Cherokee

~~Romans 12:21~~ (NLT) Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.

---

Photo by Carley

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life.  "A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy.  "It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves.  One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.  The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.  This same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."  The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"  The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

I like stories like this one about the old Cherokee.  Someone sent that one to me in an email.  Such tales are good food for thought. 

It is as old as the world itself; the fight of good versus evil.  The very first people God ever created ended up in a mess with sin almost from day one.  Have you ever wondered what the world would be like now, who you would be, what your life would be like today if Eve did not eat that apple?  That is, assuming it was an apple.  The bible does not tell us what type of fruit it was; but that could be a subject for another blog.  Why couldn’t Eve decide to snack on oranges or grapes that day?  Did it really have to be an apple after God clearly said “No” to the apple tree?

No person has ever been able to avoid the battle with Satan and his demonic entourage.  (Romans 3:23)  It is in our nature to want to be sinful.  There is something that we find exciting in temptation.  We want what we cannot have, and have a desire to break the rules just because we can.  (Ephesians 2:3)  He gave us free will to choose, yet we always want to choose what is not good for us.  Even after we have learned a lesson, we still choose sin.  Why is that?

God allows us to go through these battles to teach us.  Without these conflicts we could not possibly know what good is.  If you never had a stormy day, how would you know just how great a sunny day really is?  If you gave your child everything s/he wanted the child would never learn that some things are bad.  It is the very nature of the struggle itself that gives us the opportunity to learn; and to build strength, character, courage, love, hope, humility and faith.  If you never had your heart broken, how would you know and appreciate a great love when you found it?  How would we know just how glorious God’s love is for us?  That, after all, is the point... to be conformed to the likeness of Jesus so we can get closer to God. 
 

Photo by Carley

So it seems that Eve did have to eat the apple that day.  Without it, she, and therefore us, would never understand just how great God’s love is for us.  It is only by being apart from Him, through sin, that we can realize how vast His love and mercy for us really is.  At some point though we have to stop choosing what is not good for us.  We have to feed the ‘good wolf’.  We have to start choosing God.  Listen to that old Cherokee and his great wisdom.




 

---

~~Dear God~~ Show me when I am about to choose to feed the bad wolf.  Please give me the desire to always do Your will, and do not let a single lesson that I learn from You be lost.  In Jesus name, AMEN.  

---