Are you salty?

Two weeks left.  Two.  T-W-O.  2.  It doesn't seem real.  I have absolutely loved my time here.  I have learned and grown so much in this time, and am so thankful to have had this experience.  I take a quote from a movie (maybe not the best movie ever, but it's a good line), "A place is only as good as the people you know in it."  Well, I have to say that Lancaster is pretty AWESOME!  Though home is even more.  Can I just move all my friends and family here?  I promise the weather is better.


It's great for creek stomping!

We are HOPE interns!

With a bit of editing...

One of the best things about being here has been my spiritual growth.  My soul has been so nurtured in this Christian fellowship.  I've said before, and I will say again...I'm so lucky to have been able to intern in this environment where not only do I get to do meaningful work, but I get to pray and study God's Word with my co-workers every single day.  Yes, we all have distractions in our work and problems that get us down...  We struggle with thinking that we are in control and can do things ourselves...  Yet, when we come together in prayer, we confess these struggles before each other and before God, and we are better for it.  Our trust in God is strengthened.  It's truly an example of the wisdom stated in Proverbs 29:17, "As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another."

Yesterday, in staff prayer, we read this passage from Luke:

Luke 14:34-35

³⁴ "Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? ³⁵It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear." 

If you know your Bible, you know that this concept is mentioned in two other gospels:

^{Matthew 5:13
13}"You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.


^{Mark 9:50
 50} Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another."

Are you salty?  How do you stay salty in the world today when distractions keep you focused on yourself and your work, when the people around you seem to drain the flavor out of you?  How do you keep your flavor, and not stay in the salt-shaker?  It's been so easy being here in this nurturing environment, but sometimes, it has felt like the salt-shaker.  I'm about to leave the salt-shaker in only two weeks and go back to the Bible-belt, where the faith isn't radical, it's cultural.  Where people don't go to church for passionate worship and Christian fellowship, they go because they are supposed to (and sometimes for the food).  I'm about to go back to work in academia, where faith is sometimes present, but never outspoken.  How do I stay salty?  Some ideas I have...deep Christian fellowship and accountability, abiding in the word, limiting distractions...but is this enough?  I don't want to be worthless.  I want to be used by God to spread the truth of Christ around me.

Are you salty?  If so, how do you stay salty?  I would love to read your comments on this.