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You're listening to Basement Chronicles with Lisa Dublin, episode number 54. This is a faith episode and it's called Salt of the Youth. Hey, you made it! Welcome to my basement! I'm Lisa Dublin, a health and life coach and a health professional and executive women to live, lead and speak with confidence.
Because you know what? Developing your confidence and deepening your faith in God is the best formula for an amazing life. So, are you ready? Let's go! So everyone, how are you doing? I'm still on a high from my time in St. Lucia and I wrote this podcast while I was in St. Lucia, even though I'm recording back in Edmonton. I just can't help just reminiscing on the lovely time that I had there.
It was super hot, okay? I think it just might be perimenopause why I'm so hot all the time, but I really couldn't bear it as much this time. So I ended up getting a place that was a little more comfortable and cooler so I could just live out the rest of my time there. But you know one of the memories that I have? There's a time I stayed for a couple days at my grandparents' house.
They both passed on now but the house is available and it was just nice and peaceful and calm. And I did some washing, put some clothes outside on the clothes lines and then the rain came. So see me rushing outside because it was raining and I had to get my clothes off the lines.
That brought me all the way back to my childhood to living in St. Lucia. Even the smell of the rain on the earthy, when it's very hot and the rain hits that hill, there's a special smell. I just really had a good time connecting with myself, my faith.
And I think to my body once again, I kind of reset my whole eating process because it was just going haywire for a bit there. So this topic about being salt of the earth, it really does come from that time of reflection of seeing just how I have navigated and straddled worlds over the years. I have kept grounded in my faith and yet have also managed to be relevant in a very professional world without I hope any loss of momentum.
I would like to start with the scripture and it is this, you are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. So that scripture is from Matthew 5 verse 13.
In fact, that entire part of the Sermon on the Mount is it is called Matthew 13 to 16. It does speak about salt, light, visibility and influence and ultimately letting your life point people toward God and that's why I want to go today. A follow of Christ is called to be that kind of excellent, significant, impactful and consequential.
Not just for yourself but for the entire world, not just for the church. And you know what, I take that literally because the opposite is so limiting. There are many of the Christian faith who separate faith and state, faith and work, faith and play.
All of the things, faith and relationships even. I don't see it that way. I feel like God called us to be the salt of the earth, not the salt of the salt.
You know what I mean? I've often found it very limiting to just operate within the confines of a church setting. There is bigger out there and there is bigger than what is just comfortable and safe. And so I wanted to explore this concept of being the salt of the earth and not salt of the salt.
For me, being this influence, this salt of the earth means a couple things. Number one, I am meant to be an answer to the whole world, not just to serve in church. Number two, Christ in me and Christ through me must be translated into the kind of rare excellence that the world is not accustomed to.
Number three, there is a call to be better, higher, bigger, deeper, bolder, stronger than average. Because salt is a linchpin, it's a litmus test, it's a standard. It's a force that changes things.
Salt, in my opinion, it is a differentiator. There is how something tastes before salt is added and how it tastes after the introduction of this change agent. I'm sure you would agree with me.
I want to go back to that same scripture, Matthew 5, 13. But let's read it from a different version of the Bible. This translation is called the message.
And it's pretty radical, but I'm sure you'll get it. It says this, let me tell you why you are here. You're here to be salt seasoning that brings out the god flavors of this earth.
If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You've lost your usefulness and you will end up in the garbage. And so the question is, what is godliness? How does that translate into business, into our careers, into our entire lives? Of course, I think godliness first begins with the acknowledgement that Jesus Christ is the way the truth and the life. I'm not even going to argue with that.
Like, maybe you might not be a believer listening here today, but I do hope at the end you at least hear me out about the place of Christianity, potentially in your life. When I think of my work, it means that this belief that Jesus Christ is the ultimate. That belief is acknowledged in my foundation.
It also means that this is pretty important that I pledge allegiance to one god. I don't need to say it, I don't need to beat it over people's head with my faith, but I will maintain standards that show who my father is. Standards of care, kindness, humility, equality, mercy, integrity and yes, creativity, because our god is the creator and he's very creative.
And then I like to frame what I do with this verse. Whatsoever things are good. Whatsoever things are pure.
Whatsoever things are holy. Think of those things. This is how I think of my work as a speaker, a writer and a coach.
To begin from the good will, from what is wholesome, not as a judgment against people, because no, my work doesn't call for that. But to begin from an understanding of the world and humanity, according to who our creator says we are, nothing missing and nothing broken. And so if you are a person of faith, my question to you is this, are you being salt of the salt or salt of the earth? I've come to realize that many people of faith do not want to engage with the world because they are afraid to be drawn in by the darkness.
And you know what, they are right. If you are a lukewarm Christian, you best stay as salt of the salt, okay? The world with its smorgasbord of pleasurable, easy options is compelling. The only way I have found to pull away from such is to be turned on totally to something or someone more compelling, more exhilarating, more pleasurable, more satisfying.
Oh my goodness, that is very suggestive. Isn't it? What are we talking about here? But it really is the truth. To be salt of the earth, you've got to first be taken in by your source.
