living the: "Salt Life"

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    I tell you one thing. I absolutely love the beach. I am not too fond of the actual sand but the atmosphere is what I love. The air tastes of seafood and the people look as if they are happier. Their lives all revolve around the vast spanse of water known as the ocean. Troubles disappear in the water because its almost like that is God's canvas, as is the sky, but one where the sound of the waves is like therapy to the ears, drowning out the sound of all problems and issues of life with the crashing of the waves onto the milky shore. How does the ocean and salt have anything to do with God and how we need to live our lives? There are actually two verses I will put into this post. One you may have guessed but the other you may not have yet. All of this would constitute how to live the "Salt Life"

     The first is one of my favorite verses as it has to do with

"You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be trampled under foot by men" -Matthew 5:13

     This is a beautiful verse full of symbolism because obviously it is talking about the literal definition of salt but it's meaning exists on a metaphorical level. I am going to break the verse down like a literary analysis below first and foremost.

1. You are. Alright, it didn't just say "A select group of people are the..." or "Evan is the salt..." or "Your pastor is the salt..." No no. It said you. That means you, and ALL of the you's reading my post and those that are not reading my post. (Which vastly outnumbers the first) Just so you are clear, this applies to YOU.
2. The salt of the earth. You are gravely important on this earth. Salt is a mineral that this Earth would be useless without. All sea creatures would be gone and the ocean would be nothing like it currently is. Your fries would taste nasty and so would your green beans. Salt is everywhere. I need show no statistics for you to know that without salt our Earth would be different both culturally and environmentally. Therefore, since salt is important that means that YOU are also important as well. You are vital to the existence of this earth and without you the world wouldn't be what it is. You are just as or more valuable to this planet and all of its functions in the grand scheme of civilization than the salt ever will be.
3. But if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? Hey literally, it can't. Next.
4. It is no longer good for anything, except to be trampled under foot by men...........

....Wow that last one really puts it into perspective doesn't it? Okay, so we are the salt. That means that we are extremely valuable to not only this Earth as I said but also to God. Hey, your unique. Just as I am sure no two grains of salt are perfectly the same in nature, you are not the same as your neighbor either. So not only are you vital to this Earth but your also very important and uniquely designed by THE creator. So since you are the salt of the earth, you can't lose your saltiness. Yeah. If you go and try to lose yourself and forget how important you are to God then you will lose your saltiness. If you forget how you are uniquely made and formed specifically for a purpose by God then you lose your saltiness. You can lose your saltiness in many ways, but guess what happens when you do? You are no longer good for anything, except to be trampled under foot by men...did you catch that part?

In your head if you begin to think you are insignificant, that your life doesn't matter, that you were not uniquely formed by a Creator for a specific purpose, if you are not vital to the functionality of the civilization of this planet, if you are not loved, if you think you do not mean anything to God or that He doesn't notice you OR that you are THE most important piece of anything in this vapor called life then You are no longer good for anything, except to be trampled under foot by men. 

 Now that's something you don't and won't forget now. Not only are you not good for anything. Because remember that part is said first. In addition to that, you are only good enough to be trampled under the feet of men. Okay, now being good for nothing is one thing, but I honestly think that being trampled on by the feet of men is worse than being good for nothing ya feel me? God's message is pretty clear and I know throughout this Salt summary you've caught it. God made you the most vital resource on this planet. Like salt preserves meat, you also are made to preserve His word and promises for generations. Like Salt is a vital part of the biological makeup of our planet, you are a vital part of the makeup of this planet as well because without you there would be no disciple making and the world would remain lost. Like Salt, if you checked out mentally or physically somehow the world would not function properly without your existence. Like Salt you were designed and put on this earth for a certain and specific reason. Like Salt you were made to make things taste better just as you are suposed to make the word more appealing to the masses. Finally like Salt ,without it the Earth would perish and without God you would perish as well. Know that you are wonderfully created with a specific purpose by God and that if you ever lose that vision or promise you are good for nothing for without that you can't understand your importance in winning disciples for the kingdom of God. To understand others, you must understand yourself and how vital you are to God and even more importantly how vital it is that you realize how crazy in love with you He is.

