Living Without Tasting Life

“Can you make it useful again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.” (Matthew 13:5c, NLT).

Have you ever had great intentions that were messed up by your attitude? It happens. My intention and mission is simple: Love all. Serve all. And then . . . well . . . people get in the way. Let me explain. My car idled as I sat in a traffic jam, not moving for twenty-five minutes. I was stuck. I began to get cranky . . . so much for my great intentions and life mission. After traffic began to move, the driver in the car ahead of me stopped and let twenty-one (yes, I counted) cars move into our lane. We were stopped for ten more minutes. I became irritated rather than having an attitude that lends itself to the “love and serve all” mission. What is up with that?

There is a tension that we must contend with as Christ followers . . . a tension between serving self first or others first. Jesus told us to be salt that adds flavor in the world. He wanted us to understand that salt which loses flavor is considered useless and will be thrown out and trampled on. Jesus is making the point that Christ-followers are to make a difference in this world . . . to live with the purpose—to add flavor as the salt of the earth.

Our life lacks purpose when we lose our flavor. In the Old Testament, Job, a man who had gone through horrific loss said, “Can that which is tasteless be eaten without salt?” (Job 6:6). Those who live without Christ, live without tasting Life. We are told to be like Christ and add flavor to the lives of others.

Activate your intention to be salt with flavor in the world.
Take time to be renewed through Christ—to be salt with flavor in this world.
Confess and surrender the tension between serving self and others.
Enjoy being the flavor in those who live without tasting life—Christ.

Learning with you to add flavor in a world that lives without tasting life,
Kerrie
(All devotions written by Kerrie Palmer ©2007 All Rights Reserved)