Salt & Lemonade
When I was a little girl, my sister and I had grand plans every summer for our lemonade business. We had a little wooden table covered with a blue and white checked tablecloth, a hand-painted sign, and what we thought to be the best lemonade recipe in town (a package of pink lemonade mixed with water).
But our customers always seemed few and far between. It could have been because our prices were relatively extortion compared to the other lemonade businesses around. But hey, saving up for two new bikes was expensive!
So one summer we decided on a different strategy. We decided to give away free little baggies of a salty pretzel and peanut mix so that people would stop. And it actually worked! But the reason it worked was simply because when you eat something salty, what’s the first thing you want? Bingo! Something to drink! (Even if that drink happened to be a little higher than you might normally pay at the local lemonade stand.)
I wonder if that isn’t a little bit what Jesus was talking about when he said that we are supposed to be the salt of the earth.
Matthew 5:13 says, “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its savor, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.”
And in John 4:14, Jesus says, “But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life."
So it’s kind of like we are the salty pretzel mix and Jesus is the refreshing lemonade!
In other words, there is supposed to be something about our lives that draws people to Jesus.
When people are around you, do they want to know what’s different about you? Do they love being near you? Do they ask for your opinion or advice when they are going through a hard time? The more they get to know you do they become thirsty for something real, authentic, and lasting, like the relationship you have found with Jesus?
That’s really how you know if you’re worth your salt as a Jesus-follower. Because what good is it to have Jesus in our lives if there is nothing about us that causes others to want what we have found in Him?
When we really know Him, when the evidence of our relationship with him is seen through our lives— joy, peace, patience, kindness, hope, strength, love— then we are naturally going to point people to the “living water” that quenches the thirsty soul.
So, like the two little girls who made the lemonade so appealing with the salty introduction, let’s be the salt that leads people to the FREE gift of the living water that satisfies our hearts and never runs dry — Jesus.
“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!” Isaiah 55:1
How can we live our lives in a way that point others to Jesus?