February 19

THESE PRETZELS ARE MAKING ME THIRSTY

Father, thank You for bringing me to this place and this time today. I ask You to speak to me right now, and to let Your Word breathe life into my heart. Please use these next few moments to bring me to more of a fullness of You and to learn more of Your Glory and how to leave the footprints of Jesus everywhere I go today. In Jesus Name I pray. Amen!

Read Matthew 5:13

There is a great Seinfeld episode during season 3 where Kramer lands a bit part in a Woody Allen movie that is being filmed in their part of New York City. He is supposed to turn to Woody in a bar and tell him “these pretzels are making me thirsty.” He struggles through the whole episode in deciding just how to say this, and eventually is replaced in the scene. One of the immediately recognizable aspects of salt is that salt makes us thirsty.

The first way we can fulfill this verse is to fulfill this aspect of salt. We have to make people thirsty. We have to make them crave Christ. Too many times Christians are seen as boring or bland. It is up to us to change this perception and to spice things up. Smile more. Laugh. Love. Enjoy the simple things in life. Maintain a positive attitude during hard times. Live different. This does not mean be so different and set apart that we exist in an inaccessible place. Rather, I think the emphasis should be on the word live. We have to still live and experience life, but in a way that causes others to take notice and want what we have. So relax. Loosen the tie. Let your hair down and live a life that makes people wonder why you are so happy and content.

A couple of years ago I was at a local McDonalds with some of the guys from church. It was our custom to go out and eat after Bible Study on Wednesday nights, and I welcomed the chance to build relations with some of the students. This particular Wednesday night we were all sitting around the table, most of us had finished eating, and David started pouring salt into a pile of ketchup on Phil’s tray. David must have emptied ten or more salt packets into the ketchup, and Phil was sitting there watching him do so. Phil then absent-mindedly stuck a fry into the concoction, ate it, and immediately grabbed his cup only to find it empty. He then almost sprinted to the drink refill station to get some relief. This overload of salt had caused him to crave something to drink, and gave the rest of us a reason to laugh quite a bit.

Today I urge you to be like that ketchup on Phil’s tray. Be so overloaded with Christ that you cause all those we touch to sprint to Him.

Leave His footprints as you walk today!