Salt

Today's Bible study from Mark 9:42-50... was one where the translations we always use were quite different. One spoke of the refiner's fire, the other two of "being salted by fire". In one translation the verse goes on to say "if salt has become bland, with what will you renew it? Maintain salt among yourselves and be at peace with one another." That sparked our imaginations as the discussion turned to salt as a healing agent. One sister had had a canker sore on her tongue recently, and had used salt water to rinse. Salt water stings when it hits an open wound... but it also seems to draw out the poison.

We thought about ourselves as community... how we each come into the group with our own woundedness and how inadvertently we do rub salt into each other's wounds. My reaction to your action triggers old baggage in both of us. It can get pretty salty. Yet in this passage this is considered a good thing. The refiner's fire is not meant to destroy, but to make pure.

There's a fine line, though, in using salt to sting someone, just because we think they should smart a little, and using it to heal. That's where the be at peace with one another comes in, I guess. Not an easy balancing act.