Useless for the Manure Pile

Okay, so assuming you read the title of this post, you are most likely curious enough to actually read this and are probably thinking one of the following thoughts:

• Did I actually read that correctly? (Yes, yes you did)
• It's not often that I see the word "manure," especially on the Web...
• What on God's green earth is this guy going to talk about?

Needless to say, I would agree that Useless for the Manure Pile is a very strange title indeed. However, there is a small chance that you may know what I am referencing. This phrase comes out of Luke 14:34-35, which reads:

"Therefore, salt is good; but if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear." (NASB)

The greater context of this passage (verses 25-35) is where Jesus is describing how we need to carry our own cross and be willing to give up anything and everything for Him in order to be his disciple. Then we get to the salt metaphor. Essentially, what Jesus is saying here is that we are either wholly His, or we are not: there appears to be no middle ground. We are either salty and thusly effective in our daily walk of discipleship, or we are tasteless salt, which is absolutely worthless. And by worthless, I mean not even worthy of a stinking pile of manure. If you are not even worthy of being chucked into a pile of excremental fertilizer, that would put you pretty low on the totem pole.

I read this passage earlier today, and it served as a wakeup call. I pray it does for you as well. If we fail to completely give ourselves to Jesus, are we giving Him anything at all? It would seem that we cannot effectively only give a part of us to Him; it has to be everything. I will be the first one to tell you that doing so is certainly not easy, but the calling to be Christ's disciple is a calling to something greater than ourselves. We owe it to ourselves to fully serve the God who died for us simply because He loved us. If what we are currently giving Him is not even fit for the manure pile, it's probably time to make a change.