being salt but not salty

St John Chrysostom tells us how Jesus taught us by word and deed today in A Year with the Church Fathers.

And he tells us about Jesus teaching us to love. One way that we love is by being "salt and light" right? By showing our example to the world around us so that they can see the difference and be attracted to the God who produces the difference. Also, to redeem our culture and keep it from sliding completely into ungodliness.

But something that occurred to me today is that God calls us to be salt... but not to be salty. Now let me explain how I'm using the word "salty", because of COURSE God calls us to be salty in the traditional sense... "if salt loses its saltiness" would make no sense if we weren't called to be that kind of salty.

But the cool kids these days call it "being salty" when you get angry or bitter about things. "Don't be salty!" they say if you're upset about something and get in a bad mood. That's the kind of salty that we are NOT called to be.

So what that means is... God calls us to be salt, but also to be sweet. We are called to love, not to be bitter and angry with our culture for being ungodly. We are called to focus more on loving other people than getting hung up on our own holiness. When we love God and love others, our holiness takes care of itself. When we focus too much on our own holiness, we start avoiding other people so they don't "taint us", and that hurts our relationship with them.

So let's learn to be salt... but not salty.

Thank You, God, for pouring Your love into us so that we can be sweet salt.