tell you how God decides to hand grace out, but I can tell you you find yours without trying things. This is an issue of gifts and talents that we're given to affect our environments. With constant prayer and abidance, we should be out "there" trying things and finding out what we're good at. Cooking, music, mathematics, athletics, business, empathy, childcare; there are so many ways for you to make an impact, but you have to look around and try things, ask the people around you for some help. There isn't a pocket of the world that couldn't use a little salt.

Staying Salty

"But if salt has lost its taste, how shall it's saltiness be restored?" This question addresses something that might be called "the fire inside." Rather than the bitter conotation that's newly attached to saltiness, Christ is urging that we hang on to the good qualities. I'd maybe say something like "don't let the fire go out." This fire, the saltiness or taste, is important because it's the differentiator, it's the difference between a believer and a non-believer; in this way it almost seems that Jesus is referring to saltiness as a measure of the Spirit inside of us or of the depth of our relationship with Him.

If that worries you, I'd offer that it's pretty hard, in my experience, to lose that flavor completely. This is something I've thought a lot about, and will continue to do so. There's something of a baseline that comes when you turn your life over Jesus, a relationship that is always there, a testimony, the presence of the Spirit. Anything short of blasphemy seems to have space for forgiveness, so it's simply a matter of increasing and maintaining the level of saltiness. This is a matter of abiding–reading and meditating on Scripture, praying, fasting, stepping out in faith. Our relationship with God is what separates us from the world, but it's also meant to act as a moderator and a matter of hope for the world–as Christ is for us. A reminder that Heaven is real and that God wants us there.

Light: Opponent of Darkness

"This is the message we have heard from Him and proclaim to ypu, that God is light, and in Him is no darknes at all. If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin." (1 John 1:5-7)

Light and dark are at odds with one another. The presence of one in a space means the absence of the other. This is the reality inside of a believer and it should be the reality in the spaces we occupy. Jesus likens us to a light on a hill, we're meant to be seen. Though we're not supposed to act with the aim of being seen, as we'll see in a few weeks, neither are we called to hide. This starts on the inside and in private. Light is described by John here as being akin to honesty and vulnerability–those partner heavily with light, at least.

"If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and His Word is not in us." (1 John 1:8-10)

So, first we walk with light and in light–we abide in God and develop an honest relationship with Him–then we live our lives. That's it. Notice the language Jesus uses when describing us as light. He says a city set on a hill cannot be hidden, He says a lamp gives light to all the house, and He say that our good works glorify God; these are all absolutes and positves. In my experience, the greater the effort to walk in the Spirit and in the light, the more we shine in our environments whether we notice or not. The fruit that a believer produces comes from a place of peace and love. It's not the result of striving, rather it's a place to relax into.

The greatest part about all of this, again, is that it simply is who we are when we put our faith in Jesus. What once separated us from God no longer holds any power over us. We can freely approach the Father as though He were ours, because He is. And we have access to the Helper and the Word which guide us. The greatest opponent to being salt and light in my own life has been pride. It took me so much longer than I wish it did to truly start trusting God instead of myself–it's something I'm still constantly working on. But I've found that the more I open up and give that to God, the more room there is for Him to move in and through me. And the more room there is for God, the greater the opportunity to cast darkness out and to make a difference–the more natural it is to be blessed.