Adding Salt

"Ready to fire! 3-2-1!"

With that pronouncement, the culmination of months of researching, planning, and testing flung its projectile 25 feet. Not bad for our first fling with our Trebuchet.  The kids were ecstatic, pausing in their flings only long enough to let frightened neighbors drive away to a safe distance.

After about 10 flings, the catapult arm splintered, the wheels flew off their track and we knew we had to go reconstruct some things, but the design worked and we knew we would not embarrass ourselves at the Science Olympiad. We had chosen to build a more advanced design called a "Floating Arm Trebuchet" also known as F.A.T.  We chose this because first, it is such a fun acronym, but secondly because the guidelines said first year students at this event should stick with the simpler fixed arm design. No way were we going to let some expert tell us what we could realistically accomplish!!!  While we had some pictures and some guidelines, we had to design it ultimately on our own. There was not a single (free) design available anywhere on line or in books that we could lay our hands on. And our design had to fit in a 75 cm box.....so we had to actually use some measurements in giving us the longest flinging arm possible within those constraints. But if I wanted to, I could just go throw a projectile 25 feet.....and it wouldn't take me months of work to do so.

So, as I considered how incredibly difficult it had been to build a machine that the dimwitted denizens of the dark ages had produced in their sleep.... I wondered, was it worth it?  Every parent at some point lays down and thinks they are settling in for a good night's sleep when their eyes pop open and they think, "Was all I put my kid through so they would eat with a fork and not their fingers.... was it worth it?"  There are infinite permutations of this age old question but it boils down to the same query- is the effort and time I am putting forth in this endeavor worthy of the place it brings me to?

The Bible phrases it slightly differently but it is the same question at heart.  What is this endeavor going to cost me, have I thought through what it will result in, and will I be able to complete it with some measure of success? Jesus asks the question by telling a story, which is what He usually does. ( If you don't think Literary Analysis is an important subject, students, you will never understand Jesus.) He asks the people who are pausing in their busy day of idol worship to listen to Him- who would go out and build a tower unless he first considered whether he would be able to finish it? Half a tower would not only be a waste of time, but would make his friends laugh at him. Or, He continues, who would go to war without making sure he has more soldiers than the one he intends to fight? And then Jesus concludes that passage in Luke 14 talking about salt. He tells the people, as if it makes any logical sense to be discussing salt after these
"counting the cost" parables:
³⁴ “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? ³⁵ It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out.

I love these apparent incongruities.... when I am reading along smoothly and effortlessly following the train of thought and then come smack up against a strange statement that seems not to relate at all to the paragraph.
At this point, I am forced to pause and put on my thinking cap.( I wish I had a better thinking cap....the one I have is getting worn out. So is my elbow grease which I used to have in abundant supply....)


I am no expert, which I probably do not need to remind a single reader, but I can fling guesses as accurately as our new Trebuchet flings projectiles. Nothing tastes like salt except salt. ( I think nowadays there might be salt substitutes, but back in Jesus' time, if the salt was gone, you had to have your popcorn plain. ycccch.)
Furthermore, in that time there were no Fridgidaires or Maytags.... and if you wanted to keep food from going rancid, you used salt to preserve it. So salt was particularly critical, especially back then, for its unique power to season and preserve.  And perhaps, that is the measuring stick to help us gauge what endeavors we should undertake and how we should consider the cost. Is the result one that will ultimately add spice (joy, encouragement, heavenly delight) to life, and will it prevent the rot and decay that so easily can creep in to all our intentions and desires? What do you always always say when the cook asks, "What does it need?" 
Of course- " a little salt."


Asherel and her partner have learned so much this year, building their trebuchet. They learned creative problem solving, mathematical application to real life problems, perseverance, value of diligence and hard work. But here is what I think might be the salt of the whole experience. While building together, our team member's family was always nearby. I saw the father wrestle his older son briefly, pulling him into a bear hug and telling him how proud he was of him. I saw the little 6 year old creep over with the writing exercise she had been working on with her mother and hand it to her dad. The careful letters said, "I love you all the way to the moon."  I saw the younger son, Asherel's partner, smile and laugh and joke when things weren't going as swimmingly on our construction as we hoped, and he made us smile too. And when the arm cracked on our trebuchet, I heard everyone say, "We can fix that! We know it works now!"


Perhaps the tower itself that we are building is not the main event.... maybe it is how we are building that ultimately matters. So yes.... it has been worth it.

Luke 14: 28-30
²⁸ “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? ²⁹ For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, ³⁰ saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’





Psalm 126: 5-6
⁵ Those who sow with tears
   will reap with songs of joy.
⁶ Those who go out weeping,
   carrying seed to sow,
will return with songs of joy,
   carrying sheaves with them.

Galations 6: 7-9
⁷ Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. ⁸ Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. ⁹ Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.