There's variations of a meme that goes around about the Native American teaching of there being two wolves in each of us - a good and an evil one - and who we are depends on the one we feed the most.
That is similar to the life of a Christian. When become Christian, we have this conscious unlike any other conscious, and it suddenly challenges our conventional beliefs and morale we grew up accepting.
Our awareness of lack in integrity goes up, and we catch ourselves in hypocrisy more. The “good wolf” or the Spirit comes in and challenges the depravity that has been there from the beginning.
And feeding Him vs the familiar, comfortable inclinations we already possess, makes all the difference in how we manifest to the world. (This is not an invitation to theological debate – not assuming the Spirit can be “trumped” or what have you.)
Anyhow, forgive me if you think that is a poor parallel. But I only illustrate it to give an idea of what I mean… have you ever watched two wolves fight each other?
As I get older, and more conscious of my inner thoughts, the world around me, I come to a clearer understanding of what Jesus means when He says that we “are not of this world.” I often feel emotionally drained by this battle.
I see hardness of heart around me, people stubbornly refusing to compromise in any area you can think of (not just politics and religion – in America, our adversarial mindset permeates everything, even something as superficial as football).
And I fight more and more this feeling of “if you all don’t care what happens to this country or society as a whole, and only seek your self-interests, then why should I care? If you don’t care how your consistent, ‘little’ dishonesties affect you and your loved ones as well as others in some cases, why should I? If you place no value in true, upright character – not the charade done to gain this or that, but honest goodness and love demonstrated in principle…” I’m ashamed to admit sometimes I think then “…why should I?”
Without going on a rant about the negative characteristics and mentality of this generation and society as a whole, my question, finally, is this (cause you know I can’t ‘just’ ask my question
):
How do you train the renewed man inside? Besides the standard read, pray and worship, can you delve a bit deeper than that? Describe what you mean by either of these three, as they are done differently across denomination and culture.
And also, what else? What do you do in your everyday routine that helps you maintain focus on Christ, and at the same time attention to what is needed here on earth?
How do you combat the sorrow that the evil wolf will simply not die until you do yourself physically, and like Jason Voorhees will keep coming back no matter how many times laid to rest? I know this is the walk, but sometimes it is hard to accept and live with.
Thank you all. Blessings.
That is similar to the life of a Christian. When become Christian, we have this conscious unlike any other conscious, and it suddenly challenges our conventional beliefs and morale we grew up accepting.
Our awareness of lack in integrity goes up, and we catch ourselves in hypocrisy more. The “good wolf” or the Spirit comes in and challenges the depravity that has been there from the beginning.
And feeding Him vs the familiar, comfortable inclinations we already possess, makes all the difference in how we manifest to the world. (This is not an invitation to theological debate – not assuming the Spirit can be “trumped” or what have you.)
Anyhow, forgive me if you think that is a poor parallel. But I only illustrate it to give an idea of what I mean… have you ever watched two wolves fight each other?
As I get older, and more conscious of my inner thoughts, the world around me, I come to a clearer understanding of what Jesus means when He says that we “are not of this world.” I often feel emotionally drained by this battle.
I see hardness of heart around me, people stubbornly refusing to compromise in any area you can think of (not just politics and religion – in America, our adversarial mindset permeates everything, even something as superficial as football).
And I fight more and more this feeling of “if you all don’t care what happens to this country or society as a whole, and only seek your self-interests, then why should I care? If you don’t care how your consistent, ‘little’ dishonesties affect you and your loved ones as well as others in some cases, why should I? If you place no value in true, upright character – not the charade done to gain this or that, but honest goodness and love demonstrated in principle…” I’m ashamed to admit sometimes I think then “…why should I?”
Without going on a rant about the negative characteristics and mentality of this generation and society as a whole, my question, finally, is this (cause you know I can’t ‘just’ ask my question
):How do you train the renewed man inside? Besides the standard read, pray and worship, can you delve a bit deeper than that? Describe what you mean by either of these three, as they are done differently across denomination and culture.
And also, what else? What do you do in your everyday routine that helps you maintain focus on Christ, and at the same time attention to what is needed here on earth?
How do you combat the sorrow that the evil wolf will simply not die until you do yourself physically, and like Jason Voorhees will keep coming back no matter how many times laid to rest? I know this is the walk, but sometimes it is hard to accept and live with.
Thank you all. Blessings.