Friday, October 8, 2010

NaCL (Sodium Chloride)

The world is not what you want it to be.
You try your best but you can never have all your problems solved at once. There are still things about you and your world that you hate.
The problem is that a long time ago you completely blew it. You knew the right decision, but you chose the wrong one and now you have to suffer the consequences. You are dust.
In Genesis chapter 3 we see that humanity’s first test patients, Adam and Eve, have blown it. Christians like to call it the Fall of Man, which happens to me a lot on account of my lanky clumsy body. God tells them that from this point on that will be dust.
“…for dust you are and to dust you shall return” (3:19b).
This is a real bummer because dust isn’t very fun at all. I have been thinking about dust a lot lately (don’t judge me, I know it is weird) and here is what I have learned.
First of all, dust collects. I don’t ever remember saying “Oh look, there is a particle of dust.” Dust is found in numbers. I guess it is easier to consider yourself dust when you are surrounded by people who are just as dusty as you are; people who are dying, hurting and headed to the same destruction you are. Being with other dust is a whole heck of a lot easier than actually ceasing to be dust.
Another thing I have noticed about dust is that it gets in the way. I hate it when I am sitting on the couch trying to watch The Office when I begin wondering why there is a cloud in front of Steve Carrell’s face. I think “Hey maybe Al Gore was right about this whole Global Warming thing and smog has already invaded the Dunder Mifflin paper company in Scranton, Pennsylvania,” until I realize that it is just an inch of dust that has collected on the TV. Dust gets in the way of the things you are trying to see. Being dust clouds everything and yet you wonder why you don’t know what to do with your life; why nothing ever makes sense. (By the way that last anecdote was completely hypothetical).
What is disgusting about the dust in your house is that most of it is made up of dead human skin cells. That makes a lot of sense, because a lot of what makes up a dusty person is the dead things of somebody else. Their parents had a problem and gave that problem to them. The people they love had problems so they gave their problems to them. We as people on this planet have been collecting the dead things of other people since the beginning of time, or rather, since we were declared to be dust. We aren’t life, we are just what is left from it.
This is our origin and our destiny. This is what we have to look forward to. Frankly, it is all we deserve.
Thousands of years after we were sentenced to become dust a man named Jesus came and changed everything.
Instead of reminding us of our hopelessness He says that we don’t have to be dust anymore. In Mathew chapter five He says that we can even be salt.
Now salt and dust are in no way alike. They have completely different molecular structures, different appearances and different tastes (don’t ask how I know what dust taste like). The transformation Jesus is talking about is that drastic.
Here is the thing about salt- it preserves. If you know anything about meat you know that salt is one of the best natural remedies against meat spoiling. Even though we used to be on a course set for death we can now preserve. I find great comfort in this; that I don’t have to struggle just to maintain happiness but I can be preserved forever.
Psalm 3:5 says “I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the lord sustains me.”
He sustains me. Being salt means I am not set up for death. It means that whatever is going wrong in my life will not kill me because He sustains me. I am preserved without spoiling. I am sustained.
Another thing about salt is that it makes you thirsty. I love pretzels but I don’t even bother with them unless I have a bottle of water beside me. It is why you can die of thirst while stranded in the ocean. Being salt means you have a desire for more.
It’s a good thing Jesus said “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him” (John 7:37).
Basically, thirsty people get more because they want more. God is pouring Himself out for us but we have to be thirsty enough to want Him. It helps to be salty.
I love salt. I put it on pretty much everything, which I know probably isn’t good for me. I am aware that enough salt can raise my cholesterol so high that even Honey Nut Cheerios can’t save me but it just taste so good. The last thing I noticed about salt is that it can give you a heart attack.
I have been talking about salt and dust like it only applies to the individual but this blog would be seriously lacking if I didn’t talk about what being salt or dust does to the people around you.
The bottom line is that if you truly are salt then the hearts of those around you should be attacked, metaphorically speaking of course. If people aren’t compelled to change themselves from dust to salt because of how salty you are then you aren’t salty enough. If your saltiness doesn’t make others thirsty for God then you aren’t salty enough. If your saltiness doesn’t preserve the downtrodden, the hopeless, or the abandoned with real life giving flavor then you aren’t salty enough. We are to be the salt of the world not the salt of our own lives.
Now let me talk to the dusty people.
As dust you probably feel that your destiny is already determined. It is right that you feel this way because you destiny is already determined. You are dust, you have always been dust, and you will continue to be dust for the rest of eternity. That is, unless you choose to be salt, which happens to be your only other option.
Your destiny is already laid out for you and I would bet that the people who know you best could guess it pretty accurately. It doesn’t look good but you have the choice. You do not have to be who you have always been or think you will always be.
You don’t have to be dependent on other people just like you and collect together for your happiness. You don’t have to get in the way of your vision of your future like you always have, you can know exactly who you are and why you were put on this crazy planet in the first place. You don’t have to be the leftovers of dead things. You can have life. You can be salt.
God is all about rewriting destiny. He told Simon, whose name means a reed that sways in the wind, that He would change his name to Peter which means rock. He told Jacob, whose name meant deceiver that He would change his name to Israel which means “one that has struggled with God and has overcame.”
Who you are is not set in stone, it is set in dust and dust can easily be blown away by God’s mercy and rewritten. You are not forgotten, oh dusty ones, you were created to flavor the world.



*All Scripture references are NIV