Salt is used to add flavor, to help preserve. It is a mineral needed by all living creatures. When abused, salt can be detrimental to our health, but at the same time, some salt is necessary to maintain good health because it helps regulate the water content in our bodies. And from my 'nurse-brain' standpoint, I know that we use salt water to irrigate wounds to promote healing as it is a disinfectant, and helps remove debris that could be left in the wound, irritating the surrounding tissues, and preventing healing.
Jesus uses this analogy in a way as perfect as He is, because we as Christians need to bring balance and hope to an otherwise dying world.
He also asks the question, what good is the salt if it has lost it's flavor. In other words, if we as believers lose our passion, our zeal, our intensity to live for Him through Him, then what is the difference between the old grain of sand we were before being saved, and the salt we are now? Very little. We must maintain our "saltiness" and strive to live out His law, and be more like Him everyday.
Salt becomes diluted with water, just like Christians can become diluted (or changed) by our experiences. We have to realize in these experiences or times that are challenging to our faith, that the enemy is at work; the Devil will do his best to shake our faith, to make us doubt God, to make us doubt His perfect plans for our lives.
In Mark 9:50 Jesus says, "Salt is good: but if the slat have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peach one with another." When you are in the ocean, and get some ocean water on your lips, you taste the saltiness, maybe you smell it when you are on the beach and the wind is blowing toward you. Either way you know it is there, that the water is salty. But the only way to extract the salt is through boiling it. What if the only way to re-salt ourselves is to go through some fiery trials that God throws at us? God is not out to get us, He is not the destroyer, but Satan is. God says in John 10:10, "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they may have eternal life, and that they might have it more abundantly." God is the healer, the mender of broken hearts and broken lives. 
When water is boiled, it either proves or negates the amount of salt that was in the water. In the same way trials in our lives will test our faith, test our "saltness," showing how much our lives are flavored by God, and reveal to ourselves and to others just how much we are lacking. In the same way Jesus says we are the light of the world. So not only are we here to slow the moral decay of this world, but we are here to bring change, bring hope to those who will be receptive of our saltness. God knew this world needed light, this world can be such a dark place. It is important though that we make a point of this light not being our own light, but rather Christ's light shining through us. Everyday we are surrounded by people, lost ones, loved or strangers, groping around this dark world for something, anything that will bring them hope in their day, something to live for. Well Jesus put us here for a reason, be that beacon, be a lighthouse, help show them the way to Him. It all will start with the way you treat them, and over and over in the Bible God tells us to love Him, and love your neighbor as yourself.
The only way we are able to be the 'salt' and 'light' is by the grace of God. If we are not, then we are sinning against Him. We as Christians need to repent, and turn back to Him, let Him have our time, our hardest efforts, for His glory. With His strength, all things are possible.
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