Perhaps you saw the
article on happiness in the New York Times this week that claimed
money actually does bring happiness, at least in certain circumstances. It seems
that some degree of financial flexibility brings options, and the pursuit of
some options -- education, entrepreneurship and health -- actually contributes
to personal happiness.
Years ago, Dan Gilbert,
a professor of psychology at Harvard, collaborated with other scholars to do a
definitive study on happiness, the decision-making processes and thought rubrics
that shape our sense of well-being. Perhaps the most helpful observation was
that we are mostly wrong when it comes to decisions regarding what will make us
happy: a new car, new kitchen, new clothes, will not make us nearly as happy,
nor for as long, as we expect.
Gilbert has a wonderful
phrase for this gap between what we predict and what we ultimately experience:
"impact bias.” Gilbert and his colleagues think that if we were more keenly
aware of our "impact bias," we would invest our resources more purposefully in
endeavors that really produce happiness. "We might, for instance, take more time
being with friends than more time making money."
He also suggests the
mistaken choices about what will make us happy are best understood as
“miswanting.”
This week's sermon will
explore biblical notions of satisfaction, fullness and life. We'll look at how
Jesus cleverly presented his understanding of the "life that is really life" in
contrast to the "mis-wanting" and "impact bias" of his day (John 2:1-11). Topics
in the sermon will range from parties, wine, bacchanalia, pornography (yes, you
read that right) and self-giving.
I invite you to come,
learn and be challenged to embrace the life that is really life.
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