Tight situations mean different things to different people. For the businessman, it’s when all the bills are due (plus taxes) and your total cash plus lines of credit only match up to a fifth of it all. Oh, and they are due today! For the parent with a sick child it could be the operation that has to be done really really soon and the specialist needed can’t be found for another month. For others, it’s looking down the barrel of a gun as a thug stuffs you into the trunk of your own car.

Have you ever been in a tight situation?

Have you ever noticed how frustrated you get when telling your story about the tight situation you are in? The frustration usually comes from the feeling that people just don’t get it. This bank manager just doesn’t get how badly you need the overdraft and how capable you are of settling it in a week. Your friends don’t seem to get how dire the situation with your child really is. You’re in a tight situation and you’re in no company.

Now have you ever been in a tight situation?

Two basic options present themselves in the midst of a tight situation.  Fight or flight. Same two options that faced our hunter-gatherer forefathers when faced by a lion in the wild. I can stay and deal with the situation no matter how it turns out, or I can run, changing my number and moving house in the process so my creditors won’t know where to find me. Stories abound in Kenyan hospitals of terminally ill children whose parents ran. The situation was too tight for them. They felt they can’t fight. They chose flight.

If there ever was a tight situation, King Jehoshaphat’s was definitely it. He chose to fight. The odds were stacked up against him but he disregarded the statistics and the mountain of evidence and obeyed his God.

Are you in a tight situation? What do you really believe deep down? Is there hope? Is there honor in staying the course, fighting the fight? So, will you run or stay on and fight?