Thought for the Day - Thursday 15 October

Thought for the Day – Thursday 15th October ‘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 underfoot.’ (Matthew 5: 13) Over the years there are so many people to whom I could assign the words ‘salt of the earth’ and I am sure you could think of quite a few too who you could describe in that way. It is a real compliment to someone to say ‘you are the salt of the earth!’ and high praise for them. For usually it means they are probably someone who is willing to go that extra mile, someone who tries their hardest to help others, someone who wishes to try and bring joy and happiness to lives, maybe even someone on whom you know you can depend and totally rely upon – so to say they are ‘the salt of the earth’ is giving true praise indeed! I wonder if you have ever been described in that way – has any one ever said to you ‘you are the salt of the earth’. Well, according to Jesus they should be describing us all in such a way! As Christians we should be showing others exactly those qualities of being ‘the salt of the earth’ in our lives and we should be living our lives in such a way as to make people sit up and take notice that actually there is something different about the Christian way of life. Of course, in reality we can never expect to please everyone all of the time and there will always be those who don’t take to us personally or who blatantly try to avoid us just because we are Christian yet we have still to try and be the ‘salt of the earth’ even to them. You see, our faith is not simply about ourselves is it? It cannot be just about our own well-being and our own happiness and our own safety and security. Our faith is about making a difference to the world in which we live and to the people who live within that world. So to be ‘salt’ we have to continually try and help to change people’s lives for the better. We are to be out there showing compassion to others. We are to be out there sharing God’s love wherever and whenever we can. If we are not doing that then maybe we have lost our saltiness and need to replenish our stores! So even though salt has been given something of a bad name ion modern times, well within health circles anyway, let us go and try and be salt to others not by rubbing it in their wounds but rather by trying to add a little something, a little flavouring, to their lives. Prayer Loving God, You who has made us to be salt and light in a tasteless, shadowed world, guide us as we try to bring salt and light to your world. Give us an understanding of what you would have us do and a true willingness to go that extra mile to do it so that others may see you through us, come to know you better and in time be moved to serve you. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen