Give ‘em howl. — Peyton Garland
Yesterday, Josh and I checked out the Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center, this beautiful non-profit settled on a mountain at 8,000+ feet of elevation that operates as a sanctuary for wolves. We visited during the feeding hour, following a tour guide who introduced us to each wolf at the sanctuary.
I’d never seen a wolf before—not outside the 5,000 times I’ve watched the Twilight series. (I should feel shame for that, but Taylor Lautner will be my Hollywood man for life.) And while their huge paws and extraordinary coats blew my mind, what wrenched my gut was the reality that forty-two states in this country still allow wolves to be trapped with those old-school, rusty claw machines, the type of thing you would see hunters use in the 1800s. With ninety pounds of jaw power, these claws are meant to shatter bones and leave the wolves not only injured, but stranded and subjected to any other cruel fate.
Apparently, humans aren’t tired of the kill, of destroying another for the glory of the sport. Even though some can shake off this harsh reality with, “Oh, those are just animals,” let me remind you: we’ve made it our mission to destroy not only innocent, incredible animals, but humans made in the image of God too.
Last week, I was hosting my weekly tutoring session with this brother and sister duo that makes my job such a joy. They are funny, eager to learn, and have taught me a few facts about Frankenstein, video games, and what it feels like to be a middle-schooler who’s under 4’11. In this session, the brother and sister were asked to write one creative paragraph using the SAT words provided. It was a “speed” round, which means their paragraphs had to be created within minutes.
The brother, who's sixteen, wrote a fiction piece with a sort of samurai/video game theme. As two warriors are fighting each other in this story—this story a 16-year-old crafted at rapid speed—he comes up with this quote: "You have a lot of potential. Don't waste it on revenge."
We waste so much time seeking our own glory for the sake of throwing someone else in the shadows just because it boosts our own ego, it gives us a leg up on days when we feel insufficient, it lets us point at the victim we’ve trapped in the claw and say, “Well, even on my worst day, at least I’m not _______.”
We leave people crushed, stranded, subjected to our low blows and we walk away thinking we’ve stolen some sort of glory for ourselves.
Yet, all we’ve stolen is trust from another, and all we’ve won is a false, fleeting sense of worth.
I could preach to you the worth you have in Christ, as if you probably haven’t heard that before, but I challenge you to see this reality through a different lens:
Instead of clambering for worth within yourself, go out of your way to find worth in others. That’s how I approached self-worth when I eventually realized I got some sort of sick kick out of others failing, feeling like it boosted my status. I became disgusted with myself, and I had a hard time finding personal value as guilt and shame took the front seat.
So, instead of focusing on me, I started looking out for others. I began small, by telling that woman that she looked beautiful in orange, by going out of my way to smile at the miserable person in the grocery store, by celebrating the girl on Instagram who got another thing in life I was dying for.
Compliments, smiles, DMs with confetti emojis—simple things. Near-effortless things. I was determined to give others worth, and in the process of dipping my toes into the Golden Rule, I found my worth. I felt God nudging me on. And I discovered that jealousy, greed, and pride aren’t worth hurting another person.
This isn’t to say that I still don’t struggle with the little green monster. This isn’t to say that following through on the Golden Rule is easy—if it was easy, Jesus wouldn’t have had to create a whole sermon around it.
But this is to say that it’s time we stop putting all of our energy, efforts, and resources into trapping others, all for the sake of a revenge that deep, deep down is only craving worth and love.
Worth and love aren’t only yours to keep, they are yours to give away. And the second you take baby steps toward giving light, sparkle, and hope to someone besides yourself, you’ll feel the tension of greed and shame chip away. Then, you won’t feel the need to trap another in an inescapable, cruel demise. Instead, you’ll look for ways to set people free, and within that process, you’ll find freedom too.
At the wolf sanctuary, Josh and I learned that a wolf’s howl isn’t just a creepy cackle he does because he has a thing for the moon. Rather, he howls to signal community. It’s literally a wolf’s way of saying, “I have my pack with me, and I trust them. We are together. We are one. We will go down fighting for each other.”
It’s no longer time to “give ‘em hell”—a good ole saying that eggs people on to do whatever to get whatever. In all reality, people face enough hell down here. It’s time to “give ‘em howl”—a true sense of “Hey, you belong here. You can trust me. I’m your community. I’ll go down fighting for you.”
Give ‘em howl. Please, give ‘em howl.
And go ahead and free yourself. It’s worth it.
Peyton Garland
Peyton Garland is an author who uses her OCD, disdain for legalism, and obsession with Jesus rap to showcase just how good God's goodness is. She's a wife and puppy momma who's on a constant journey to accept God's grace and her trial-and-error heart.
