Salt of the Earth

"Tomatoes Lose Flavor in the Refrigerator," so read the headline in the nutrition pamphlet picked up at a seminar. "Storing tomatoes in the refrigerator lowers the amount of  (Z) - 3 -hexenal, one of the vegetable's major flavor components," the article went on. Our parents must have known this when they kept the tomatoes on the window sill.

After I read the article, the phrase, "Christians lose favor if kept in the refrigerator" kept going through my mind. Do we lose our our essential flavor ingredient if we keep our testimony "on ice"? There is nothing less appealing than a flat, tasteless tomato, nor is there anything less appealing than a Christian experience that has become flat and flavorless.

Nothing tastes better on a tomato than a good sprinkling of salt. And Jesus said that we are the salt of the earth. But He said if we lose our flavor,  of what will the earth be salted? No wonder the world doesn't have much use for us most of the time. Where is the flavor, the zing, the zest for life? Have we allowed it to go stale by not staying in the blazing glory of the presence of God?

Wouldn't it be a shame if people are being eternally lost because of our cold-storage testimony? After all, the world thinks, "Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you die," and if we don't show them any differently, that is what they will continue to do. But if, on the other hand, we let the true excitement of serving Jesus shine through, how can they help but be attracted?

Today's youth, especially, want to "lose" themselves in the experience of getting high, getting drunk, or getting hilariously giddy with fun. Jesus has that experience for them. He says if we lose our life, we will find it in Him. There is joy in serving God. As we bask in the sunlight of His love at God's window sill, the altar, we'll be bursting with flavor that tastes like Sonshine itself.