We stop wrestling the moment we choose honesty over comfort—yet that’s often the hardest match we’ll ever fight.
When I was a kid I was always at the playground looking for a ballgame or just hanging out with friends. More often than not, we’d be wrestling with each other. The match would go on until someone yelled, “Uncle.” It was one of those pre adolescent rituals. In hindsight, I think the wrestling matches were a preparations for the personal wrestling matches we find ourselves in on a daily bases. We wrestle with choice all the time.
Sometimes our choices our moral choices and we wrestle with them trying to manufacture a way to make our actions appear moral to ourselves. We endure sleepless nights wrestling. We carry the wrestling match into the next day and to work. We refuse to cry uncle and make the uncomfortable choice. When we become aware that we are wrestling with a moral dilemma it’s good to step back and ask ourselves, “Who benefits?” If the answer is one’s self, it may be time time to cry, “Uncle.”
When you face a tough moral choice, what question helps you see the right path more clearly?
“Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.” — C.S. Lewis