A Salted World - by Blake Levrets
There are many things in life that lift my spirits when I come home from a rough day at work: a hug from a son at a dangerous height level, a soccer game to watch that has kept me off of social media all day, a freshly carbonated fermented beverage waiting in the icebox, a mailbox that is bill free. While all these things are good and noble - some would even say godly pursuits - nothing is quite so wonderful as walking through my front door and smelling some freshly baked bread. As soon as the door opens, my mouth begins to water from the scent of yeast and flour that has been kneaded, allowed to rise, and baked to perfection… it is nothing short of a religious experience. While it’s been said that man cannot live on bread alone, I wouldn’t mind giving it a try if my house would smell like that constantly!
Now I know I am a very fortunate man to have a wife that not only enjoys baking but is also very talented at it. Her favorite book to bake out of (and my favorite to taste from) is called The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. Reading through the pages you come to realize that this isn’t a normal cookbook. It is a manifesto on how bread ought to be made. And the pictures! Every page you flip to has some amazing photos of sourdough loaves, wild mushroom ciabatta, and cranberry-walnut celebration bread - just to name a few. After looking at this you will want to club the next person that mentions a low-carb or paleo diet to you with a French baguette.
Looking through the recipes, one thing begins to stick out. All have flour, all have yeast, all have water, all have oil of some kind, most have sugar and all have salt. What makes this interesting is the fact that the salt is always the least in terms of quantity. In one section the author notes that the salt content for all the different types of bread should never be more than 2% of the total flour content. Water, in contrast, could be anywhere from 55 to 80% of the flour content. With such a small amount I could almost see where it would be tempting to leave the salt out. Who cares?! It’s only 2% …
If you left salt out of your New York Deli Rye Sourdough (real recipe from the book!) you’d still get that warm, earthy smell when you walk in the front door. Without salt in the Herb Oil Focaccia (once again, real recipe!) you’d still have the golden crust and the spongy texture. But if you skipped the salt in any of the recipes, the bread would taste dull and bland. Talk about heartbreak and disappointment! Imagine walking in and smelling the smell and seeing the bread on the countertop and cutting a slice and adding just a little butter and taking a bite and … it taste like crap! It’s enough to make a grown, bearded man cry.
When looking out over his followers and the crowds that were gathered at the foot of the mountain, I like to imagine that Jesus saw the flour-dusted clothes of men and women who had been baking bread that morning. As He began to tell them the direction he would be leading them, He says this: Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage. (Matthew 5:13)
What if, as someone who desires to follow Jesus, your job is not to live up to some standard of right living or to point out the failures of other people? What if your reason for getting up in the morning or going to school every day is to bring flour and water together and make everything around you taste better? What if God has made you, with all your strengths and faults, with all your past failures and success... and He put you in a place where you, only you, can bring out the God-flavors of the world to someone in your life.
Jesus goes on to say this:
“Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14-16)
I believe that simply by sharing your life with others, you will make life better. Better for you and better for them. You are the salt that pulls the best flavors out of flour, sugar and yeast. You are the light that reveals the love and forgiveness of God. You cannot pull out of your world. Remember what happens if you leave salt out of bread? Your story, your questions, your personality, your doubt, your creativity, your family, your take on things… they are what gives this world the flavor that it needs.
AW Tozer said, “The yearning to know what cannot be known, to comprehend the incomprehensible, to touch and taste the unapproachable, arises from the image of God in the nature of man. Deep calleth unto deep, and though polluted and landlocked by the mighty disaster theologians call the Fall, the soul senses its origin and longs to return to its source.”
Imagine this life with God’s light and God’s flavor, not kept to ourselves but shared with anyone who is hungry or in the dark. Where the deep that calls to my soul and the deep that calls to your soul join together to deafen our past mistakes and regrets and cause us to be a generous and life-giving people. People who add flavor and color to our everyday lives. People who bake and share perfectly salted bread with one another.