Salt

So, here I am again. It is another Sunday morning with yours truly writing another Sunday blog. I have no idea if anyone even reads my blogs. Yet, I continue. A natural question to add in this place would be: “Why?” Why do I persevere? Of course, the answer must be: “That is just how important it is to me.”

It may be that some reader, say in far flung France, may some day benefit from something I have written, but that must come after I have benefited from writing it. To write what I do, I must understand something – I must study. A seeker of buried treasures never knows where he might unearth some wonderful gem or nugget. He or she must, therefore, always step forward with spade in hand.

There is something about each of us that makes us who we are, that validates our place in the grand scheme of things. That something, call it our salt, is what makes us worthy. It makes us worthwhile. God forbid that we should lose who we are. Who we are defines what we do. What we do can be a positive influence on others, but only after it is a positive influence on us.

In Luke 14:34, Jesus took a common knowledge and made it remarkable. “Salt is good,” he said. O.K. – we sort of knew that anyway. So, what was the point? The point is: there is something about us that turns the bland and undesirable into something worth having and keeping, into something that may actually be relished and savored.

Case in point: I like sugar. Me and sweets resonate on the same frequency. Baklava is sweet – but I don't like baklava. Not enough salt. Either hand me a salt shaker with it, or keep your baklava to yourself. I also put salt in my oatmeal. I once watched my Granddad eat oatmeal without sugar, cream, butter, and salt – and it totally freaked me out. I like salt everywhere, with the exception of in an open wound.

Here is what Jesus was saying. If your good points, and your only selling points, are your justification for existence – then do everything in your power not to lose yourself. There is no remedy for such a loss. No one can step in and make up the loss for you.

Knowing just what it is about ourselves that justifies our existence is not something that comes automatically. One may look, but still, it will not come easy. One must commit to vigilant seeking even to approach the truth about oneself. Here, I do not mean just any old fact about oneself – rather, the highest level of truth.

What is the highest level of truth about you? You may still be looking; you may still be clueless, but, I will tell you a few things it is not. Your truth is not your body. It is not your house, or car, or job. It is not the money you have in the bank. Your value does not lie in any of these. Your salt is a spiritual matter. More importantly, it is a spirit-to-spirit matter. In other words, your 'good' is not good unless it is good for all others. Salt cannot be good if it remains unused. If it sits alone in it's own little pile, the oatmeal will always be bland. 'Share yourself' is a useful clue for each and every seeker.

Is there something good about who you are? Share it. When you share it with others, do they also think it is good? That is an important test. Too much salt in the oatmeal ruins it just as surely as not enough. Forcing upon others what you alone think is good can be so so bad. Use the test to hone your value. Grow personally, and evolve spiritually, test again and again – but always share the salt. Of course, having value always presupposes something or someone other than the item of value. In other words, just who are you of value to?

Many people get excited when they find the truth of who they are. A fire burns within them. They are zealous. But, without testing it's value with others, they force it on them to their hurt. It becomes a weapon that crushes body and soul. There is no one right way, no one ultimate truth except Jesus whose very name is truth. There is no value in isolation, only to the whole. Yeast that is set apart will not make the bread rise.

Folks in a religious fervor, those who reject the value in others, those who bash the others for their differences, fail to see where true value comes from. Salt is the best and highest and most inclusive spirit. Salt is truth; truth is Jesus, who is one with God. God is love. If you don't have Jesus, get him. Seek your value in truth. If you had Jesus and lost him, I'm sorry, but Raul can't salt your baklava.