Cherokee Tale of Two Wolves
A young boy came to his grandfather, filled with anger at another boy who had done him an injustice. The grandfather said to his grandson, “Let me tell you a story. I too, at times, have felt a great hate for those that have taken so much, with no sorrow for what they do. But hate wears you down, and hate does not hurt your enemy. Hate is like taking poison and wishing your enemy would die. I have struggled with these feelings many times.” He continued, “It is as if there are two wolves inside me; one wolf is good and does no harm. He lives in harmony with all around him and does not take offense when no offence was intended. He will only fight when it is right to do so, and in the right way. But the other wolf, is full of anger. The littlest thing will set him into a fit of temper. He fights everyone, all the time, for no reason. He cannot think because his anger and hate are so great. It is helpless anger, because his anger will change nothing. Sometimes it is hard to live with these wolves inside me, because both of the wolves try to dominate my spirit”. The boy looked intently into his grandfather’s eyes and asked, “Which wolf will win, Grandfather?” The Grandfather smiled and said, “The one I feed” -Cherokee tale of two wolves.
Obviously, this is but a fairy tale. But there is something profound about the boy’s grandfather’s answer in the end, “the one I feed”? Come on, it can’t possibly be that simple!
Often it is seen that we, when describing our identity, first call ourselves sinners before we circle back to the truth that we are God’s children when it should be the other way around. We wrestle with two realities here, that though God the Father initiated and completed our salvation in Jesus, our hearts are still so easily prone to wander. It is true that out of our hearts comes evil thoughts, lust of the flesh and selfish motivations (Matthew 15:19-20) but it is even truer that when we are in Christ we are given new identity in which by grace we are taught to say no to all ungodliness and worldly passions (2 Corinthians5:17; Titus 2:12) and so we do not remain dead, or to use the language of the Cherokee, the bad wolf that used to win before we came in relationship with the Father, is now starved to death as we progressively stop feeding it. The Bible teaches us not to quench the spirit, not because he is a helpless ‘wolf’ who relies on us to live, but because though he is perfect in power, he is gentle in his guidance, loving in his counsel, and kind in his teachings. He will not force and claim residence where he is rejected but he will ever advocate for those that receive him and that is why you see him interceding for us when we do not know what we ought to pray for (Romans 8:26-27). The invitation is to receive him, and he will live in you.
The problem with not believing that the Holy Spirit really does advocates for us, teach, counsel and lead us to full knowledge our Father is not just that it robs us of the goodness that is found in relationship with him, to fully enjoy him as our Father, but that we end up worshipping the very thing Jesus died and rose again to crush in order to reconcile us back to God. We end up baptizing our feelings as the author and finisher of our identity and how we relate to others. Seeing how we are never fully happy nor satisfied, always chasing after ‘just one more’ thing, sadly, in fact it is pitiful, that we end up drawing a conclusion that we are helpless sinners who always must be covered by the shame of our sin or look at those around us with hostility because they are always against us. Do you see the problem with this? Look around, you will see—hint, try social media; every man for himself because “they are holding you back, if they know what you are doing, they will ruin it, don’t let them win” and almost every child of God a wretched sinner so terrified of judgement and tiptoeing around like a wet chicken. Scared of Jesus’ second coming, holding onto the law as a way of balancing the scales of their good deeds and the falling short of God’s standards. It doesn’t look like there is freedom in Christ now, does it? I am not saying it is wrong to hold on to God’s commandments, but I am saying if we are doing so, let us do it out of love and holy reverence for our Father not as a ticket to earn righteousness in his eyes, because doing so puffs us up into thinking our salvation depends on us—of which if it were the case, no one could be saved.
Our prayers of confession should not sound like we are always coming to an angry God who is ever ready to judge, yes, we have all sinned and fallen short of his glory (Romans 3:23) and we can let that marinate a little before moving on, but it doesn’t end there. He in love and wisdom gave us his perfect Son so that righteousness may be possible for us, we should definitely grieve our sin when standing face to face with his perfect splendor—Isaiah did it when God’s holiness exposed his sinfulness, but we are not meant to forget the finished work of the cross. Jesus, in his perfection, did not only impute his righteousness on us and left us there, no, no, through him we are also called children of God, and indeed we are! The tension between identifying as a son and daughter of the holy, holy, holy God and a sinner will continue being an issue and even a stumbling block if we do not want to listen to what our identity giver says. Not to sound depressing but it is a matter of choice, to a certain degree.
“Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he (Christ) appears, we will be like him because we will see him as he is” 1 John 3:2 Of course, this is not true for those who are not trusting in Jesus, they can go on calling themselves sinners and end there... Or they could change that. The invitation is free of charge… at least on our end. It has already cost a lot for God, his only begotten Son and yet he still looks at us and nods, it was worth it. What do we do with this? There definitely must be a response. Let us worship him in spirit and in truth. How? By first having the right view of who he is—not an angry God, what he has done— given us his Son so that through his righteousness we too are righteous and are called children of God, and therefore who we are—the children of the most loving God. Two realities exist in us, but there is one that’s life giving if we receive it with gratitude and humbleness, looking at what our gracious Father has done in love and there’s one that burdens us, and continues to rob God of his glory as we continue pasting it on our foreheads, feeding it, if you like, to a point Jesus’ perfect life, death and resurrection was vanity of vanities.
