Are you tasty?

I LOVE chips! Let me say it again, I LOVE CHIPS! sour cream and onion, cheddar and sour cream, salt & vinegar, ranch, barbeque...pretty much any flavor you can think of. My favorite is chips and salsa. I have been known to eat an entire bag of chips in one sitting. Sometimes, if I'm really lazy, I eat chips for dinner. There is something so satisfying about their salty goodness!!

Salt makes things taste good. Popcorn, potatoes, vegetables, eggs... they all just taste better with a little dash of salt. Without it, they all just taste a little bland. Kinda like something's missing.

God thinks so too! The bible says in Matthew 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless."

I've heard this verse a zillion times. I'm sure I've even taught it a zillion times in church. But yesterday in church, I heard it in a new way.

The world thinks christians are pompous, judgemental, hypocritical, egotistical, people. We tend to look down at people who aren't like us or who don't believe the same things as us. We're the ones who are point out everyone else's flaws but our own. We are the first to point out someone else's struggles and insecurities.

But that's not the way it's supposed to be! The bible says that we are the SALT of the earth. We're supposed to make things taste better! It should be bland when christians aren't around.

Instead, we tend to throw our salt in other people's eyes! Ever got salt water in your eyes?? Not a pleasant feeling. But every time we snub our noses, or point or fingers, or wave our religious beliefs in front of people, we are pouring salt in their wounds. Ouch!

We need to show people how relevant Jesus is to us. When someone at the office tells us of their financial troubles, we shouldn't tell them of all the wrong decisions they've made to get them to that point, but we should show them how Jesus helped us through our financial troubles. It's like that old saying (well, I don't know how old it is, but...) People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

And so our pastor asked us, "are we tasty?"

It really made me think about the way I treat other people. I should be that tasty flavoring like salt is in popcorn. I know that's one thing I need to work on. Adding tasty flavor to someone else's life.

What about you? Are you tasty?