As I roll out of bed in the morning and notice two 32
ounce Gatorade bottles sitting on my bedside table I am reminded of the
restless night’s sleep I got the night before. It’s a vicious cycle every other
night but necessary for survival. Before crawling in bed I connect the IV line
in my arm to a bag of electrolytes and let it infuse for 6 hours while I sleep,
or try to sleep. The electrolyte solution most recently the Doctors have prescribed
contain extra Sodium (salt). If you know anything about chemistry or food you
know that consuming extra salts cause fluid to be retained in the cells of your
body and so in order to cycle that through you become extremely thirsty. It’s really about balancing out the fluids in
your body so that your cells aren’t dehydrated which is why the salt is added
so that my body holds on to the fluid more and helps with hydration. It never
fails though like clockwork a few hours after I start infusing I wake up
feeling like my throat is closing up, I am chewing a piece of cotton instead of
bubblegum and my tongue feels like sandpaper. Even though I’m half out of it
and exhausted I can’t go back to sleep, I can’t relax or do anything, it
consumes my mind until I sleepily walk down to the kitchen and grab a Gatorade
out of the fridge to quench that extreme thirst I’m feeling. As I was trying to
understand this whole process the Lord placed a particular passage of scripture
on my heart and a light bulb went off where it all seemed to make sense.
Matthew 5:13-16 “Let me tell you why
you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors
of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness?
You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage. Here’s another way
to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world.
God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a
city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide
you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put
you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous
with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with
God, this generous Father in heaven.”
See because the IV fluids I infuse
every other night have salt in them it makes me extremely thirsty. When we read
Matthew 5:13-16 the Lord is asking us to be the salt in the world that starts a
chain reaction, a reaction that causes an extreme thirst in the hearts and
lives of those around us that will only be quenched by the living water of
Jesus Christ. The other part of this verse is about being the light of the
world. As followers of Jesus it’s our duty to share the good news of Jesus and
to help light the way before those who are lost and help guide them to Jesus.
By sharing our testimonies and the ways in which God has transformed our lives
we can show others His grace and love and shine a light of hope into their
lives. I encourage you this week to be the salt and light of the world so that
others will thirst after Him. “But whoever takes a drink of the water that I
will give him shall never, no never, be thirsty any more. But the water that I
will give him shall become a spring of water welling up (flowing, bubbling)
[continually] within him unto (into, for) eternal life” John 4:14
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