Salt Without Flavor

On June 26 I posted a blog where I just wrote out Entry #22 from Erwin McManus' book Soul Cravings. There was one paragraph in his book entry that I quickly read over but when I read it again, it spoke volumes!! I never saw it at first because he just quoted a verse I had heard over and over millions of times in my life. But then I got it. I saw what Erwin McManus was really pulling out of the verse and it changed me.

So here is that paragraph that Erwin McManus wrote:

"You are the salt of the earth," he [Jesus] told them. But here there is a different danger. When salt loses its flavor, it has no value. It's thrown out and trampled upon. I think a lot of people listening [to Jesus] understood that. In fact, they had probably experienced it. In the sight of those who were powerful, they were considered worthless. It was easier to walk on them than to waste a good bag of salt. But they themselves may have been their worst enemies. If they did not recognize their own worth, if they relinquished the uniqueness of being human, if they denied their own value, they were like salt that had lost its savor.*

He is quoting Matthew 5:13:

"You are the salt of the world. But if the salt should lose its taste, how can it be made salty again? It's good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled on by people."

I'm not sure how you've interpretted this verse before; I'm not sure how I used to. But look at what Erwin McManus is pulling out of this verse:

God has put you on this planet with all your preferences, passions, hopes and dreams. Who you are is the salt. God equipped you, already, with what you need to be salt for Him. Your character, your personality, your passions...all those work together with God's purpose for His glory. When you live out who you are passionate to be, then you are being the salt of the earth that God works through.

When you remove your passions, your personality, your hopes and dreams...you are actually removing your very saltiness, your "taste"...your ability to be effective for God.

I think often times as Christians we think we need to give up our own preferences and characteristics and passions...in order to pursue, and only pursue, what we THINK is God's will. For example, isn't being a Pastor more Godly than a Office Manager? Or isn't singing in a choir at church more Godly than singing solo on secular radio? Isn't it more Godly to give up my membership on the local Friday Night Touch Football league in order to volunteer each week as an usher for the Friday night church service? Or Etc.

We have this idea that anything relating to Church or doing anything relating to the explicit titles of "God"/"Jesus"/"Christian" is more Godly than just pursuing our seemingly "worthless" passions, personality preferences, and etc.

But I love what Erwin McManus point out. When we give up the very characteristics that God Himself so specifically placed within us, we're actually THEN giving up our ability to be effective for Him in the world!!

When we try to look some way or play some part that is beside ourselves for God, perhaps we're just loosing our saltiness, however well-intentioned!

This isn't to say that God doesn't sometimes call us to step beyond ourselves and try something we're not used to, or give up a habit in order to serve Him in different ways, or etc. God does do this for sure. I'm just challenging the idea that this is ALWAYS God's way. I'm just saying the idea that anything that LOOKS more Godly because it's got "Christian" written on it, doesn't necessarily mean it actually IS more Godly!!

Be who God made you to be! Live your passions. Be yourself. Otherwise we're just salt that has lost its saltiness...good for nothing.



Think about it...


* McManus, Erwin R. Soul Cravings. Nelson Books: Nashville, TN. 2006.