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I’ve felt a bit worn lately. Burned out and salty is a better description, I think. The year started in a challenging way. I hoped that after we got to the other side of the first part of January, things would settle a bit. But they have not. There have been heaps of challenges since then. Yes, I feel like the smell of smoke is one that will stick for a while.

Salty because of the fire

"Everyone will be salted with fire, and every sacrifice will be salted with salt. Salt is good..."

Mark 9:49, 50a MEV

We like to use the above verse when talking about being salt and light in the world. Yes, it is one of the ways to apply the verses. However, as I read this verse, I realized that all of us will be “seasoned” or “salted” with fire. What I find interesting is the small phrase that says, “Salt is good.” To think that the fire (the salt) we are seasoned with is “good” makes my mind spin. I like to avoid fire and being burned. The fire has made me feel burned out. It doesn’t feel good at all.

The fire we go through is good in the sense that it keeps things real. When life is going swimmingly, we don’t need God. Sure, we will give Him thanks for the good things we are experiencing, but how would our faith grow except for having to trust Him in the fire?

The fire will end; what will be left?

I don’t think I’m alone in this feeling of being burned out and salty. It’s easy when facing the fire to forget that the burning will end. The fire will burn itself out, and we will be left standing in the middle of what’s left: ashes. The things that can burn are the things that don’t matter. May what’s left after the flames reveal a life that can stand in spite of the fire.

"For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.  Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is."

1 Corinthians 3:11–13 NKJV

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