Sounds Good, But...
Empty Calories and Empty Words...
Have you ever heard someone use the term, “empty calories” when talking about food items? Maybe because of my attraction to junk food, I’ve heard this often. It goes something like this…
“Tony, those French fries with that ketchup are just empty calories!” To me, this just shows that some people don’t understand the amazing blessing that is the deep-fried potato.
Foods that deliver empty calories are those that contain little or no nutrients but typically lots of sugars and/or fats. Sweets, fried foods, most fast food, breakfast cereals, and sugary drinks lead the list of foods that are full of calories that fail to give us any nutrition. According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) website, the average American’s diet comes from between 30-40% of these empty calories, and year-over-year that percentage grows. In large part, we can blame a lot of this on the effectiveness of advertising, drawing us more and more to the attractiveness of these foods.
Did you know the same thing exists in the spiritual world? Society, churches, and even pastors are constantly promoting and pushing empty spiritual calories at us, packaging them in a way that makes them seem very appetizing to a consumer who isn’t paying attention. What do I mean?
Recently I was at an evening event that was attended by two or three hundred people. The evening began with an opening “prayer” that was delivered by a prominent spiritual leader. Before he prayed, he said something like this. “God wants you to know that you are okay.” He went on to say, “God loves you just as you are,” and, “God says that you are okay right where you are at.”
Those are indeed very encouraging words. Life is hard and it is comforting to hear that wherever we are on life’s journey, whatever we are struggling with, or whatever our deeds, God is happy with us and just wants us to feel his love and comfort.
But the problem with these words is they are empty calories. More than that, they are untrue, unhealthy, and as far from the message of the Bible as we can get.
As a follower of Christ, when we hear these words, it shouldn’t take much thought to see the lie in them. One of the main messages of the entire Old Testament is that man, men and women, are NOT okay. Listen to the Apostle Peter’s words as he quotes from the Law of Moses.