Empty Calories

Yesterday was an all around grind. Between not being able to catch a breath at work and leaving late to go teach religious ed to a class full of rowdy 5th graders that won't listen and won't sit still, to coming home to our own kids putting our patience to the test...I was tired, hungry, and spent.

"What are we having for dinner?" Deb asked.

"Hm. Well there's some sweet potatoes cooked, and some rice, and vegetables and..."

I could tell by the look on her face that this wasn't going to cut it tonight, and I agreed. We were in the mood for takeout--nothing vegetable related, either. I hopped back in the car and drove to the next town to a Wendy's, which was our agreed upon establishment for the Tuesday takeout slum-fest.

As I sat in the drive-thru, my stomach was growling, and the ads for spicy chicken sandwiches and double-stacked burgers in front of me were whetting my appetite. How do they make gross food look so good? Advertisers aren't stupid. They spend their careers studying hungry people like us, employ artists, photographers, psychologists, food scientists to get us to part with our money and ingest whatever it is they are peddling.  They have craving down to a science.

When I got home, we ate. I had some chicken nuggets and bacon-ranch fries, Deb had a cheeseburger and a Frosty, and the kids had all of the above. Although I was promised satisfaction at my weakest moment, I knew I would feel gross after eating a meal like this, and I wasn't disappointed.  It tasted so good...at first. The fuller I got, the grosser I felt. To boot, I had dropped twenty bucks for the privilege and got a double daily dose of saturated fat, sodium, and sugar in the form of cheap empty calories. We would have been better off in the end just eating the healthy food we had at home that night.

Nobody really wants to each vegetables. We eat them because we know they are good for us and necessary for health. Sometimes they are even tasty, and who doesn't feel good after eating a salad? But when we're feeling low, or lonely or stressed or hungry, or all of the above, we don't want a sweet potato. We want to binge on some freaking pork rhinds.

It is the constant battle of the flesh to satisfy itself, constantly and immediately, at anyone's expense, including its own. The effects of the Fall and Original Sin follow us through this life like a shadow.  The nature of sin is cheap--yet costs us dearly.  It promises to fill us, but leaves us feeling empty. It downplays its consequences, but when occasional nights of slumming become ingrained habits, our spiritual health begins to deteriorate.

There's nothing inherently sinful about a hamburger. Eating when we are hungry is not sinful. Fast-food in moderation is not sinful. Yet like Adam and Eve deceived in the garden, we fall for the lure of Satan's advertisements against what we know to be good for us when those things contradict the nature and fruits of the Spirit--love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

God is the Master Dietician. He prepares a banquet for us, not of milkshakes and chicken-fried-crap, but pure and true food that feeds and nourishes both body and soul--his very own flesh and blood (Jn 6:55). If we walk in the Spirit, we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh (Gal 5:16). With Lent and the season of concerted prayer, fasting, and almsgiving coming up next week, it is a good reminder of the athletic-like training necessary to help build our spiritual muscles so that we may persevere to the end (Mt 24:13).