Is Your Salt Shaker Clogged?

Recently I picked up a salt shaker, turned it upside down, shook and shook and nothing came out. I had the brilliant idea to open the top and look inside and find out what was wrong. It was full of little clogs that were too large to go through the holes. The salt had been in the dispenser so long without being used, it had clumped together and now had become useless.

Jesus tells us me I am the salt of the earth. I are here to season the world and make others want what I have that tastes so good. But if I don't get out of my salt shaker I become clogged and nothing comes out. Sometimes the clogs sneak up on me. I become too comfortable in my own little world and suddenly I realize I'm not making much of a difference.

How do I make sure my dispenser is shaking out the salt of the Word and not sitting there with no purpose?

• I need to get out of the shaker. I can take a stand when something isn't right. I don't have to just go with the flow and have the same opinions everyone else has.

• I can show love and kindness by finding ways to help others around me. I need to become aware of people's needs and meet them whenever possible.

• Most of all, I need to stay in the Word so "my speech can be with grace seasoned with salt that I can know how to answer each one" (Colossians 4:6).

If I can keep my saltiness unclogged, I can make others hungry for the bread of life and thirsty for living water.

What about you? How do you stay unclogged?

Blooms, Blossoms, and Dead Leaves

I took a deep breath of cool, fall air as the breeze blew against my face. Orange, red, yellow, and purple trees swathed the mountainside in a palette of color. God's handiwork called for us to stop and enjoy the view.

As I looked over the valley between the mountains the wind blew leaves from the trees in front of my face. I captured one and admired its brilliant color. This leaf was detached from its life giving source. It would soon wither and fade and become mulch on the ground as it decayed. It's purpose had been accomplished and it was time for the tree to let go and make room for the new growth spring would bring.

Our lives can become cluttered with dead leaves. We hold on to old things that still look good to us because it is familiar or has been a way of thinking for a long time. But new growth cannot begin until the old is detached and discarded. One of the things I have needed to change is a feeling of inadequacy. I have been asked to fill a leadership position in a group I am a member of and it will often require being a speaker or teacher. I have never thought of myself as a leader, but I can't grow and become what I want to be as long as the dead leaves of feeling unqualified stay attached to me. I have to depend on viewing my image based on who I am in Christ.

Even if what you are holding on to was once beautiful, like the leaves it's purpose could be now be dead. It's time for new growth. Blossoms and blooms can only appear when the dead has been discarded.

Are you holding onto something you need to let go of?