Humming Bird Part II - False Substitutes

Hummingbirds are beautiful creatures.  For the longest time, scientist were looking at how only this type of bird could fly in any direction with it's wings.  What is also amazing is the amount of calories the bird eats!  It takes in about 6-8 calories a day, which is equivalent to myself eating 200,000 calories a day!  Oh, how many steaks and burgers I would eat, along with bacon and cheese.

To enjoy these beautiful creatures some people buy hummingbird feeders at their local gardening shop.  I met a couple this weekend that had 6 feeders in their backyard.  In these feeders you would put 4 parts water to one part pure sugar cane.  This gives the right consistency for the birds.

But a drastic mistake that has happened in the past, due to lack of understanding, is that sometimes people accidentally put a sugar substitute in their feeder; like NutraSweet or Splenda.  These have 0 calories.  And what happens to these hummingbirds when they come across these feeders?  Do they know the difference?  Do they ignore the feeder? They actually consume the liquid, which fills their stomach so they can't consume anymore food, and because they receive zero calories they eventually die!

It's a sad story I know, but I promise it has a point.  We too, like the hummingbird, were made for real food!  And yet we fall for false substitutes all the time.  We fall for things that we believe will bring us life, but in the end brings us to sadness, loneliness, anger, depression, and even death.  Actually, if you were to define sin, that would be a good definition: Sin is a false substitute!  We desire God, yet we fail to turn to him to feed us! 

G.K. Chesterton once said that the man going into the brothel and the man going into the Church were seeking the same thing!  The difference?  One was falling for a false substitute.  Both men were seeking to have their desires fulfilled.  Both were desiring intimacy and relationship.

So the question is: what is our false substitutes?  It can be drastic sins like Pride, Lust, Anger, Avarice (Greed), Envy, Sloth and Gluttony also known as the 7 deadly sins.  But false substitutes can also be from those things that are neutral or even something good.  We saw that in the Gospel this past weekend (16th Sunday of Ordinary Time C) - Martha invites Jesus into her house.  Mary, her sister, stays at the foot of Christ listening.  Martha gets upset that her sister is not helping her host!  Martha, after complaining to the Lord, is told that Mary was doing the necessary thing.

But wait, doesn't the Christian life encourage serving? Doesn't following the Lord involve putting others before yourself?  Isn't Martha doing that?  The problem isn't the hospitality.  The problem is she's being distracted from being with the Lord.  She could have chosen to serve later.  Christ just wanted Martha to be with him.  Martha was falling for a subtle false substitute.

What can be some of our subtle false substitutes? Here are mine!
1. TV and Netflix.  Both are not bad, but when you watch 5 episodes in a row.  Or sit in front of the TV for hours, you are probably not resting in the Lord.  If anything it is taking you away from time of reflection with him.
2. Running and exercise.  Again, health is a good thing, but when we turn to running to get over our problems and not bring them to the Lord, than we have a false substitute.
3. My phone! How many times do I turn to my phone for my emails, text, Facebook, words with friends, etc.  Again we need to make sure we are not settling to turn to the device to fill our boredom.

We need to name our false substitutes - the big and the subtle.  Because just like the hummingbird, we were made for real substance, real food.  Let's not settle for that which can lead us to destruction.  Let us seek that which can bring us life.  And we are blessed that the Lord gives us just that!  He gives us himself, his Body and his Blood!