Salt for the Ultimate Chef

What would be food without salt? Salt, what an amazing ingredient. Can you imagine your favourite adobo without any salt? Salt is even added to caramel to give it a rounded rich flavour, don't believe me? Get a salted caramel ice cream or tart they're the craze nowadays, I've had an amazing, can't get enough of it popcorn that was so sweet and salty. It was sold in this huge, plastic pillow case size bags and people where queueing up to buy not just one bag but two!

Salt, what an amazing ingredient indeed. 

Ever wondered what it meant to be salt? In Mt. 5:13 Jesus told us " You are salt of the earth but if salt loses its taste it cannot be made salty again. It is good for nothing. It must be thrown out of people to walk on." 

One of the functions of salt is that it helps preserve food. I know, I'm thinking of tuyo (salted pilchard or anchovies), dried squid and I know this writing is making me hungry. 

What salt does is that it prevents the growth of food spoiling bacteria or nasties that can harm us. You see those nasties need moisture to grow and what salt does is to absorb the moisture in the nasties. No moisture, dead nasties. 

So salt does not only have what it takes to preserve the good stuff, it also what it needs to go on the offensive against the nasties. 

It's like spiritual warfare, we need not only have the right stuff for depending but  also the weapons to go on the offensive against spiritual nasties.

In Ephesians 6:10-18, St. Paul wrote:

" Finally, draw your strength from the Lord and from His mighty power.  Put on the armor of God so that you may able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil. For our struggle is not with the flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the power, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens. Therefore, put on the armour of God, that you may be able to resist on the evil day and have done everything, to hold your ground. So stand fast with your loins girded in truth, clothed with righteousness as a breastplate, and your feet shod in readiness for the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, hold faith as a shield, to quench all arrows of the evil one.  And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. With all prayer and supplication, pray at every opportunity in the Spirit. To that end be watchful with all perseverance and supplication for all the holy ones."

We need those spiritual defences and weapons, to be the salt of the earth and only God can provide these. 

With these we can stand firm, preserving what is good, eliminating what nasties we have and helping others to do the same. 

The other function of salt is for seasoning, salt enhances the flavour of food. It is worthy to note that when salt is added to a dish, it dissolves and is transformed  and at the same time enhancing the flavours, enhancing what is good. 

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Exclusive image: ID 17261018 © Harun | Dreamstime.com

It is transformed in a way that you no longer see it but only know and taste it. In a way it has given itself up for the greater good. 

We are also called to do the same, in whatever dish of life we are called to serve and be a part of. We are called to die from ones self for the greater transforming enhancing the dish of life around us.

 Ever notices how someone describes a good dish? "It has hint of nuttiness and red wine, caramelized onion, the vegetables cooked to perfection not raw but still crispy, compliments to the chef.....ya di da di da....hey, what happned to salty?

Salt is rare the centre piece of any dish, yet it can make or break a dish. Not enough and the dish is bland, too much and it is ruined. 

Same with us and our service if we are lukewarm, we are ineffective and bland, too much or to full of ourselves and we leave a bad taste in someone's mouth. Our service should always seek to glorify the one and only Master (Chef), not us.

A well seasoned dish is when the ingredients are in harmony with one another, 

allowing the chef's intended expression to come through. 

So it should be with our life and service, we should allow the ultimate Master (Chef) to express Himself through us. Humble, obedient and ever sensitive to the Master's leading, less our will be done and not His.

Salt, who would have thought; Jesus of course.

May you always keep your saltiness, ever ready to serve the Ultimate Master (Chef).

Guest Writer: 

Ed Canilao

CFC Melbourne Head

                                      Thanks a lot Ed for the inspiration

                                                

Person-Centered Care

          As Australia is an ageing population and many of the old people did come here during the time of the World War, there is a big challenge for those persons who are tasked to accompany them to fully understand them and provide their appropriate needs and wants. Hence it is very important that those carers taking care of them know exactly how to provide a person-centered care to them.

                 

         What then is a person-centered care? It is satisfied when the carer focuses his care plan on the client himself and not on his disease. Let him understand that on the first place, he is a human being that needs full understanding of his age,stage, culture, preferences and everything about him. Furthermore, this is satisfied when the carer will try to know exactly who the client is, to entrust him a genuine value as a human being and to offer him empathy.

       The older people especially those who are in the stage of dementia need to be comforted and loved thus for any carer or person giving them company, he needs to talk to them in a very calm way and to give them reassurance that he is just there to listen to them. He should also learn how to touch the client appropriately then give him empathy by establishing an eye contact with them, and try to ask them how they are and listen attentively to them. 

 All of these would extend to the older people, the clients, that they are still special and important in spite of the stage that they have now. Therefore, being loved and comforted are but very basic needs that anybody have in their entire life. One should be generous enough to share them to others most notably to the older members of our society.

                                       
                                      

Taking Care To One's Gift of Life

Ongoing nowadays is my recent studies on the field of aged care. And as defined, 

" Aged care is the term for daily living and nursing care services provided to older Australians who either need some help at home or can no longer live independently. Services are generally divided into two categories:

Home care services
Residential care services

    " -source-  https://www.yourlifechoices.com.au/aged-care/what-is-aged-care" 

          Australia is an ageing population and many of those who came here were witnesses of the previous wars. Thus many of them are on their 70s, 80s, or even 90s nowadays. And as such, there is an urgent need to take care of them not just on their individual homes but also on the various residential care centres all over Australia. 

          Further, we have discussed several topics already on our class. And one thing that is always mentioned repeatedly by our mentor is that life on itself is such a wonderful gift- a precious one that ought to be treasured. 

          Thus, before we indeed learn to take care of other people's lives, it is but important that we learn how to take care of our own lives. Nowadays you can find from the social media, TV news, hard print media that many abuses are happening and this results to people being hurt, being immobile and even dead. It is such a sad reality and this poses a serious challenge to each one of us----all the time we need to maintain that balance and harmony within our bodies. We should never make anything that can destroy our lives and that of others.