Are you wasting your life?
A 2022 poll taken in Britain showed that, on average, people waste almost 2 hours per day, which comes out to 26 full days per year. This includes things like waiting on hold, waiting in traffic, and in general just waiting for life. Frankly, I'm surprised that the number isn't even higher.
Business professionals also say that they waste much of their work time being interupted by co-workers and employees, attending unecessary meetings, and replying to phone calls and e-mails.
Most of us also know how much time social media and playing stupid games on our phones can waste.
A few weeks before he died, the American novelist Jack London said, “The proper function of man is to live, not to exist.”
How much of your time do you simply waste?
It’s important for us to think about how we’re living. We shouldn’t want our lives to be wasted. This is even more important for believers, since we exist for a purpose: to glorify God. But part of the good news of the gospel is that with God as our Father, Jesus as our Savior, and the Holy Spirit as our Guide, we can truly live.
He's Not From Around Here
The Christian life is a call to become a follower and imitator of Christ. No matter when or where, the faithful believer has always been counter-cultural. When we live like Jesus lived, we leave people wondering where we might be from.
"All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own." (Hebrews 11:13-14).
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. Jesus knew this would be a need when he said it over 2000 years ago in addition to now and until He returns.
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.