There’s an old Native American story that goes like this:

An old Cherokee was 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.” He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The 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.”

You and I face many choices every day. We have to choose between right and wrong, good and evil. But the worst thing is that the wrong has become so intertwined with right that we no longer know the difference. And our nature, the way we are, does not really help us to make the right choice. On the contrary!

²¹You yourselves are a case study of what he does. At one time you all had your backs turned to God, thinking rebellious thoughts of him, giving him trouble every chance you got.

Yes, it was really rough before we got to know God. All of us can tell many stories of how we went against the will of God, and the consequences were most often not so good.

Fortunately, Jesus took the punishment for us and because of that we are no longer guilty before God. Thank you! But this does not mean that we no longer need to face decisions about right and wrong, good and evil every day. And let’s be straight with one another: It’s not always so easy to choose right instead of wrong.

Sometimes it just seems better to feed the brown wolf. It looks so much better, so much nicer, and in a way we start justifying it to ourselves. Nobody will ever know. Just this once…

The story of the two wolves is an apt picture of right and wrong. The question to you is which wolf you feed, because the one that gets the most to eat will reign in your life.

Scripture

Colossians 1:21-23

Reflection

With what do you struggle?

Which wolf in your life gets the most food?

What do you have to do differently?

Prayer

Our Father, I am so ashamed. You have done so much for me. You even let your Son die on the cross for my sin. Thank you, I know I have to make better choices. The wrong wolf gets too much food. Amen.