Yesterday, I talked about vitamins and how we supplement our diets—to the exclusion of eating real food.  The supplements act as a substitute for not eating well.  Eat poorly and take vitamins.  Additionally, vitamins are touted as being a health enhancer.  Faster, cheaper, and better than the original.

A Biblical perspective from Jesus:

Mark 7:7-8 (NLT)
“Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.  For you ignore God’s law and substitute your own tradition.”

Today, I want to talk about how we use this method in so many other areas of our lives.  How we substitute and supplement our lives through various endeavors.  What is the reason we need to supplement our lives anyway?  I think it is because we feel like we are not getting enough significance and depth in our lives to today.  To make up the difference we substitute stimulus for depth.  Some examples:

• We substitute busyness for meaning.  The more we do, the more we think it equates to significance.
• We supplement our lives by being more online and fostering many friendships there.  The quantity of friends makes us feel like we have also have a depth to those relationships.
• We overemphasize our own lives.  What is a person’s favorite subject?  Themselves.  And people like to talk about themselves – a lot . . .

Spiritually we do the  same thing.  When we are having issues with some spiritual area of our lives we then try to fill in the gap of what we are missing.  A problem with your health?  Let’s focus on all Biblical healing issues.

I am not trying to hammer all these specific methods.  I just think they miss the mark.  When you eat real (good) foods, problem solved.  When you have fewer deeper friendships, more meaning.  When you are in HIs presence, all your needs are met.   Focus on the root, and the rest takes care of itself.