Salting The Oats

There is a very old cliché that says you can take a horse to water but you can't make him drink. You can stake that horse next to the water trough, fill it with fresh water, and it won't matter a bit. If that horse doesn't want to drink, it won't. However, several years ago, I heard an ending to that statement that makes sense: "...unless you add salt to the oats." We have all experienced that sensation of eating something salty and then looking for something to drink and quench that thirst. That salt just keeps the taste buds humming and keeps us coming back for more. It is like they say about peanuts, you can't eat just one...the salted ones, anyway. The unsalted ones just don't have that tang, that flavor, that makes us reach for another one, or a handful.

For most of us, we have a flavorful life. We have spouses, children, family, and friends. We have a job or maybe are into the retirement years. There are hobbies and other activities to round out the days and hours. Many of us are content with our life or a portion of it. Whether we like our job or just go to it because it is what we have to do, we still get a measure of satisfaction from it. There may be some salt that gets sprinkled on us that urges us to do new things, whether a different job or a new hobby or a trip to someplace we have never been. The people who migrated from the east to the west in the late 1800's were lead to that move by something that touched their lives. Many others had the urge to drink the waters from strange lakes and rivers, but while they had been lead that way by their curiosity, they lacked that last dash of salt in their lives that drove them to leave everything behind and take that drink.

How many other things have you encountered in your life that causes you to be curious, to wonder about the things you don't understand or know? Maybe you are a Christian, but one who knows not much more than the fact that at some point in your life you were baptized. Perhaps you aren't one and find yourself in the company, social or professional, of those who are Christians. So, what are you going to do next? Maybe the answer to that is "nothing". Those of us who know God and want to have him in our lives in an active way, know also that he may nudge or shove or arrange life so it follows his plans, but he also allows us to have the free will to choose. He can lead us to his living water, but it is up to us to want to drink it. So, he adds the salt to our lives to make us a little thirsty. That salt may be a friend, an event, or even a total stranger who crosses our path in such a way as to make us want to take a sip. You may be the salt for someone else's life, to create that thirst for more knowledge of God, to get to know him or to know him better than they did before.

Do you have a thirst for knowledge, more knowledge of God, of his son, Jesus Christ, of the Holy Spirit? So, God salted your oats. Perhaps there is someone you know or have met who starts asking you questions about God. How do you feel about being the salt God sprinkled on that person's oats? Maybe someone saw you and the way you believe and talk and act, and all of that was the salt on the oats. No matter, the solutions are to quench that thirst. So, go ahead and drink in his knowledge and love.