salty

James 5:1-6; Mk 9:41-50

"Keep salt in yourself and you will have peace with one another."

When I was in college one of my summer jobs was working on at a meat packing slaughtering house.  I worked on the kill floor, I worked in the smoke house and I worked in the cold room making sausage.  I also, every now and then, had the opportunity to salt the hides.  

I would have to drag the hides from a big barrel and slap them on the the floor and shovel salt all over them in order to keep them fresh, keep them from rotting. 

Sometimes this is what we do as Christians.  We come across people who are like those hides, just a mess, rotting away and they are need of a little salt to preserve them.  This is what being a Christian is about; it is about seeking to preserve life and prevent rotting, even if others would rather rot. 

So it is okay to be a little salty, it might just preserve someone's life.   Bear the salt of Christ and keep life alive.