Tuesday, May 12, 2009

"Lite" Salt

A few years ago my friend joined one of those weight loss centers. At her first meeting she was told what foods she needed to give up and what new items needed to grace her pantry. She headed to the store and bought her required dietary items. I marveled at the tasty items she threw out and what she replaced them with. One such item was salt. She threw away her regular dark blue box of salt and replaced it with the "lite" version. Instantly the pounds melted away. Salt is full of sodium and causes water retention and bloating. By replacing the full strength, weight retention salt with the "lite" salt her scale dial was diminishing. Since I am such a salt addict I ran to the store to get my new weight loss success ticket. I did not need to pay for those fancy, confess all, weigh in meetings. No, just a few shakes of the "lite" white granules and I'd be a couple of dress sizes smaller in a short amount of time. That was until I tasted what was in the light blue box. The "lite" stuff was about as disgusting as licking the end of a matchstick. I gagged. I coughed. I spit. And I decided "lite" salt was not for me. Kudos for my friend and her weight loss but I want the real McCoy on my eggs, steak, and grits!
"Lite" salt has less flavor and maybe even a bitter after taste to those craving real salt. So it is with a "lite" Christian. We are "lite" Christians when we profess Christ as Savior but do not flavor the world we live in for Christ's sake. When we make half heart-ed commitments, when our words, our signatures, our hands shakes are easily withdrawn, we become distasteful to a world that is desiring to see real Jesus followers.
The closing of Luke Chapter 14 says this, "Salt is good; but if the salt loses it's flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill, but men throw it out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
What I hear is that I do not want to be "lite" salt in a salt craving world. I most certainly do not want to end up on a dunghill. What about you?