Grace

             Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. (Colossians 4:5-6)

           Outsider: a person who does not belong to a particular group.

           Opportunity: a set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something.

           Given the context, Paul’s meaning for outsiders is “non-Christians.” But, if we’re honest, there are those folks in some other denomination who are “ousiders.” And then there are the people who go to our own church, who are somehow not quite one of us. I tend to feel like I’m in that category. I found that within my own family, there are outsiders. In fact, when it comes down to it, anyone who isn’t you is an outsider you. I doubt Paul would really dicker about this. His point is that we need to deal wisely in the way we act, period.

          The goal is to make the most of every opportunity, period. We need to always be at our best, though what that best is may differ from moment to moment. We tend to want each “most of every opportunity” to be a showstopper when there are times that our best involves falling on our faces and cracking a tooth.

          The question, then, is how do we be at our best? Paul says our conversation must be full of grace and seasoned with salt. Somehow, I don’t think he meant what some folks mean when they say someone’s language is “salty.” In Paul’s day, salt added flavor and preserved. If you’ve ever gotten salt on a sore, salt also painfully cleanses. So, the point isn’t that our language should be “sweetness and light” either.

          There are many answers to how our words should be full of grace and/or seasoned with salt so that we may know how to answer every one, but let’s start with something so obvious that we miss it. To answer every one, we have to hear the question, and in some cases, to hear the real question rather than the one they are asking. There’s a challenge for you: Listen to them.

          After listening, then give grace and salt. The easiest way to give someone something is if that something is near at hand. This is no time for, “I had some grace here somewhere. Now where did I put it?” To give to others, we need to clear our lives of those things that clutter or suck all the grace and salt out of our lives.

          So the prayer challenge today is, Lord, reveal to me what is in the way of my giving grace to others. Help me clear away the mess and stop draining my own tanks.