faith unfaded

I’ve seen the phrase plastered everywhere this past week. It’s a common island saying- to stay salty is to remain adventurous, particularly in the sea or surf where ocean play leaves you full of salt water.

It’s a good thing!

There are also Christian shirts that encourage young men and women to stay salty! In this context, believers are reminded that they are the salt- the flavoring- of the world. Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, tells his followers:

You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Matthew 5:13

Stay salty!

But for every good thing there is an evil counterpart and here we find it in having a negative, salty attitude. This saltiness is to remain angry, upset, or bitter, often over trivial matters.

I sometimes deceive myself into thinking that edge makes me special. In truth, it pulls me away from God.

My “flavor” (that good saltiness) comes from my writing, my ability to merge modern dilemmas with pop culture, my childlike wonder, my enthusiasm for life….

I know the things that make me different. I see the imprint God has placed on my life.

But the saltiness that comes from clapping back at a passive aggressive dig or calling out someone’s lies is not admirable or self-preservationist. It’s Satan.

Any nutritionist will tell you there’s good salt and there’s bad salt. One helps your body; one harms it. Same with spiritual salt. Only for this, one helps your soul and the other destroys it. Know the difference.

Then stay salty!