"Some guy on the net thinks I suck
And he should know
He's got his own blog ..."
Ben Folds, 'A Working Day', 2010
I am continuing to sum up what I think about my foray into blogging with these lyrics. I'll get over it eventually, because I really am very keen to write this blog, and have been thinking about its content for ages. Notably, this song also oscillates between the ideas of being great at what you do versus the opposite, conflicting emotions I experience almost daily in my occupation.
The purpose of this blog was originally going to be to describe my methods of approaching Colossians 4:6 in my life, but it seems the horizons have broadened, especially since I've learnt that I'm not the only person to use the term 'salt' in their Christian outreach (for example, it is the name of the youth group in the church community we belong to, and the website http://www.twosalty.com/ sells what looks like some super trendy Christian threads). I think this blog will probably metamorphise into an analysis of the Christian vs secular worldview through my eyes (however valuable that may be).
Salt (otherwise known as sodium chloride!) is something I have to think about in both realms. My chosen career involves the science of food, and for the last four years that food has been bread. Australian legislation and our customers have been dictating all kinds of instruction to the industry on our use of salt over this time - firstly it was mandated that every loaf contain iodised salt, and now they want us to remove salt (<400mg/100g) to help us have less heart attacks or something. Not only will that partially negate the iodisation in the first place but it will reduce its shelf life - and bread without salt tastes wrong. Besides, we do actually need to eat some salt, it does perform a function in our bodies.
In the Christian realm I have been studying Acts through Moore College over the past few months and am at awe with how well Paul understood the idea of seasoning his conversations with salt (which makes sense, given he wrote Colossians). Whether the members of his audience are pagans, Athenians, Christian, Jews - he knows what to say to achieve exactly what God intended him to. My prayer is that God will help me have the same foresight and that I will be able to record the answer to that prayer in this blog.
So ... let's see how all that goes.
I have been thinking today about a particular time in my life when I was 'overdosing on salt' (I'm trying to keep with the theme here ... but I might be trying too hard). It is only now that I can truly see how sleeping with people before you are married can forever more add emotional complexity that would otherwise have not been there. There are other people besides my husband I am irrevocably tied to, for better or worse, and those people have been shown such a poor example of God's love through me that I want to repair but can't (often I take it out on them too). I'm sure there's lyrics that could go along with this (maybe by Tim Freedman?), and this could raise a whole other discussion point on forgiveness ...
... but I think I've reached my quota of thinking (and publishing those thoughts) for a while now.
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