REFLECTIONS

January 15th, 2017

"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men."

Matthew 5:13

Chicken Fried Steak

“I just remember that your mom cooked the best chicken fried steak!” my friend recalled of our childhood days. James and I spent lots of time together as young boys, and fondness of one of Mom’s specialties found its way to the top rung of his memories. Now I don’t remember seeing Mom’s chicken fried steak recipe written anywhere, but I did watch her prepare it. She pounded the beef with a meat hammer to make it tender, put a mound of flower in a mixing bowl, and added pepper and salt to it. Then she dipped small pieces of the tenderized steak into the salted flower before dropping them into a skillet of hot grease. Yum!! I agree with James. It was good!

She was my mom, so I can argue that the top ingredient came from a special touch from her hands; but I know the key to the flavor really came from the salt—arguably the most basic flavoring on earth. But its uses are not limited to flavoring.

Salt flavors, preserves, and purifies. But it does none of those things until it interacts with something else. It stimulates the palate for taste; it preserves foods from spoilage; and it can be used to cleanse. Chicken fried steak would go unnoticed should salt not be added. Bacon would quickly spoil without salt to preserve it; and hard water is more easily softened by adding salt to the process. But salt makes a difference only when it engages with something else. Salt unto itself makes no difference at all.

So when Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth,” might it be his way of saying, “be doers of the word, and not hearers only…” (James 1:22 NKJV)

More than 20 years have passed since my friend recalled to me his memories of Mom’s chicken fried steak. So, I pause to wonder. I wonder what James would remember if Mom had failed to include salt in her chicken fried steak recipe. I wonder what his memories would have been if Mom had chosen not to prepare her specialty for anyone. Then, I wonder what rung of his memories Mom’s chicken fried steak would hold if she had prepared her delicious meal, then failed to serve it to him.

So, here’s the question:

Is my morsel of salt engaged to make something better in the world?

You are the light of the world,

Richard +

www.reflectingthesavior.org.


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