While You Were Sleeping

While You Were Sleeping

 

Most have heard some version of this Indian parable:

 

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.” 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’ll also recognize this: 

 

“Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of Heaven is likened unto a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while he slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, did not you sow good seed in your field? From where then does it have tares? He said unto them, An enemy has done this. And the servants said unto him, Do you desire then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay, lest while you gather up the tares, you root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather together first the wheat into my barns, and the tares are bound in bundles to be burned.” RE Matthew 7:5

 

Every farmer knows that when you irrigate a field you cannot single out only the wheat to receive the nourishing waters. The Lord puts the same idea this way regarding us: “for he makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” RE Mathew 3:26 The whole field is watered regardless of what is growing—the wheat, the tares, the dandelions, and any other thing that has taken root. At some phase of plant development, in order to realize the best crop and highest yield, you must make a deliberate effort to remove the undesirable growth to prevent disgrace to the value of the harvest. In other words, separate the wheat and the tares.  

 

There’s a reason the Lord commands “awake and arise” for while we have slumbered, the evil one hath planted in our souls’ tares that have grown with our wheat. The command to “awake and arise” is simply the signal from the Lord that it is time to make the deliberate effort in your soul to separate that which pollutes from that which is his desire to harvest. Gather up that within you which is good and flee from or burn the rest.

 

To satisfy our vanity and pride, most of us tell ourselves we’ve fed the good wolf and starved the evil. But, when I look in the mirror, if I’m perfectly truthful, sadly I find that I have often spent time cultivating the tares in exchange for the material rewards Babylon offers the natural man, an enemy to God. RE Mosiah 1:16

 

The command has come, the time is now, the place is here.  How do I do it?

 

“Leave behind your ambitions. Depart from your anger, contention, jealousies, and your uncontrolled worldliness. Be sober minded. Control your appetites. Flee from sin. Subdue the flesh. Become meek as a child, and harmless as a dove. Flee from Babylon and shake its dust from off your feet. Awake and Arise.” Denver Snuffer blog  June 26 2022

 

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

 

Signed

 

John The-Not-So-Beloved