Because wax imitations taste so good...?

So here I am thinking again about the Bread of Life passage in John 6, still trying to figure out what it all means to eat the real bread and not the fake one, not the one w/ empty calories that won't fill me, that won't sustain me w/ "eternal life" (anyone try to explain that one to me?).

6:51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."

6:52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"

6:53 So Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.

6:54 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day;

6:55 for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.

6:56 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.

6:57 Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me.

6:58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever."

- John 6:51-58

I am reminded of an episode of the t.v. show "I Love Lucy" in which Lucy is invited to dinner at the house of Ricky's boss. The couples were supposed to have a beautiful, delicious dinner prepared by the boss's wife, but due to several Lucy-esque mishaps, the Ricardos are over an hour late and therefore miss dinner entirely. Alas, alas. Because she missed her meals, Lucy is starving as she sits in the boss's nicely decorated living room. Spying a gorgeous plate of fruits sitting on the coffee table, in desperation, Lucy grabs what appeared to be a juicy apple only to discover she had taken a huge chunk of empty, tasteless wax apple. Not only that, the wax imitation is stuck in her mouth and to Ricky's chagrin, she is unable to remove the thing without some un-gentle help from the hostess.

Lucy's escapade is comical, but in many ways, I identify with Lucy's predicament. There have been many, many instances in which I feel hollowed out with hunger and I'm taken over by some maniac with a fiendish, narrow-minded focus on satiating that insatiable hunger. And when the agony rips me apart, I find myself willingly, blindly, maniacally reaching for some cheap, empty, tasteless product to fill me up. And of course those things never fill me up. I end up in a ridiculous, figurative pose of empty waxen apple in my open mouth -- not unlike a pig hollowed out and ready for the fire.

On my spiritual journey, too, I've often reached for the waxen substitute instead of going to the real, true source of spiritual nourishment. Eating better, said my associate pastor, is about tasting the one, true Bread of Life. It's the stuff that Michael Pollan would be proud of -- the wholeness, the organic, the true source of sustenance.

There are three things that I have to remember:

1. Never let yourself become so spiritually hungry that you reach for things without looking.
2. Know the difference between the real fruit/bread and the waxen imitation.
3. Always have a buddy around who has quick hands and who can help remove you from a pickled situation.