The Saint and Sinner Within Each of Us

I believe that within each of our souls there is both a sinner and a saint.

In many ways, it is like the legend of the two wolves.

An old Cherokee chief was teaching his grandson about life.

“A fight is raging within my soul,” he told the boy. “It is a terrible fight between two wolves.

“One is evil—he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, self-doubt, and ego.

“The other is good—he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.

“This 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 one you feed,” replied the chief.

As someone who struggles with depression, my mind has the propensity to drag me down. Every day, I have to make conscience decisions to feed the good wolf—to give energy and strength to the saint in my soul. Part of that means that I try to take in positive things: I watch a lot of comedies, listen to a ton of talks and try to listen to quiet, inspirational music.

The other part of that means that I try to stay involved in good causes: I try to stay active in my faith, I work with a lot of non-profits, and I do my best to serve other people.

But I still struggle…quite a bit. Oftentimes, the sinner in me is much stronger than the saint—and he doesn’t fight fair.

I imagine that I’ll struggle with the sinner in me for the rest of my life. That’s part of living in a fallen world—there will never be a time when you don’t have to deal with weeds.

In talking about this with my boss, Jeevan, he told me about a similar conversation he had with his boss. He came to this conclusion:

We are all sinners and saints in the sense that every human has qualities that are admirable and others that are less desirable. No one (ourselves included) can be considered “ideal” in any way because to be human is to be flawed. So no one has the moral high ground to judge another. Instead, we should aim to embrace that which is good and positive in others and spare as little energy as possible on the negatives. (Source: Five Lessons from Five Colleagues)

Serve strength to the saint of your soul by embracing that which is good.