The Flavor of Covid-10-7-2020

   I’ve been quiet through mine and Brian’s covid experience but there is something, okay a few things that God has put on my heart and I want to share.  I haven’t written in a while and this seed was planted back in July and now I can see that God was preparing me for a time such as this.  I’m going to be honest, this covid sickness has been ROUGH and we have delt with physical aliments that has kicked our butts! But, it could be so, so, soooo much worse. We’ve had fevers, achy joints/muscles that has made it difficult to even walk and grasp objects, headaches, coughs, chills, and fatigue that has been worse than any tiredness we’ve ever experienced. The stabbing joint/muscle arthritic pains can bring even the toughest of souls to tears. I was originally thinking, oh this won’t be so bad…I will be out of work in quarantine, I can get the house in order and get back to business asap…WRONG! So very wrong!  I haven’t been able to do anything. The fact that I have my laptop open right now is major progress.  

     Brian is a few days ahead of me in this process and thank goodness he is starting to feel better. I’m currently on day 8 with Monday night, all day Tuesday and today being my worse days. We are so very blessed that we don’t have the respiratory issues but this has been an interesting ride that we won’t soon forget.  When you slowly climb a flight of stairs and it takes a good 10 minutes to recover, that can be a little scary. One of the strangest parts of this journey for me is waking up Sunday morning and perking a cup of coffee only to not be able to smell it! Then when my lips hit the rim and I took a sip, I could not taste anything…nothing at all! The coffee tasted like hot water…no flavor..nothing!

     I thought it was a fluke or a bad batch of coffee but then quickly realized I had lost all my sense of smell and taste. I’m on my 4th day of no smell and taste and it’s truly one of the strangest sensations I’ve ever had.  The ONLY thing I can somewhat taste is anything with salt in it like peanuts or a dill pickle. I can tell it’s salty but I cannot taste the flavor of salt. It’s really difficult to describe. If you know me…you KNOW I love food! And during my weight loss journey over the last 12 weeks, flavoring of food has been everything!! So to not taste a spice or any food/drink is crazy! Brian and I have our lives, we are healing, we are not in the hospital and we will recover. I do however feel led to talk about Salt and Light… 

     Over the summer in July, my thought wheels started turning after my friend Brittany made a post about Matthew 5:13-16 Salt and Light 

13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. (NIV)

      For the last couple of days, I cannot get this scripture and vision out of my head and I began writing about it over the summer and never finished my thoughts. I guess God was preparing me to wait…to taste and see that He is good and all things happen in His perfect timing. 

     Salt by itself is just that…SALT…but when added to food, it pops the flavor and brings out the best in what that food has to offer.  Salt is a preservative and without adding it to a meat or to a food it’s just a mineral with no purpose. We as Christians are the flavor of God…we should not act alone in our faith but share it with the world while not being conformed to this world.  

      Romans 12:2 says: “2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”(NIV)

      We should live with intention and purpose and be the salt of the earth…be the flavor of God! We should thirst for the word and illuminate the goodness of the Lord in others! Jesus told us himself that we ARE the salt of the earth and we ARE the light of the world. If we lose our saltiness what good are we? We are thrown out and trampled by men. We are to let our light shine before men. Don’t cover ourselves up…put our light on a stand. 

     All this to say…I may have lost my smell and taste but I’ve not lost my desire to be the flavor of God and to grow in my saltiness for the Lord.  I don’t ever want to lose my drive to know and learn more about Jesus.  We as Christians ARE the salt of the earth. We should not depend on others to sustain our saltiness for the Lord. This is not about placing our trust in others and the world, it’s about placing our trust in Jesus and living different than the world.  

     We should not hide ourselves but let our lights shine so others will know who we serve.  Your relationship with Christ is personal, it’s not a cookie cutter bland recipe. And our journey should not be compared to others…it’s personal! We should live for the Lord full of flavor! 

     Kingdom thoughts, vertical alignment and purpose driven/intentional living is what I long for and desire in my heart. For 12 weeks, I’ve truly given the first fruit of my day to Jesus and everything else has fallen in place after that. My life continues to change at age 49 and I’m thankful to continue the journey to a much deeper relationship with Christ.  Covid may have paused our lives for a bit, and it may have taken my smell and taste, but good has already come out of it and for that I’m always going to be grateful. Thank you Lord for planting a seed in July that came full circle in October and thank you for flavoring my life with God's intentional goodness. You are my healer, my strong hold and my savior! I adore you and I honor you with all things. Covid has NO flavor but my walk in the salt and light sure does! Much love y'all, Jodi B. Hutto #flavorofGod