My Lost Shaker of Salt

No, we’re not going to Margaritaville. J

Last week, while chomping over-eagerly on my gum, I bit my lip. Hard enough to draw blood.

Ouch.

Why is it, though, that once it happens, inevitably, it happens again?

And again.

Mere seconds later, I nailed it again… in the exact same spot.

And when I ate dinner that night, I did it again.

Pretty soon, I had a pretty raw lip.

After a couple of days, it turned into a canker sore.

Tiny problem, yes, but my whole face hurt as a result. And my entire day revolved around the fact that I couldn’t think straight because of this little malady.

Sin is like that.

It starts out small – at least to our unholy logic – in reality small sin doesn’t exist.

Still, after it happens once, it happens again and again until it turns into a festering sore.

It compounds into a mess that makes a big impact.

Problem is, dealing with it often hurts more than the sore.

To heal my ailing lip, I applied salt directly into the wound.

Whew! Talk about sting!

But guess what?

The next day, I didn’t think about it non-stop because the pain had lessened. Not too long after that, my lip healed completely.

It reminded me that I need to keep my spiritual saltshaker handy too.

Because sometimes the small stuff in my life snowballs into a big mess.

I have to ask myself if I’m willing to stop ignoring it and deal with it.

Do I have what it takes to endure the ‘salt’ that will heal me?

Jesus is that Salt. Applying Him to wounds caused by sin may hurt, but it ultimately heals.

I’m not writing this as a camouflaged confession or as a message to someone I know. I’m not even sure why this was on my mind. I just wanted to encourage anyone out there going through junk that it’s never too late to turn around and walk away in the complete opposite direction. There’s never too much shame, because Jesus already endured the consequences on the cross. Whatever it is, don’t let despair win. It may hurt, but a solution exists that will ultimately heal and deliver peace that passes all understanding (Phil. 4:7) and joy unspeakable.

Here’s another way to look at it…

Instead of rejecting it, an oyster covers a grain of sand in the same substance that makes up its own shell, producing… a pearl.

Thanks for spending time with me today on Dry Ground!

(photos by photobucket.com)