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PROGRAM D-6916
“IMPOSSIBLE! My boss is impossible!” How many times have you heard someone say that? How many times have you said it yourself?
If you haven’t run into the difficult boss yet in your career, it’s highly likely that you will at some time or another. Few of us escape the experience of learning to cope with a boss who seems impossible.
I can recall so clearly a time in my career when I thought I just could not work any longer for my current boss. I had endured what seemed to me too much unreasonable and unkind treatment. My manager’s style was to manage through intimidation and humiliation, and I was not competent in handling it.
As a result of the frustration, I frequently handled confrontations poorly, making matters worse. Like the Psalmist in Psalm 55:6, I found myself saying, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest. Behold, I would wander far away.”
King David was experiencing that same kind of frustration that you and I experience when we want to run away—from our jobs or anything else. One great lesson we learn from David is to be very honest and open in our relationship with the Lord. We should tell God exactly what’s going on inside of us. He knows it anyway, so you might as well get it out and talk about it.
And David did just that. But notice, David does not remain in that depressed, desperate state. In the 16th verse of that same Psalm, he comes to an important decision: “As for me, I shall call upon God, and the Lord will save me.” By getting his feelings out in the open, David was able to get some perspective on his situation, and he recognized that instead of running away, he should call upon the Lord.
The same is true for us, and that should be our first step in dealing with an impossible boss: Call upon the Lord. We must focus our eyes on our God, not on our boss. I’m not saying you just say one simple prayer and it changes your feelings, changes your boss, and everything is just the way you want it. I am saying that through prayer you change your focus from your own self and your desire to run away, and you focus instead on the Lord.
If you are dealing with an difficult boss, read Psalm 55 and meditate on it carefully. Running away is not the answer; God has victory for you, and the key to finding that victory is first of all to call on the Lord.