When the religious were trying to overcomplicate things, even confuse things, Jesus really made it clear. Almost as if he were establishing a hierarchy of things. As if he was telling them that all their rules, prohibitions, laws, judgements, tips and techniques are pretty much worthless if you aren’t first accomplishing these two simple (but not easy) things:

Love God.

Love others.

I think the lack of this…the lack of the reciprocal of this…is all our deepest longing.  When the bible talks about all creation groaning for the coming Kingdom and the restoration of all things, I think this is one of the things we are groaning for most deeply.

When we surveyed local leaders, one of the things they mentioned struggling with was maintaining a healthy life/work balance.  The demands of their work not only kept them at the office more than they liked, it tended to follow them home as well.

As a result we spend a lot of time studying Jesus’ way of doing things with the leaders with whom we work.  Despite the incredible mission he came to accomplish and contrary to our Western culture sensibility; he lived a slow, steady…

As a man who felt like life had taught him that he would always be alone, examining life is something that I spent a lot of time doing.  But I wasn’t examining my own, I was just being critical of everyone else’s.  Doing life on my own meant that I was constantly surveying the landscape for anything I could find about others’ lives to criticize as a way to momentarily feel better about my own.

Interestingly enough, I am regularly challenged on most of the measures I have taken to quiet things.  Not by the menacing growl of all those beasts fighting for my attention, but by people who regularly partake in them and seem bothered by the fact that I am not.

I recently wrote about the need for soul care in “Attendance” a few months ago.  It turns out that ordering my life with “soul care” as one of the top priorities has been as disruptive to my life as it has been for others.

Disruptive for good, but disruptive nonetheless.

I am privileged to spend my vocational life in very close alignment with my calling, God’s particular intention for my life.  And while calling is…

In the award-winning documentary, Won’t You Be My Neighbor, they celebrate the life of a similar subversive.  He took everything you were supposed to do to create a successful children’s show and did the complete opposite.  Low production values, very slow moving pace, poor acting, and no slapstick energy or comedy.

As an ordained Presbyterian minister, he approached the work with a missional fervor that television has likely ever seen or probably even understood.  When the race…

It was always intended that we would lead.  Over our families, businesses, organizations, and pretty much everything, according to Moses.  We were all born to lead.  That taking charge, initiating, and trying to negotiate everything going on around us, is actually holy.  Or at least rooted in something holy.

At the heart of every great story is a…

….hero who decides to use their power for good and not evil.

….villain who decides to use their power for evil and not good.

Opposite sides of the same coin.  Both emanating from power, desire, and the interest in having things go their way.  The origin stories…

SUCK -

Not good. Bad. 

The early Jazz musicians would say that a guy could really "Blow" if he had a good sound when playing the horn. If he couldn't play very well then they would say that he was "Sucking" on that horn. That's where the term "Suck" as being something bad came from.

If you suck, it generally means you have no skill and/or talent. 

A good friend of mine is reading a book that was foundational to completely re-orienting my faith about 15 years…

If the primary question you are askiang has to do with how to have a good retirement, that is going to lead you in one direction.

If the primary question you are asking has to do with how do you make the world a better place, that will likely lead you in another.

Turns out that the questions we are asking others can have a similar defining effect.  One of the things we regularly challenge the leaders…

I was listening to a podcast recently where they were talking about the bass note being the deepest, truest, most defining thing about who we are.  This is the type of podcast where they are trying to be inclusive of all religions, but the Christian leader of the podcast was clearly talking about the God that I know…

Every employer I talk to is frustrated with the state of the current employment base.  Workers seem less committed to long-term employment.  Tenures of their employees seem to be shrinking.  No one is interested in building a long-term career.  Nothing is like it used to be.

Or is it?

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, not much has really changed on the tenure of the average employee of a salary and wage job in over 50 years…

Most of us are pretty good at the one and pretty poor at the other.  We're super clear on what our priorities should be:

1. God

2. Family

3. Friends

4. Work

5. etc.

We got the “noun” part of this thing down. We know how to give the right answer when we are asked about what is most important to us. The “verb” is where things really start to break down.

The reality is determined…

Our realtor came with a stager.  She rolled through the house and quickly arrived at a short list of things that would ultimately change our lives.

• cut the contents of our closets down by half

• whittle our hundreds of books in our shelves to dozens

• make the house more welcoming from the street…

Zeus gives a box to Pandora, the first woman, with one strong stipulation: don’t open it. Like almost anyone, the prohibition on opening the box was actually the catalyst to that occurring.  (At least that is the way it works for me.)  She opens the box and all kinds of evils and miseries were unleashed to affect mankind.

Most of us suffer under the idea that there is stuff in a box or closet that we just need to keep closed. That if we open up to those mysteries, all kinds of misery and evil will be unleashed.  

But my experience has been exactly the opposite.

What is actually lurking in the shadows is opportunity, goodness, and the foundation for so much restoration. It is walking into those closets…

We believe in the idea of calling. We think that we were all uniquely created to offer one aspect of the Divine that no other creature can (as C.S. Lewis talks about).  Abundant life, momentum, productivity, joy, etc. are found at the intersection of your life, God, and what he particularly created you to do.

One of the leaders we work with said recently in an interview:

“Having that kind of clarity gives you a sense of calm, a resolve. You are not anxious about the future or even the past for that moment. You are a little more excited about the present and that everything is so purposeful and is so meaningful.”  

Turns out there is similar data to support the power of organizational purpose and helping employees align their own purposes to that…

When I was involved in the securities industry for a couple of decades, bond salesmen used to talk about firing clients. It was always a cause for celebration when you could.  

Stories about restoration may be my favorite thing. Honoring great leadership is one of the others.  Emma Koehler’s story and the construction of Hotel Emma are about both.  

We all, at times, feel like we are powerless to succeed given the deck of cards that the market has dealt us or our industry.

You know that feeling, right?

And while there is a humility in not taking full credit for our success, it can be a tremendous stumbling block...

My tank was pretty much on empty.  I was showing up to work every day and was pretty proud of how I showed up to every game, practice, or other children’s event for my first 3 children who were 13, 10, and 7 at the time.  I was super present in my children’s lives, but knew in my heart that I didn’t really have much to offer.

At a men’s weekend in Colorado a little over 15 years ago, we were forced to take a hard look at our lives, our parenting, and our marriage.  It wasn’t a “beat down” like I had experienced at so many faith-based men’s events, but an open…

Despite managing $1 Billion in bank assets and outperforming virtually everyone in my high-performing peer group, I was still making only a few thousand more than when I started as a credit analyst just out of college.  Add to the fact we were expecting our third child and I felt like it was time to go around the boss (who said he was unable to adjust my compensation) and speak directly to the CFO we all reported to.

I was incredibly nervous.  My presentation included 3 years performance against the relevant Lehman indices, the incremental…