"You Salty!"

“You salty Miss Emily!” I’ll never forget the first time one of my girls said that to me. Mind you, I had already undergone the orientation session at camp regarding slang words and their meanings and yet this was the one phrase my mind just can’t quite understand. I’ve had my girls explain it to me at least 50 times, and every time I attempt to use the phrase they inform me “You can’t say it like that. It doesn’t work!” Somehow it means the equivalent to “You’re wrong” and yet every time I try to use it, I end up being “salty” in the process, because I just can’t get it right. They have already suggested on multiple occasions that maybe I should just let that be their word and not ruin it further. I was telling a friend about some of the slang I’ve picked up this summer from the kids, and the exciting new vocabulary I’ve been able to add to my collection. My all time favorite is still “You bogus!” (which I will add, it quite fun to run around yelling at people- not that I do that or anything.) But my goal for this summer is still to correctly use and understand this whole “salty” thing.
This week was an exceptionally rough one at camp, and about half way through it I received a letter from this same friend. At the end of her note she jokingly wrote this:
“P.s. I decided it’s a good thing that they call you ‘salty’ because then that means you haven’t lost your savor! (There’s a response that could get some good discussion!)”
I have been thinking about that last part of her letter all week, and the Lord decided to take a humorous phrase and turn it into a spiritual lesson in my life.

This week I have been meditating on 2 passages: Deuteronomy 6 and Luke 14. In Deuteronomy 5 the Lord gives Moses the 10 commandments, and as you read further I find it interesting that in the very next chapter the Lord then proceeds to give the people “the greatest commandment.”

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with ALL of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your might.”
God then instructs them to teach this commandment to their children, and their children’s children. He tells them it should so much influence the way they live that they should talk about it wherever they are: sitting at home or walking in the street. Talk about it from the time they get up in the morning to when they fall into bed at night. Tie it on their hands and foreheads as a reminder; inscribe it on the doorposts of their homes and city gates.

This greatest commandment should infiltrate every single area of their lives- and not only theirs, but also every future generation because of their faithfulness to loving the Lord.
Somehow as I was meditating on this, I found myself in Luke 14 when Jesus talks about the cost of discipleship and tells the people, “If you can’t renounce all that you have- you cannot be my disciple.”
Anyone who comes to Jesus but refuses to let go of father, mothers, spouse, children, brothers, sisters- yes even their own self- they cannot be a disciple. Simply put, if you’re not willing to take what is dearest to you, whether plans or people and kiss it goodbye- you can’t be a disciple.

I don’t know about you, but those probably wouldn’t be the words I would have chosen for a motivational speech on “why you should follow Jesus.” I don’t find Him begging people here to follow Him. I don’t find Him lowering His standards ever- for anyone. Not for any circumstance.
Without apology He states, “Hey this is who I am and what I’m about. Come follow Me.”
I was wrestling with this passage and couldn’t believe what I found in the verses that followed this section in Luke:
“Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use for either the soil or the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Here is what I have observed in my very limited perspective of time. I know some pretty incredible people who really love Jesus. And the more they love Jesus, the more they are changed and transformed. They love differently, they begin to use their time differently, they grow in forgiveness and compassion, and they even send me texts that say, “Hey, I am going to be an hour late because I need some more time with Jesus.” The more they love the Lord, the more everything about them changes. I know wherever they go- the gospel is going to be proclaimed because its become the central part of their lives. Jesus has truly become the only thing they live for. Some of them have given up families and homes to go places, others have given up job opportunities for other ministries, some have lost friendships because of following Jesus, others have family conflict because they love the Lord- and some He’ll probably take clear across the world and I won’t see them until eternity. Where they go- Jesus is.
They have taken Him to the housing projects. They have taken Him to the ghetto. They have taken Him to the college campus. To East Asia. To the public schools. To the business world. They have spent hours praying with people in cycles, they have spent hours telling Bible stories to children- they have fed the poor, they have built relationships, they have cried and wept and prayed their guts out. All so that the name of Jesus would be made known in each and every one of these places.

See, He invites us into this beautiful relationship with Him and asks us to “Love Me more than anything else. And loving Me sometimes means giving up the things very close to your heart so that you can know Me more.” He gives the people a list of commandments, but then in His great love says, “But let me show you the best way. The best possible thing. The thing your heart longs for and needs so badly. Love me. More than anything else in all of the world. Because I am BETTER THAN ALL OF THAT.”
And that’s why we can give up everything else. That’s why we can say goodbye to family and jobs, money and prosperity, possessions and relationships, dreams and careers. Because He is better than all of that!
And when He, in His grace, allows us to understand this we become more “salty.” We become the aroma of life to the world that is perishing. Through the church, Christ is represented in every neighborhood, school system, work place, economic system. We give others a picture of who Jesus is and what He is about.
I came back to this question a million times this week. Do I believe Jesus is better than all of this?
I asked my girls that same question this week, and found the hard truth that I can only answer it for myself. I can’t answer it for them. As much as I would love to choose it for them, I can only choose Jesus for me.

In this process of wrestling, I found there is a lot of room at the foot of the Cross. Because if you are anything like me, you fail miserably at keeping the greatest commandment. I journaled this:
“And with the Cross as my shadow that constantly falls over me- I stand in freedom to love Him radically. To abandon all I have to Him. All of my mess. All of my sin. All of my doubts and fears. Everything is before Him here. And it’s not just a little sprinkle of blood covering a “few” of my sins- it’s pouring out from His hands and his feet and his side, washing over me. Cleansing every part of me. Nothing is missed. All I am is covered in the blood of Jesus.”

You don’t have to be at a summer camp discipling teen girls to get to be “salty.” Honestly, I’m really, really thankful you all aren’t there. Because our world needs Jesus so badly, and there are so many people waiting to hear about Him.
And while I can screw it up and make it way more complicated than it needs to be – it really is so simple. The best is found in the greatest commandment.
Love Him. With all you have. All you are. Abandon whatever He asks so that you may receive the joy of knowing Him deeper.

And when we love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, strength- all the people around us will get to see this beautiful picture of Jesus and cry out, “You salty!!!!”
And that my friends- is a very, very good thing.