The Chief approaches the ship he has been assigned …

Walking up the gang plank … observing, evaluating …

This is his new command …

He is the Command Master Chief … Chief of the Boat …

Saluting the National Ensign … he has begun to make some observations …

Getting the lay of the land, so to speak …

He notes the lines of the ship … how the ship sits in the water …

Proud and graceful, or sullen and defiant …

He notes how much pride the crew has in the ship …

Or, how the crew has wasted the ship …

Already, he is working …

Others look at the Chief and see …

Hair speckled with gray … Skin hardened by wind and sea …

They see a rugged person, seared by the elements …

Yet, some see compassion and strength …

They will say he is an Old Salt .. a term of respect and wonder … 

He is after all the Chief …

Reporting aboard he reports to The Old Man … The Commanding Officer … 

The Captain … The Ship’s Master!

Meeting with the Master … learning from the Captain …

The Chief receives his marching orders … but, also passes his initial observations on to the Captain …

Each totally at ease with each other, but one subservient to the other …

Not out of fear, but out of respect and acknowledgement, that one is the Captain, and one is the Chief …

Day in and day out, the Chief seeks out the Captain; learning what today is to bring …

The Old Salt comes to know what the Captain desires, even before the Captain states his desire …

The Chief over time learns his job … to make the ship a better place …

To ensure that the Captains desires and commands are followed …

He is, after all the Old Salt that can make these things happen …

He is the Chief … and as an Old Salt, he knows the best ways of making them happen …

As the Command Master Chief, he begins to move about the ship …

Working to obtain the Old Man’s desires ..

He finds a bit of dirt here, a bit there, and he works to make the dirt disappear …

He sees actions that are not in accord with the Captain’s …

And places himself in the middle, …

Counseling and taking action to direct that actions towards the Captain’s desired action …

Always, no matter what he is doing, he is looking out for the Captain …

No matter is too big, nor too small …

How could they be, for they are neither too big nor too small for the Captain to be concerned with …

The Chief is there for one purpose, and that is to make the ship better for the Captain …

Let’s read Mat 5:13:

Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

We understand that the Chief is the Salt of the ship:

What does that mean???

Observe …

Salt:  an amazing chemical compound composed of two highly volatile elements, sodium and chlorine …

The first explodes in water, while the second a poisonous gas …

The Chief has both in his constitution, yet combined together, produces something that is used …

He could explode in anger at some miss directed action …

He could kill a person’s will with miscalculated counseling …

He needs to combine both actions and counseling together in perfect harmony …

Observe …

Salt is used to cure, heal, preserve, and make tastier …

Salt hurts when placed on a wound …

Salt preserves when used to cure meat …

Salt makes a steak taste better …

Just as the Old Salt is assigned to the ship to make the ship better for the Captain …

Are you an Old Salt for our Captain’s ship?

Or, have you lost some of your savour?

While natural salt that has lost it’s savour, is truly not worth it’s salt …

We can approach our Captain and ask Him to work with us in obtaining more savour …

Replenishing our saltiness …

Tonight as you are on the prayer lines …

Ask repeatedly how are you acting as salt for the person that you are praying with …

So that person can live in accord with the Master’s plan …

Ask repeatedly for wisdom on how to make the Captain’s ship a better place to live …

A world that is following the desires of the Master …

Ask our Lord and Savior how you can become saltier …

Ask that during this period of outreach, that you can indeed become the Salt of the earth.

Use these packages of salt to help remind you that you are indeed the salt of the earth.