Wednesday’s Word

Less is more!

Thanks for joining me today for Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power and Wednesday’s Word! I pray that you will find something applicable for your faith journey and be able to tie a couple of knots in your strand of faith!

Have you ever put too much of something into something? Come with me to my morning routine after waking up to a new day.

I sleepily walked toward the coffee pot, turned it on, and waited for it to preheat the water. I began to go through my ritual – grab for my multi-vitamin and a couple of other supplements, get my glass of water, drink them down and chew on a vitamin C for good measure. I reached into the refrigerator to grab my almond butter, turned and felt it slipping out of my hand because the oil was slithering out of the loose lid!! Ugh! I hate that slimy feeling!

My brain turned into alert mode as I realized I needed to stir it all up so it was edible, well almost edible. Have you ever noticed how bland almond butter can be?

I reached for my sea salt and tipped it into the almond butter. Out it came, kerplunk! Instantly my heart skipped a beat as I realized what I had just done: Poured way, way, way too much salt in my $14 brand new container of almond butter!

I think I stared at it for a few moments in utter disbelief and the phrase “Oh, no you didn’t” danced across my thoughts is a sort of smiling frustrated way. And then as if in auto pilot, instead of scooping some of the salt out, I began to stir it all in!

Strike 2!

As I stirred rigorously for several minutes, I kept telling myself it will be fine; it will not be too salty. I played stir and taste for ten minutes, finally coming to the conclusion that I had indeed ruined this jar of almond butter. It was grossly over-salted.

The next thought went like this: But….there was/is a solution: I could go buy another jar and combine them so as to not count it a total loss.

This over-salting got me to thinking about life and how the same concept applies: Less is truly more. How many times have I tried to make a point by saying too much? Has that ever happened to you? I know several times I’ve had people come up to me and virtually verbally vomit on me what must have been everything they were thinking and I walk away wondering, what just happened? I think it’s referred to as having no filter.

I think it bothers me even more because I used to be just like that and I still catch myself every now and again speaking without a filter, adding too much salt.

How many times have I tried to resolve conflict but only wind up creating a bigger conflict because I said too much…all because I wanted to be heard, to be understood? 

The same is true when trying to share our faith with one who is skeptical or with a person who is seeking for purpose and understanding in this life. He must increase and I must decrease (John 3:30) so that our salt isn’t too salty! In Matthew 4,verse 13, Jesus tells us that we are the salt of the earth, in other words we are not to blend in with everyone else. Christianity is one of many flavors of the world but sometimes we can be over-zealous in our opinions and over-salt our opinions!

Just like adding too much salt in my almond butter requires that I add more almond butter, so it is when we begin to over-salt a conversation with our opinions and need to be heard. There is a solution: We must decrease so He can increase; otherwise, we can get this word picture of saying so much that the one listening literally covers their ears begging you to stop while chanting la-la, la-la, la, la-la.

Whether it be sharing our faith, or trying to resolve a conflict, and/or even in general conversation, could it be that a little flavor will go a longer way and too much will send them away? When I think of all the healings that Jesus performed, He said little; in fact, His actions were the true salt!

Learning to decrease that He may increase

Evinda