The Over-Salted Generation

This generation salts their food. The phrase echoes in my mind randomly. I might be thinking of the human race, the movement of people’s spirituality, the way some people can’t eat a thing without salt… it echoes. This generation salts their food.

I’ll explain. A couple years ago, I was hanging out at our campsite at Creationfest with a friend of a friend. She and I were talking about God (not surprising at a Christian music festival) and grazed everything from Catholicism to the worldliness of modern self-proclaimed Christians. We had talked about our meditations as we prayed or read the Bible or other religious material, and about how we felt the Spirit would move us, speak to us sometimes. Sometimes we heard; sometimes we didn’t. Sometimes we understood; sometimes we didn’t. Sometimes we listened; sometimes we didn’t.

I can’t recall if we were specifically speaking of end-times or the general age of humanity, but she mentioned a moment when she was reading the Bible and came across the phrase, “this generation.” I can’t remember now which book she was reading, let alone which verse. What comes to mind now is Matthew 16:4, when Jesus said, “An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” [For an interesting read on the sign of Jonah, click here.] Though, now as I write this, I think it may have been Matthew 24:34, when Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.”

She said she pondered on that a moment, wondering what was meant by, ‘this generation,’ when a thought, almost a voice, came to her. This generation salts their food. She couldn’t place meaning on that for a long time. When she had told me this, I immediately said, “Everyone salts their food to taste, but few people take the time to taste the food itself.” I went on to explain that I was anosmic, born without a sense of smell. As a child, I loved to salt everything, but now I prefer to taste the food itself. (My sense of taste is notably different according to taste-tests with my husband, but certainly working fine.)

A while later, I had thought on this again and wondered if it was more than food to which the Voice was referencing. In fact, since that day a few years ago, I’ve thought on this many times, wondering the depth of its meaning. What else do we salt? What else do we cover up? What else are we not tasting in this God-given life? Was God leading me somewhere with this witness experience told to me randomly by a friend of a friend? Oh, His ways are mysterious but His work is good!

At times, I’ve observed coworkers and family and friends mull about their lives fussing over little things. (Ahem, myself certainly included!) Sometimes, these things are important, but more often they are so insignificant that only personal preference has any say in the matter. I like wearing my Christmas socks for the entirety of the season. I like my parking spot towards the rear of the lot but not all the way back. I list everything - I mean everything. Little things, but we go out of our way to see to them. I think I get it; we’re flavoring our lives to our own tastes.

No, there’s more, much more to it. The phrase echoes over and over again. This generation salts their food. It’s stressed in my thoughts as though pointing more emphatically; I’m missing more. I know it’s more than food, and now it’s more than the little things. What else are we salting?

My inbox and social media feeds are flooded with political and socio-economical memes and articles and pleas. Some funny, but really most aren’t. They accuse, they argue, they whine! Many could be split into two categories: the conservative hard-working put-things-back-how-they-were side, and the (often) younger liberal we-need-change-and-more-accommodations side. Granted each ‘side’ has its… well, you get the idea. Quite frankly, both sides are whining.

Yes, life is not fair and you do have to work for it, which might mean still not getting what you want.

Yes, things have changed but they have always been changing. How far back would you like to go?

You are not entitled.

You were once handed opportunities too.

Your feelings matter, but your contribution matters more.

Be nice; you were once struggling too, although differently, but you were.

Lighten up.

Stop being so offended - both of you!

Okay, perhaps I’m not alone in these thoughts, but I feel like I can see both merit and fault in both sides. It’s not too unlike when my kids argue, though I certainly can’t put the world into separate corners (like God did) and I can’t hold any authority over anyone aside my own children. Would anyone listen these days anyway? Our Pope asks for calm and peaceful dialogue to resolve disputes. Is anyone listening to him?

What are we missing as a human race? Are we salting the very lives we live with a perspective all our own, ignoring each other and -worse- our Creator? Are we covering Truth with our own ‘truth’ that we want to accept, avoiding things we can’t bear or don’t want to confront. I speak of us as a human race, the entire generation. It’s not a 20 year span or 200 or 2,000. This is an eon of humans living for their own will, foregoing the Will of the One who made them. Perhaps to the Lord, this is just a day, but our race’s lifetime is too much for us to consider at once. It’d be like trying to study a forest by placing one’s nose against a tree. Sure there’s bark, maybe bugs, but where are the leaves, the ground, the animals? What are we missing by salting? This veil of taste is deafening to our senses and we could just miss the very flavor of our humanity that gains us Salvation, the ability to choose correctly, morally. We could just miss Christ in our over-salted lives, and therefore miss Heaven in the next.

This generation salts their food.

What does this mean to you?

*Read this for some interesting thoughts on the sign of Jonah: http://www.amazingfacts.org/media-library/book/e/75/t/the-sign-of-jonah