Is It Worth Fighting For?

We’ve all seen it. There’s that one person on our team who has to die on every hill placed before them.

The hill to die on may be:

  • A political statement on Facebook
  • Drinking alcohol
  • The type of worship a church has
  • Vacation policies in the workplace
  • Who they have to work with

There’s a hill for everyone. And everyone has to decide which hills are worth dying on.

Recently, I’ve shared about my struggles with the city of Muskegon and the lack of maintenance on their sewer system. This caused a sewer back up in our basement while we were gone on vacation.

This wasn’t the first time it happened. It also wasn’t the first time it happened while we were gone.

The first time I let it slide once they made things right. This time, I had a hill I was willing to stand and die on.

Is It Worth Fighting For?

I knew I had to fight to have the city of Muskegon make things right (we have since settled). If I didn’t, the sewer would back up again at some unknown point in time.

Fighting made sense.

If I prevailed, I wouldn’t have to worry about sewage backing up. I also wouldn’t have to worry as much about storing my personal items in the basement. I wouldn’t have to worry about leaving my home for days because of the smell. I wouldn’t have to have a house in disarray because all of our basement contents were shuffled to the garage or living areas.

If I lost, I made it known that there was a problem. No skin off my back other than a few man-hours put in letting people know about the issue we experienced.

We all have to decide what we’re willing to fight for. We also have to decide what we’re willing to die for.

The death isn’t physical. This death is metaphorical.

If you’re willing to die for something, are you willing to:

  • Leave your current employer?
  • Get kicked out of church?
  • Remove social media from your life?
  • Change political parties?

We need to know how far and how deep we’re willing to go to make our voices known and heard. We also have to know the cost of what we’re fighting for.

While the shortlist above may not seem like much, doing any of those can cost you dearly.

Getting kicked out of church can be a loss of relationships and friendships you’ve built over the years (I know this one personally!). Leaving your employer could result in a decrease in pay. Removing social media may mean you no longer have the connection you once did with friends and classmates. And changing political parties could anger those closest to you.

Think through your fights, your battles. Think about what matters.

Are you willing to give up portions of your life for these things? If not, stop the fighting. It’s not going to lead where you want. If so, keep up the good fight. Fight for what you believe. You will be able to enact change.

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