Have you ever had to find a substitute for something? Maybe you were baking and needed a substitute for eggs. Or maybe you have a food allergy and needed a substitute for flour or milk. Often, when using a substitute, things just don’t taste the same. Gluten free isn’t always as good as the gluten-full food item. When I’ve baked gluten free, sometimes, the food item hasn’t even come out right. Often, substitutes are a let-down. They just don’t have the same taste as the real thing.
If you went to public school, you’ll remember having a substitute teacher or two. Substitutes could be good or not so good. I always dreaded a substitute. I didn’t have the relationship with them that I had with my teacher. Sometimes, though, I did like the substitute teacher and looked forward to them being in the class. Even still, they were limited in their abilities to teach, answer questions, and lead the class. I needed the teacher to answer what the substitute couldn’t.
Allergies, health issues, and substitute teachers aside, if there’s nothing like having the real thing, why do we so often turn to substitutes? I don’t know about you, but I all too often turn to a substitute, rather than to the real thing, to Jesus. When I’m sad, I turn to food for comfort. But, food’s comfort is temporary. It’s a substitute for the real comfort I get when I go to Jesus. It’s the same when I turn to TV to numb out, reading to escape reality, or shopping to fill up an empty space inside. Substitutes promise what the real thing can give, but they never deliver. And if they do, it’s temporary, leaving you needing more.
There is no substitute for the real thing. Maybe in baking, there is a good substitute, something that brings it close to tasting like the real thing. But it’s not the real thing. Thankfully in baking, substitutes are okay, so maybe it’s a poor analogy. But it conveys my point: there is no substitute for the real thing. I need the Lord to remind me of this when I am tempted to find comfort, safety, significance, validation, etc in something other than Him. He is my source. He is the real thing where everything I need is found. Only He truly satisfies. No substitute will do. Only Him.
