“Melty” Salt

Matthew 5:13

Jesus calls his followers salt— salt of the earth. All my life I have heard that phrase “salt of the earth” to describe good people, usually in the past tense. (The past tense indicates what is probably the best time to laud folks and name buildings after them.)  What does salt do? It preserves. It heals (albeit stingingly). It gives taste. It melts.

Needing to melt snow and ice would be exceedingly rare in the Middle East where Jesus spoke these words, but I do not think this function of salt escaped Jesus’ knowledge (since He created it). We should be “melters,” allowing God to use us in others' lives to warm cold hearts toward Him.

Wherever we are, we should seek to warm a heart, to bring spiritual or physical healing, to help protect and preserve, and, maybe, to just add fun (taste) or meaning to life.

Update:
I was supposed to go to Emory this week to get a report from the tests of two weeks ago. I got a call on Monday that said I did not need to come on Tuesday because, one, the doctor was out of town, and two, my numbers were good enough not to warrant the six hour drive for the ten minute appointment. (The caller didn’t say that last part. That’s my commentary.)

Now this was good news. It means the cancer is still at bay. Not gone. At bay. Good news.

The greatest concern of my doctors is that the maintenance chemo medicine, Revlimid, does not lower my immune system too much, and it has been a balancing act since I have started. Those numbers, I guess you could say, are “normal low” for folks on Revlimid. Still, it is the most effective post-transplant treatment, so I hope to stay on it. Pray we can make it work.