Stay salty

Disclaimer:  I don't feel like looking up a bunch of references today, so I'm just doing this off the cuff, as a stream of conscious thought, so to speak.  Welcome to my internal world.  This is my uncurated way of thinking.  Maybe you can take something from it, maybe not.  But I just thought I would share, for whatever it is worth.

Today I have been pondering salt.  A common, every day household item, nothing special, cheap and unspectacular.  Old as time.  And yet.  Such versatility.  Such unique qualities.  So important that it is mentioned multiple times in the Bible as an unqualified virtue.   Here is my list of thoughts so far:

Reckless love and bold obedience

 I have spent a lot of time thinking about what it means to be a follower of Christ the last couple of weeks, and I have come to the conclusion that at least two things are required: bold obedience and reckless love. Because, after all, isn't that what Jesus did for us? We are told in 1 John 2:3-4,

Now by this we know that we have come to know him, if we obey his commandments. Whoever says, “I have come to know him,” but does not obey his commandments is a liar, and in such a person the truth does not exist....

And in 1 John 15:12-14 we read,

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.

The message is clear and direct. To know God, we must obey his commandments, and his commandment is to love one another as he has loved us.

Image Bearers

This year I am looking at my daily meditations through the frame that we are all made in the image of God. This morning I am meditating on Ruth 1:16.

But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. "

These powerful and beloved words don't lead to easy lives for these women. They struggle. They face hardship. But they persevere together. Ruth did not believe in Naomi's God at the beginning of her story, but she was still made in his image. And she still, even without realizing it, was doing his work as she followed Naomi to a new place. God works in the lives of those who do not know him, even before they know him, so powerful is his plan for all of our lives. And in the end, God rewards them, according to his purpose.

Gospel of Grace

Life throws a lot of curve balls.  Being given up at birth is a curve ball for those of us who have experienced it.  Losing a wonderful and beloved parent as a child is a curve ball for those of us who have experienced it.  Divorce is a curve ball for those of us who have experienced it.  Dealing with major illness like cancer or other serious chronic conditions is a curve ball for those of us who have experienced it.  Those are just a few of mine, but I'm sure you can substitute in plenty of your own.

There are a lot of smaller curve balls that life throws our way, too, and surprisingly often, they turn out to be much better than we ever expected.  A job loss can result in the position of your dreams a few months down the road.  Divorce can lead to finding your soul mate, once you recover enough to think clearly again.  Sometimes you need the rain to appreciate the sunlight.

This morning I have been thinking about Romans 8:28.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

The greatest of these is love

 We are all familiar with 1 Corinthians 13:

The Gift of Love

If I speak in the tongues of humans and of angels but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.  If I give away all my possessions and if I hand over my body so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant  or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth.  It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end.  For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part, but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.  When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.  For now we see only a reflection, as in a mirror, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.  And now faith, hope, and love remain, these three, and the greatest of these is love.

It is so easy to just hear what we want to hear in these pretty words.  What's not to love about love?  We feel it, we emote it, we receive it - there is an entire day devoted to the very idea of it.  We love our families and friends, our pets, our things, our position, our power, ourselves.  There is a long list of things people love.

Proverbs 31

 This may not be a surprise to anyone else, but I've been thinking about Proverbs 31 lately, and what the real meaning is.  And you know, it finally dawned on me what I think the true meaning is.  

But first, if you go back to the very start of the chapter, you will see that the words come not from a man, but in fact, from a woman, and a mother.  There is speculation that King Lemuel is, in fact, King Solomon, which would make the wise mother Bathsheba, just to put it all into context. 

Anyway, she is teaching her son how to be a good husband, and a good leader.  I have never realized that before.  It is funny how you read/perceive things the way you expect them to be.  But when you read with open eyes, sometimes the obvious isn't as obvious as you thought.