Death By NutraSweet!

Hummingbirds are truly beautiful animals to watch.  To see them jet up, down, left and right at a whim is quite a site to behold, all with a simple humming sound.  Then we come to realize the following fact:

A typical hummingbird needs 7 to 12 calories of energy everyday. This might sound small, but when we do the math: it's the equivalent of a 180 pound human having to scrounge up 204,300 calories a day, or about 171 pounds of hamburgers.  How crazy is that!

Bird enthusiast will sometimes put out bird feeders filled with sugar water to watch these amazing fliers of the sky, while giving them necessary calories to live. But what happens when you take away the necessary calories found in the sugar and use NutraSweet (a sugar substitute)?  The beautiful bird still takes the sweet water, feels fulfilled for its stomach is full, but will die because the false substitute doesn't provide the necessary nutrients.  

How often do we find ourselves in a similar situation.  We, like the hummingbird, indulge in false substitutes that eventually lead to our own death and destruction.  The devil in many ways tries to entice us with these false substitutes of the world, such as; lust, greed, and power.  These powerful three temptations seem to satisfy for a while, but in the end leave us unfulfilled.  Note that the Church offers us the three Evangelical Councils to confront these false substitutes with; chastity, poverty, and obedience. 

Or how about other false substitutes that try to fulfill our desire to be known and loved?  Are filling our lives with artificial friendships found in most social networking programs like facebook and twitter?  Am I satisfied with my 2,000 friends on facebook?  Or tens of thousands of followers on twitter? The answer is clearly No!  

This story of accepting false substitutes isn't new!  The story of Adam and Eve is a story of grasping after a false substitute.  Instead of being satisfied in their loving relationship with God, in temptation, they reach after the fruit that would make them become like gods.  They literally had a relationship with the source of life, and decided to take the substitute over the real deal.  Taking the false substitute broke the relationships with God and literally brought death into the world!

Let us acknowledge those things in our lives that may be our false substitutes in life.  If it be pleasures, money, or control.  It's time to eliminate the false substitutes that only temporarily satisfy, like humming bird drinking NutraSweet water.  It's time to seek the food and water that will completely satisfy and give us life!  

"But whoever drinks of the water I shall give him will become in him springs of water welling up to eternal life" (John 4:14) 

"Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of man will give to you!" (John 6:27)  

AMEN!