? Fight – or – Flight ?

There seems to be a time for both. I´m told both to fight the good fight of faith and also to flee sin. So I guess I need to use common sense and a bit of discretion. There is however a third alternative that I don´t hear much about. That would be neither fight or flight, but rather calmly and quietly standing my ground. There comes a time for that also. I´m told to fight at times, to flee at others, and again I´m told that having done what I´m supposed to do to ¨stand therefore¨. I remember, years ago, telling someone that for all my life, when threatened, I´d always taken a step back and that I´d finally learned to step forward. I was proud of my new found courage. And, in a way, rightly so. But then the other person said, ¨Instead of taking a step back or forward, did you ever think of just standing there?¨ Uh-oh. Never crossed my mind. I guess fight or flight, having obvious applications, is just instinctive. But my best example would be Jesus. His passion. Did he fight back? No. In fact he told Peter to put away his sword. Did he run? No. He stood calmly and said, ¨I´m the one you´re looking for.¨
Fight? Sure, when I have to. Run away? When I need to I need to. Stand firm? I suppose thats the hardest of all. Turning the other cheek, as an example, requires that I stand in place. Anyone can ball up their fist and mouth off. Fighting is easy. Look at how easy wars are started. Walking away, hands in pockets and mouth shut, sometimes takes more courage than fighting does. How many ambassadors are willing to sit at the peace talks table and hold it in? All of this applies to me and my daily interaction with others. And its beginning to look like just standing there takes more real courage than fight or flight. Just standing there results, often as not, in shouldering a cross.