My brother sent me a story I would like to share with you.
Two Wolves
One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.
He said, "My son, the battle is between two wolves" inside us all.
One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, lust, arrogance, self-pity,
guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy,
generosity, truth, compassion and faith."
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins?"
The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."
My first thought was
“How true”. But for some reason it stuck with me and really got me
to thinking. God created us in His image.
God is all good. He is the good that lives within us. Because of Adam and Eve we are all born with original sin. Sin
is evil. Sadly, it is also with in us.
This is where I lose the story. The battle between good and evil has already
been fought and good won. When Christ died on the cross and rose from the dead
He conquered sin. The ‘good’ wolf has won. This should be the end of the story. Right?
Not quite. Christ did not conquer sin; He conquered death, which is the result of sin. Wouldn’t it have been nice if He had defeated sin and sin was no more? Sin still exists. He could have gotten rid of it altogether
if he wanted. But He gave us free will.
He wants us to choose Him over evil. All He asks is that we believe and
have faith that He died for our sins. (Whoever believes and is baptized will
be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. Mk 16:16) But, we must remember - Faith is a verb, an action, not a state of mind. You can say you’re on a diet, but eating junk food, cakes and cookies
and chips directly opposes what you say. It is a contradiction. No matter how much you say you’re on a diet, if you continue eating unhealthy you will gain weight. It is the same with faith. Faith is something
to be lived. It shows when you love, forgive, show compassion, and kindness. You can’t say that you have faith, when you continue to live a life of sin with
total disregard for the consequences. It is a contradiction. Faith is recognizing those failings, asking for forgiveness and vowing to do better. Christ was all human, as well as all divine, but He had faith in His Father. He had faith when His cousin, John the Baptist, was killed. He
had faith when he was tried in the desert. He had faith when He suffered on the
cross. He showed us how to live a life of faith.
One more thing to remember – Once the ‘good’ wolf wins, he can still
die if not fed. (Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God:
sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be
cut off. Rom 11:22) My son, when attending a Christian school, showed this verse to his teacher,
after a discussion about salvation. She couldn’t respond right away but
the following day gave him this response – “If a branch from an olive tree is cut off, it is still an olive branch.” My son’s response – “Yes, but a dead one”
Christ died to give us the hope of eternal salvation.
The hope is that we choose Christ over sin, good over evil. And in doing
so we must sustain that hope by living a life of faith by feeding it all that Christ taught us – kindness, compassion,
joy, forgiveness, patience, generosity, humility, truth and love.
May the good wolf in you never go hungry.
God bless~
