Substitutions

I’m a bit of a health nut…until the first bite of junk food. My favorite place to indulge myself is McDonald’s or similar fast-food chains. It’s all or nothing for me; semi-healthy, subtly-flavored, fancily-presented, slow-food has no appeal to me. I can go all day eating healthily, but at the end of each day, I crave something salty and crunchy or sweet and crunchy. I’ve tried to kick this bad habit several times, but so far, I haven’t succeeded.

I’ve tried substitutions. For example, I might be craving some potato chips, but instead I eat air-popped popcorn. Substitutions rarely hit the spot. Instead, it just leaves me feeling dissatisfied and restless. Last night, as I was going through my junk-food withdrawal symptoms, I was reminded of the following quotes:

“Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.” (St. Augustine)

“There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus.” (Blaise Pascal)

(Yes…craving potato chipsàAugustineàPascalàGod—this is how my mind works.)

I wonder what all I’m trying to substitute to satisfy my yearning for God…