Life is sometimes overwhelming when you live where the buck stops. Sandwiched between employees and upper management, those of us in the middle can really feel the squeeze. This has been borne out in the lives of family, friends and my own personal experience over the last few months.

On the one hand, I’m so thankful to have a job – a calling, really – where my abilities find a home and where I can help others. On the other hand, the person in the middle gets all the complaints and none of the credit. And where’s the support? Is it true that everyone is out for #1?

So how do we survive this pressure? As I’ve been praying about it, the first thing that comes to mind is this: My worth is not found in the voices of those on either side of me; my worth is based in Jesus Christ, Who is my Lord and Savior. And it’s really not “my” worth; it’s His. It’s only mine because He graces me with worth.

Second, God is in control. Easy to say; hard to understand. But the truth revealed throughout scripture is that nothing happens in His creation without His express consent. God can change the hearts of our enemies; He can hold us tight and teach us lessons while we go through the storms; He can test our dependence on Him; and He can answer with a greater “yes” than we ever imagined.

Knowing that God is in control and that my worth is bound up in His worth frees me. He will do what is best for me, tough as it may seem at the time. My responsibility in all this is to glorify Him in every circumstance.

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Colossians 3:23-24 NIV