When a teacher wants to become a principal, she seeks a masters degree in middle management. The degree may be officially named “Educational Administration,” or something similar, but the nickname among teachers is “mid-management degree.”
The challenge of working in middle management is that you are trapped in the middle.
You are not a top boss, like a president or chief executive officer. And you are not on the bottom, like those employees who have no supervisory duties. Being in the middle means being battered by problems from all sides. Consider the Assistant Principal of a high school: all day long he handles the most difficult students, he must address the problems created by any teachers who neglect their duties, he takes phone calls from angry parents, and he has the constant pressure of keeping the head principal happy. The AP gets it from all sides. That is middle management: being trapped in the middle.
King Zedekiah was something of a middle manager—an odd thing to say about a king. But Zedekiah, had been appointed King of Judah by the much more powerful King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.
King Zedekiah had to keep Nebuchadnezzar happy. Meanwhile, his entire nation was being forced to move 600 miles to Babylon. Zedekiah was trapped between pleasing the new boss, pleasing his advisors, pleasing his people, keeping Babylonians at bay, and pacifying the Judeans who had fled to the Chaldeans. King Zedekiah was trapped in the middle, squeezed in a way that only middle managers can understand. He was getting it from all sides. You can tell by his contradictory decisions:
When his advisors want to kill Jeremiah, King Zedekiah says “he’s in your hands” and they toss the prophet into a cistern where he will starve. When a court official questions Zedekiah about that decision, he tells the man to take 30 men and rescue the prophet. Then when Jeremiah talks to the king, the king explains his fears and how he feels pulled in different directions. Jeremiah gives him the only advice you will ever need:
“Obey the voice of the Lord so it may go well for you and you will live” Jeremiah 38:20.
You can’t please everyone. It is not possible. Sometimes you will find yourself trapped in the middle, as if you were a rope and everyone around you is having a tug-of-war. It is not unusual to be trapped between two, three, or even more parties, each of them pushing you to make a different choice. What can you do?
“Obey the voice of the Lord” Jeremiah 38:20.
There is no other way to survive when you are trapped by the conflicting expectations of people who are all seeking different things. Seek God. Let Him lead you. And study His word so you will have wisdom. The Bible is so practical, with answers for every question and solutions for every problem.
ΑΩ
Household Words: 