"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.” Matt 5:13
What is Jesus saying to us? What was Jesus saying to his disciples?
Both these questions have followed me for weeks as I have meditated on this verse. I kept coming back to the question, why salt?
Jesus talks about salt losing its flavor and becoming worthless but why?
I did some research and found I had very limits about salt. I only thought of salt as a flavor enhancer and to preserve dried meats. I never thought of it as one of the building blocks of life. Better yet, a building block of a healthy life. Is that what I am building block of a healthy life?
- Thousands of years ago, when the diet of humans was potassium-rich and sodium-poor, this sensor for salt was a crucial survival tool. Nature, in her infinite wisdom, devised a way to help humans (as well as animals) seek out salty foods so they could be assured of receiving adequate sodium from their diets.
- Sodium chloride or salt plays countless roles in the body.
- Sodium is crucial for maintaining the health of every cell in the human system. It permeates the fluid between cells (often called the "extra cellular fluid") and potassium exists mainly on the inside of the cells (in the intracellular fluid).
- Sodium is important in two other "salty oceans" in the body, our blood and our lymphatic fluid.
- Sat is also necessary for the production of hydrochloric acid, the digestive enzyme secreted by the stomach in order to digest protein.
- Along with potassium, sodium is required for the proper functioning of our nerves and the contraction of our muscles. (The heart, as you may know, is our hardest working muscle.)
- Sodium is necessary to maintain several kinds of equilibrium - fluid balance, electrolyte balance and pH (acid/alkaline) balance which are all of the utmost importance to the body.
- Too little can cause fatigue, spasms, poor heart rhythms, sudden death and even increase the risk of heart attack in hypertensive patients.
- Too little on a hot day leaves us open to sun stroke.
- An eight-year study of a New York City hypertensive population stratified for sodium intake levels found those on low-salt diets had more than four times as many heart attacks as those on normal-sodium diets – the exact opposite of what the “salt hypothesis” would have predicted.
- The human body needs plain water and salt. The proof of this is the use of "SALINE IV's" in ambulances and hospitals. They don't give an IV of plain water but of salt water.
PS. Refined salt is not healthy unrefined sea salt has these qualities.
I also looked up this idiom : “rub salt in/into the wound: to make a difficult situation even worse for someone”
I am the salt of the Earth. The salt that comes out of Earth-coastal sea salt and mined rock salt has a flavor to get into people's lives, to be desired and recognize. But if it has no flavor it will be tossed out.
Is that what I am, salt of the earth, a building block of a healthy life?
Consider this. Salt is made up of many many grains. Conversation is made up of many many words. Salt gets my attention because of its flavor. Conversation gets my attention when its has a flavor that appeals. When words come together to encourage, to bless and build up, I devoured them. Other words sting in my wounds or are ignored and trampled underfoot.
