Salty Speech: The Auto-Awesome-ifier
A couple of years ago while on a camping trip and talking to God - it occurred to me that what I needed was a "machine" that could morph a bad day into a good one. I even drew up this little machine in my journal - that little Auto-Awesomeifier pictured above. You put all the good and bad from a single day into it - turn it on - let it do its thing - and Voila! - pure gold comes out at the bottom. One glance at this thing (or - maybe due to my drawing skills it'd take two or three glances) - and you know that I've read my quota of Dr. Suess and observed plenty of products produced by "ACME" and put to use by Wile E. Coyote, Genius ...
While there is no such thing as a physical device that automatically awesome-ifies anything - especially not our days ... there is perhaps a practice or two that can. And I would argue that the degree to which we can embrace these practices really can have a powerfully dramatic impact on our days. Whatever you may want to call that practice - it comes down to surrender.
James 1:2 encourages us to Consider it all joy - when we encounter various trials - and Paul in 2 Corinthians 11:16-33 counted all his various sufferings - which were each so substantial I think we might be tempted to never stop talking about them - as nothing ... not because they were nothing - but because they became nothing to him after he prioritized them into their proper place among - after all the things he considered much more important - and while I think it's clear that Paul wrote a bit of sarcasm into this passage - he is very honestly telling us something truly important about how he viewed his sufferings ... that they were not what he considered most valuable to talk about ... his point actually continues over into 2 Corinthians 12 where he delves into talking about the thorn in the flesh given to him - and how he three times asked the Lord to remove it from him but God's response is:
"But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 ESV
Salty speech isn't never saying anything wrong. It isn't only speaking after having listened superbly. I'm not even sure we can pursue salty speech - or Godly speech directly. It seems that the reason the author of James 3:2 makes the extraordinary claim about speech that he does when he writes: "For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well." - is because speech - what we say - is either the rattling exhaust racket of our un-submitted and un-surrendered wills - or the sweet life-giving words of wills and souls that are so surrendered to His will. It's the easiest thing in the world to let our lips fly loose - it's so easy - that if we can actually resist that temptation - then there aren't many temptations we can't resist. Perhaps this is why Elijah's ministry was so powerful - he spoke precious little - for being such a major figure in the Old Testament - he doesn't even have his own book! And yet - he did far more extraordinary things than many other characters we read about. I would argue that this is because Elijah lived so fully surrendered.
Not just submitting our lives to Jesus - but going beyond submission - to the point of surrendering fully our lives to Jesus - is the true "auto-awesomifying" machine - that takes even the most dreary day and morphs it into something glorious for God.
Salty speech happens when we surrender ourselves to Him.