Is Salt Good or Bad for You?

Since I tend to put salt on my food before tasting it, I hope the answer to the question of the title of this post is yes… but I know it isn’t. Although there’s some debate about it, and we know that most things in moderation are okay for us, there is ample medical evidence of the adverse effects of sodium. One of the biggest is that is raises our blood pressure.

Yet it does some good things too. Like enhancing the flavor of whatever we’re eating. It also works as a preservative. I imagine those are the qualities Jesus had in mind when He said this in Matthew 5:13: "You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. (ESV)

Have I lost my saltiness? Have you? Are we living our lives in a way that enriches those around us, or just muddling through day by day like the rest of the world? As we press in closer to our Lord and surrender more and more of ourselves to Him, He will shine through us. And His light will splash – or shake – all over the people He brings into our lives.

The next time we pick up a salt shaker, may it remind us of what God has created and equipped us to be: the salt of the earth.

Just something positive that comes out of my overuse of salt along the way.