THE THREE GRAINS OF SALT

“How beautiful is it inside this cathedral! Wow, just look around our fellow brothers and sisters (pointing); this oneness amazes me!” one of the grain of salt said. “No way Jose, since the very moment we were packed here, our master takes some of us day in day out,” lamented the second one, “Despondent in deed, we have lost a good number. Can’t you see?” But contrary from these two, the third grain of salt elated as he looked outside the saltshaker, “That’s true my brothers, but the fact remains – the day I will walk out of this cathedral, I will make that soup never taste the same again.”
“…for you are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its state, with what can it be seasoned?” Matthew 5:13. As we wake up in the morning, the big question edging our mind is whether we are going to create a milestone. The third grain of salt had in mind his ultimate purpose amidst of what they were expecting summed as their fate. True, there are setbacks that we face today. They are just but bandages of honour. Since your inception, the latter output is what crowns the day.
Keep the right objectivity. The bible livens this objectivity – the full armour of God. The third grain’s mentality was all he just required. The simple things we rationalise is what fuels our soul(s). Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control as illustrated in the book of Galatians; even no law dictates against such. We can do anything when we are full of love, be it service to oneself or others. Through giving, we receive – and through this giving we are just making things better. The soup will not be tasting the same again.
Saints. We celebrate their lives because of their outstanding efforts they accorded to serving humanity. They went all-out to strive for a gracious life. They were canonised saints (respectively) because of the exemplary efforts they committed to making the soup of life taste better. Not that they were special in any way, but (reflecting upon who they were actually as a writer) they lived their ordinary lives in an extraordinary way. The likes of St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta who was canonised a saint few years after she died – a symbol of the insurmountable loving nature she embraced. We look at St. Paul, the writer – to whom we learn extensively from his letters in the bible. The Lifebook of St. John Paul II – the great achievements bestowed to the Catholic church under his Papal care, St. Francis of Asisi, St. Monica, St. Charles Lwanga among others. With the advances they made, life was ultimately beautified.
Bill Gates was asked by a group of American journalists about what it meant by improving on. He said, “Don’t compare yourself with anyone in this world because if you do so, you are insulting yourself.” He said the statement out of concern. The moment we scale ourselves in reference to others’ capabilities we inactivate our hidden potentials. Our intrinsic motivation is compromised. Let us bear good thoughts about ourselves in regard to what we do. When your time come, make it a season of bountiful harvest. Escalate the hidden you to your life assignment.
Steven Covey (writer of bestseller 7 Habits of Effective People) writes about a man who finds it very hard to love his wife. The advice he gives, ‘Love her then!’ The man finds ‘love’ to be something so complicated more than the love itself. Love is the driving force to making a difference. Its simply love that will move us to make a change. Love like you are doing it for the last time. That soup is never going to be the same again. Love is what relates with this conversation inside the beautiful cathedral. The third grain of salt was burning with the desire to create a milestone. He was full of love.
Though the three were confined inside the saltshaker, the third grain knew that his moment was yet to come. A time that though he will be detached from his family inside the cathedral, the difference was all that carried weight, “I will make that soup never taste the same again.”