Be Salt
Table salt, sodium chloride, is a naturally occurring mineral essential for life. Salt is one of the most widely used and oldest forms of food seasoning. Saltiness is one of the five basic human tastes in addition to sweetness, sourness, bitterness, and umami.
Salt also plays a crucial role in maintaining human health. It is the main source of sodium and chloride ions in the human diet. Sodium is essential for nerve and muscle function, is involved in the regulation of fluids in the body, and plays a role in the body’s control of blood pressure and volume.
Chloride ions serve as important electrolytes by regulating blood pH and pressure. Electrolytes are compounds, often salts, which dissociate into their ionic components in solvents like water. Chloride is also a crucial component in the production of stomach acid. We secrete salt when sweating and need to replenish the lost ions through our diet.
All animals require some salt to survive.
We consume foods that naturally contain salt or add salt as a seasoning. However, some terrestrial animals have diets deficient in salt. These animals must seek supplemental salt sources. Farm animals such as horses and cattle require access to salt blocks. Wild mammals and birds are known to aggregate at natural mineral deposits known as salt licks where they can ingest the essential sodium and chloride minerals they need to survive.
We live in an environment that shows that the earth needs salt - not only naturally - but supernaturally, i.e. spiritually.
When we live as the salt He says we are, we will be used by Him to meet the earth's needs, just as salt has mutilfacted ways of blessing humanity and creation.
In a world that so desparately needs flavor, preservation, balance, and healing ... BE SALT!
“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" (Matthew 5:13, ESV).
Cover the Earth in Salt
According to Scripps Institution of Oceanography, "there's about 50 quintillion kilograms (the number 50 with 18 zeros after it) of salt in the ocean."
Further:
You may know that the oceans cover about 70 percent of the of Earth's surface, and that about 97 percent of all water on and in the Earth is saline—there's a lot of salty water on our planet. By some estimates, if the salt in the ocean could be removed and spread evenly over the Earth's land surface it would form a layer more than 500 feet (166 meters) thick, about the height of a 40-story office building (Source: NOAA).
That's a LOT of salt!
Salt is such an amazing mineral, with so many useful benefits and purposes — everything from flavoring to healing and cleansing to preserving. Some say there are up to thousands of uses. No wonder the Bible uses it as such a powerful metaphore, with God Himself calling us to be the salt of the earth.
We are to season the world around us with the flavor and essence of His love and grace. We are help to heal the wounds of the brokenhearted. We are to teach others of how they can find cleansing for their soiled, sinful hearts. We are to preserve that which is right and true and holy.
Yet, as we look around, there is so little salt being spread across the expanse of the human condition. Why should the salt of the sea eclipse the depth of our own salty influence over the world around us?
Christians, let us cover the earth with the saltiness of the Gospel message. Let us bury this planet under the influence of God's love and grace, 500 feet deep and even more!
“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" (Matthew 5:13, ESV).
"Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person" (Colossians 4:6, ESV).
The Most Boring Day in History?
Ask almost any question -- pick one, any question -- and the internet will likey have an answer for you. Case in point, some curiosity seeker asked the question, "Why is April 11, 1954 the most boring day in History?"
Good question. And the online answer gurus at wonderoplolis.org have an answer:
Imagine turning on the T.V., flipping to your favorite news channel, and giving the anchor your rapt attention, only to find that the day’s news was . . . nothing.
Can that happen? Can any day be that boring? According to computer programmer William Tunstall-Pedoe, yes, it can. And he’s even identified that incredibly boring day: April 11, 1954.
In 2010, Tunstall-Pedoe set out to identify the most boring day in history—or, at least, the most boring day in the 20th century. He used a search engine that he invented, called True Knowledge. The engine contained over 300 million individual facts.
Using an algorithm to scan through each day in the 20th century, Tunstall-Pedoe discovered that nothing of note happened on April 11, 1954. That is, unless you’re Turkish engineering professor Abdullah Atalar, who was born that day. An athlete named Jack Shufflebotham of England also passed away. No other well-known people were born or died.
There also don’t seem to be any noteworthy news stories from around the world. No major events from the stock market, sporting events, or NASA. No major films were even released that day.
But maybe Tunstall-Pedoe is wrong. Maybe other search sources found some newsworthy items from that day. But, sadly, no ...
"Perhaps it was, indeed, the most boring day in history," reports wonderopolis (or at least the most boring day of the 20th Century).
Yet, that said, they suggest there is another contender for the dubious title: April 18. 1930 ...
On April 18, 1930, people across England tuned their radios to the BBC for the evening news. The report? “There is no news,” read the announcer. 15 minutes of piano music followed the report.
Wonderopolis concludes:
Have you ever had a boring day? Everyone does from time to time. But it seems that some days are boring for the entire world!
But are they right? Is there really any such thing as an utterly boring, unnotworthy day? Certainly in light of God's Kingdom, creation, and calling, there is no such thing as an unnoteworthy day.
Each day is filled with purpose. Divine purpose. Divine opportunity to make a noteworthy impact. Each day is filled with a thousand little things that just might escape our notice if we are not fine-tuned, not to a news station, but fine-tuned into the heart of God.
We can be a part of making the news. In fact, we are created to be a part of making the news, of spreading the news! As we little by little impact the lives of the people, communities, and institutions around us, we are building a story -- a story for the ages!
"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10, ESV).
"Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil" (Ephesians 5:15-16, ESV).