I’ve written a short series of “Leadership Pitfalls” over the last six months, but decided that this one might be better classified as “Life Pitfalls,” because while it certainly is something leaders fall prey to, I think it’s also something to which we are all prone and can sap much of the vitality of the lives we’ve been given as gifts. And this “life pitfall” is quite simple: confusing keeping busy with leading a meaningful life. Actually, I’d go even further and say that we can also confuse getting things done with leading a meaningful life, or even achieving goals and living a well-lived life. This last one is hard...

Given that we’re one week away from this colossal cultural phenom, it seems like a good time to ask the question. Actually, my friend, colleague, and Sermon Brainwave buddy Rolf Jacobson has written a fantastic article in response to this question on Luther Seminary’s wonderful and free web resource, Enter the Bible. In that piece, Rolf responds, quite honestly, that we frankly don’t know whether Jesus would shop on Black Friday. Having said that, though, that doesn’t mean we can’t think theologically about our relationship to the day and, even more, to our habits and pattens of shopping and our relationship to money more...

Name the one thing that, if you could get it tomorrow, would make you totally happy. If you’re at all like me, you probably had no trouble thinking of something. Or, actually, if you had a problem, it was limiting yourself to just one thing. And therein lies the key, actually, to our unhappiness. Somewhere along the line, we bought into the idea that if we could only get a little more we’d be happy. A little more money, a little more vacation time, a little better car or house, a little better job, a fancy new gadget… any of these things – depending on who you are – will make you happy. But it’s a lie. A lie constructed by our...