The second part is also another one of my favorite set of verses on

"25 “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?26 Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? 27 And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? 28 And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, 29 yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! 31 Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ 32 For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." -Matthew 6: 25-34

     This just perfectly describes how we feel like those people that live on the beach go about their day to day lives. With no worry and without a care in the world. Its almost like all of their troubles are somewhere else and they have no sings of stress on any of their faces. Okay, so if they can look like that, then why can't we? "But Evan, not all beach folk look like that. How can you tell me not to worry about my life, you don't understand how difficult life is for me." Your exactly right I don't. But God does.  I also didn't tell you not to worry. But God did. Life isn't difficult for you, but it was for Jesus. If you can come anywhere close to telling me your life is anywhere near as difficult as the life of your Savior's then feel free to post it straight to my Facebook wall. I would love to see that. I am not being sarcastic out of meanness of course but instead out of how I want you to see how petty our stressors are in our lives compared to what our Savior went through to breathe life into you. We do worry all about what those verses say don't we? We worry about our clothes all the time. "What will I wear?" We also worry about our food all the time too. "What will I eat today?". God will provide. I can't explain it but yo use it with people who give. Some person may say "God wants me to give my whole paycheck this Sunday but I dont get it but I'm trusting He will provide." He always pulls through. Whatever we worry about having, God will always provide. Its not like a magical 3 wish lamp, it takes a life of prayer for Him and yearning for His guidance on what you should do but ultimately those verses say to not worry one bit because it doesn't help you. God will always provide for you! Don't look at me, I don't have the answer but He just does. If you trust in Him fully with your life, you will see the benefits of what I'm talking about. I tell you the second most important verse that sticks out to me is Verse 27 that reads "And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to your life?" That is so catchy and worded so perfectly. All of that time spent worrying is really just taking time away from the life you could be living for yourself and most importantly for Christ. It is really taking away from you being the salt of the earth too isn't it? Worrying I think slowly makes you become less and less salty. And we know what happens when we become salt-less now don't we.

     Besides that being the second most important then what is the most important? I think verse 33 holds that title. "But seek first His kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

  This verse is all about sowing and reaping. This is about getting out what you put in. If you invest just a pinch of your life into the eternal kingdom of God then you will only be rewarded with what you put in. Louie spoke on this last sunday at Passion City Church for a minute as it pertains to giving to the church. In paraphrasing loosely he said:

     ...Its almost like when someone comes up to you and makes you an offer to invest something into a company that promises to double what you put in. So after long hours of consulting and calling up experts for advice me and my wife decided to just go for it. Whenever someone tells you that, "now there is no guarantee", make sure to say that line 500 times over in your head because normally all you get from those investments are nothing....What we got in return though was 15 times what we put in. What do we think in that moment? You know its like when you invest money in a stock and then it soars through the roof, what do you think? I wish I would've put more in. That is exactly how the investments into the kingdom go. If you only put a little in, when that trumpet sounds and the clouds part, your hands are going to go on your head and your gonna say.......I wish I would've invested more. -Paraphrasing Louie Giglio: That We May: Part 2

    That just blew my mind right there. Our lives are just what we put into them. If you are the saltiest salt there is and you invest all of your life into the kingdom then you will hear a "Well done" when you enter into heaven. I honestly don't want to hear anything less than that. I don't want to get to heaven and hear. "Okay so I put time and effort into making you unique like the salt of this Earth, and you gave me probably about all of two years worth of solid time worshipping me. And you chose to only invest a little into the kingdom whenever YOU remembered to bring your giving to my altar. If you were me, what would you say to yourself in this moment?" I can tell you one thing. I don't want to hear anything less because that will mean I will burn and be apart from my God for eternity and I don't want that. Oh yes of course we will lose our saltiness and we will worry, we are human. But the amount we need to invest into the kingdom needs to be more than the amount we invest into this world because when those trumpets sound my blog wont matter. My iPhone won't matter. Or my computer. Or Coca-Cola. Or Apple. Or Oprah. Or the Fortune 500. Or Kim Kardashian's overly plump self. None of that will matter. All of the "greatness" that is America, all of the western ideology of the "American dream" will all fade under the light of God's glory.

     Just live the "Salt Life" people. Make a heavy investment into the kingdom of God, don't worry your life away because Jesus already paid it all for you, and finally be the salt of the Earth. Go and be the most valuable thing to the people around you and make God smile down on you. Live the "Salt Life" relationship with your significant other, at your workplace, in school, in church, out of church, grocery shopping. All over the place be the salt of the earth. If you do that your returns will multiply and your investments will have been worth all your put in and more. That puts a WHOLE new spin on that sticker on my car window. How about you?