Big Coke Salty

Green beans…my favorite vegetables. Always have been. Southern style; not the northern way where the beans are lightly cooked and still crunch like celery. Growing up I had green beans at least three nights per week. I still remember the cases of large cans of green beans that my grandparents stored in our basement.

Fresh green beans are good, but not really necessary. Diane has a way of cooking canned green beans that is really delicious. She requires a certain brand and a certain cut of green beans (I learned this while doing the shopping during early days of Covid 19). Her seasoning makes them as good as my Nanny’s but without the pork, of course.

A couple weeks ago, Diane served her green beans with a warning: “I messed up and put way too much salt in the green beans. Be careful!” OK.

I still ate them because they tasted good, but they were quite salty. Salty enough to make me really thirsty. I drank two glasses of water. In fact, the thirst continued into the evening. I had a bottle of water while watching TV, and another small glass before bed.

I remember when I was about 10 years old… seems this always happened with popcorn at the movies. I’m pretty sure that the Donelson Theater had a special formula to put on more salt than was really needed…not enough to make the popcorn taste bad, but enough to make us really thirsty. That way, they made sure we bought their large Cokes, too. We said the popcorn was “Big Coke Salty”.

You really prefer salt to be unnoticed, don’t you? Enhance the flavor of the food you’re eating without you really knowing it’s there. Big Coke Salty means that you taste the salt…it’s enough to make you thirsty, but not enough to ruin the food.

I’m not sure what Jesus meant when he said said in his Sermon on the Mount that we are to be “the salt of the earth; “ ( Matthew 5:13 ) And, I am not sure that I always qualify as salt. Not sure that my presence enhances the situations and relationships that I find myself in.

I come up even shorter when I consider that Christ might actually be calling me to be “Big Coke Salty.” Why would he expect that? Because HE IS living water! He is what satisfies the thirst…the longing in our souls.

He told us as much.

…Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.” John 7:37 NIV

“ …whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:14 NIV

Are you making the people that you are around want what you have? Does your presence make them thirsty for the living water?

Jesus calls me to be salt. Wherever I go, I don’t need to be timid. I need to be bold. I need to speak enough Jesus…reflect enough Jesus to make those around me thirsty…thirsty for the living water.

I think I need to be Big Coke Salty.

My prayer: Father, you called me to be salt here on earth. Forgive me for the times that I am not. Forgive me for the times that I am less salty than you need me to be. Give me the discernment to know when, the wisdom to know how, and the courage to actually be…salty enough that my presence makes someone thirsty for the living water that is you.

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