When I was a little boy, my grandfather told me a story about two wolves that are fighting inside all of us.
We have two wolves inside us.
And they are fighting.
One of the wolves is anger, envy, self-pity, and regret.
The other wolf is love, truth, faith, and hope.
I asked my grandfather, “Which one of the wolves wins?”
My grandfather dropped down to one knee, so that he could look into my eyes. And then he said, “The one you feed.”
The wolf that wins is the one that you feed.
Faith is different from Religion.
And Religiosity is different from both.
Faith is where you place your deepest and highest confidence.
Is your highest and deepest confidence in science, science and technology?
Is it in your fellow human beings? The inner goodness of mankind and the wisdom of the masses?
Is your highest and deepest faith in American Exceptionalism?
Is it in Democracy, Free trade, Capitalism, Patriotism, a strong economy and a powerful army?
Everyone puts their faith in something.
Religion happens when you organize your faith and create a set of principles to embrace, rules to follow, and steps to climb.
Religion is Faith that has been codified.
And that is not always a bad thing.
But religiosity is always a bad thing! Religiosity is weaponized religion.
Religiosity is when you sign God’s name to checks that He did not write.
You can be certain that you have created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people that you do.
Christianity is different than Faith in Christ.
Christianity is a lifestyle, a moral code to which you can subscribe.
Christ is a person you can know.
We lose our way when we begin spreading Christianity instead of spreading the joyful news of Jesus Christ.
Are we feeding the wolf of anger, envy, self-pity, and regret?
Or are we feeding the wolf of love, truth, faith, and hope?
The wolf that wins is the one you feed.
— inspired by a comment made by Detective Inspector Jack Mooney in “Death in Paradise,” season 6, episode 6, when he spoke of his grandfather telling him about the two wolves that fight within us.