You've got to know and experience God's love to the point where you know beyond the shadow of a doubt that he is, the superlative, the best, the biggest, the most powerful and interesting God in your life. You've got to have tasted and seen that the Lord is good and satisfying. And you have to keep on drawing and being satisfied from that well of love and grace and peace.
Now, I am very serious. This is how I live my life. This is the source of the joy, the fire, everything that you see.
I remember you guys when the fets, the fellers, the life lived on the outside was more compelling than the peace and quiet that I thought God was all about. In fact, for me, that was a little boring. God was competing with my many realities at that time.
He was competing with the hedonism and headiness of my twenties. And it was only when I became a worshipper, spending more time with God, reaching heights of ecstasy in worship, that supersede than any other. It's only when I began to trust him with bigger and more difficult battles and challenges and saw how he turned things around, came through, cut through the noise, did the impossible.
It was only when those things happened that he prompted my devotion, gratitude and adoration. And that is when I got closer to God and the superficial pleasures of the world literally lost their saver. So why am I bringing this up? I'm not just testifying.
It's because out of that intimacy, that is when one becomes seasoned by one source. That is when you can confidently step outside of church, I believe, and make an impact in the world. You've got to stay dialed into the source.
Years ago during COVID, I used to post a meme called, walk into the darkness as if you were the light. Oh my goodness, the audacity of Lisa Dublin. That in a sense sums up what we are called to be as people of faith in the Earth.
You've got to bravely shine your light into the darkness. Not run away from it because you are somehow afraid it will envelop you? No, light takes away darkness. There is no situation in which darkness will overcome light if it's truly light.
You are called to be the salt of the Earth. You are called to move beyond the salt-filled environment in church and salt in the world. In that verse that I read in both of the versions, you can see that there is a pre-drawn conclusion that our salt is needed.
Your salt enters a big problem. Your salt is relevant for the world. I believe that the key to going out into the world and not being weird, obnoxious or useless with one's faith, but being the best because of it is because of your private relationship with God.
If you are connected to the right source, you can light a world. If you are connected to a weak or dark source, you make the world more depressing, evil, mean and small. Now the other challenge that I see with people of faith, when they have to come and contend with this verse about you are the salt of the Earth, they use their faith as a superific.
What does that mean? A superific makes you go to sleep. They use their shorty of salvation to mean that they have to do absolutely nothing in this life. But I feel like that is an insult to the sacrifice that Christ made for every single person on the Earth.
So, if you are hearing this for the first time and you're not really into God, but you know you follow me for other things for speaking, you've always wondered where do I start? Like what's the source? This is the source and I want to tell you something about my source and yours, if you would let him be your source. There is a God who died for you because he loved you very much. And as such, if you are willing to enter into a relationship with him, by first accepting him as your Lord and Savior, confessing your sins and putting the responsibility for yourself on a God who's capable and omnipotent and all these things, I'm telling you, all these benefits will be yours.
So, your faith is not a superific. It is literally the confidence in action to go out into the world and to move big things, solve bigger problems and perhaps even take on world peace. Take on world peace.
But people let their faith lull them into inertia. Of course, there is a safety in singing hymns and Psalms, in drowning out the problems of the world with a God bless you, in staying within the confines of the church and not having to deal with people, really going through the ravages of sin, of their own lives of evil. It's simpler to just stay in church.
Church folk, in fact, had a huge problem with Jesus Christ because while he was on earth, he sat and he died and he meddled with sinners. But he was secure in his hard posture, so he was able to be the influencer and not the influencer. And I think we need more people like that.
People who will pick up the mandates to be the salt of the earth, to reject that tendency that we all have, to be the comfortable salt of the salt. And people who want to bravely become a blessing to the world, not just to their local church. So dear listener, you know, I started listening to Bridgerton, I started watching Bridgerton, at least some parts of it, right? And I hear whistled down saying, dear reader, okay? I was saying dear listener long before this, I just want to note that.
Since the days of Charles Dickens and all of these classic writers, that is exactly where that endearment between podcast and audience and even the writer and the TV audience, it came from, it came from those people. So I want to say to you dear listener, are you salt of the salt or are you salt of the earth? The world is hungry for more people who are set apart and set on fire. I love this quote I came across sometime.
Set yourself on fire and let the world watch you burn. I dare say that that fire within you should stem from your faith. The world is desperate for people who know their God and so can boldly walk into the world and create a lasting impact.
Will that be you? Thank you for listening, I'll see you in the next episode. Thank you so much for listening today. Now I know that you prioritize your growth and success.
So if you feel stuck in any area of your life, why don't you consider life coaching? My signature programme, How to Get Unstuck Total Transformation has helped so many professional and executive women to free themselves of limiting beliefs and habits. Learn to love and prioritize themselves, set firm boundaries and stick to them, be more confident, move up exponentially in their careers and become the best versions of themselves. How badly do you want to get unstuck? How badly do you want to be the best version of you? If you desire more, take the first step right now.
Go to my website LisaMDevlin.com slash coaching and book a consultation with me. Let's talk about your coaching needs because the life you want is totally possible.
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