Matthew 5:13-14
You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden.
Thanksgiving of 2009 will always be remembered as the year of the special pie. My mom has always made homemade desserts, so a pumpkin pie was no biggie for her. Still, she needed my help as most chefs do on Thanksgiving. She had me taste test the pumpkin pie as it was prepping on the stove top. I cringed, puckered and gagged (yes, all three) in confusion. It was gross. It didn't take long for my mom to realize she had used salt instead of sugar in the pie filling.
Ask any chef - salt is great - it's a necessity. But there is definitely such thing as too much. Same thing with light. You don't want to walk into a pitch black room, but if you opened the door and there was a huge spot light pointed right at you, you'd be blinded just the same.
So here we are, called to be salt and light. These two things have different characteristics and benefits, but one benefit they have in common is found in what they do not do - Both salt and light are most effective when they do not call attention to themselves. You never hear a food critic say that his favorite flavor in a meal was the salt and a lamp is rarely put in the center of a room.
And that's a good lesson for us as well. We are best serving God when we direct others to Him, not to ourselves. Let's pray that our good deeds point to the Source of light and not our own glory.
