By G. Lee Southard, PhD
January 15, 2020
You probably know Salt Life as a comfortable and attractive clothing brand that reflects a coastal laid-back lifestyle. I know I wear it myself as it is one of my favorite apparels. The advertisements encourage us to explore the salt life and share our adventures. Anyone living on the seashore knows that it is an exciting life.
Here is another exciting an adventurous salt life that we are called upon to share. That is the life spoken of by Jesus in Mathew 5: 13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.”
We are reminded to stay salty and not lose our saltiness. Losing saltiness is easy to do because as salt can be corrupted by natural means we can lose our salt life through corruption by natural means. Back in Biblical times salt came from the Dead Sea region by evaporation of water or mining it from the cliffs and contained impurities. Losing the salt meant being left with nothing but impurities.
How ironic it is that in order to lose its value what is called salt loses itself. It loses that which gives salt its taste and preservation properties, sodium chloride? The very ingredient that made it salt is gone. It is useless.
In principal isn’t this the same as when through our intentional sin we lose the purity that makes us righteous in the eyes of God? We are only left with our impurity. We no longer function as we are intended to function.
So, what is that purity? It is a purity we cannot provide but a purity bought and paid for through Jesus that makes our impurity pure. Living in Him is the salt life. However, we can lose that saltiness by not maintaining our relationship with Him and allowing impure outside influence to replace our saltiness.
To paraphrase a famous beer commercial “Stay salty my friends”.
Teens and parents one way to stay salty in a culture that challenges your saltiness is to season yourself. My book To Know with Certainty is specifically designed to meet those challenges.
