Every man is responsible for his own destiny

“Every man is responsible for his own destiny” – Raiden (Mortal Kombat)

Every single soul will have the opportunity to turn to God, confess his/her sins and walk from darkness into light.  I found that in 2013 and early 2014 I became way too consumed about other people.  I carried bitterness in my heart and self righteousness.   I talked more about God then I talked with Him.  Instead of seeking his kingdom I was dwelling in my own.  I was separated from the vine and I was not bearing fruit.

Christ called men and women in scripture to repent and seek the kingdom of God.  Jesus is the Way the Truth and the Life.  In order to seek the kingdom we have to imitate him and grow to be more like him through sanctification.  I worried to much about other peoples walks of life instead of working to strength my own faith which was and is weak.  Christ wants all of us to seek him with a humble and gentle heart, to leave all past failures and wounds at the cross and to continue to be made new. 

We are broken pieces of a pot and he has picked us up to remold us into a new slab spinning on the rotator with his hands forming the new creation.

The quote at the top is referenced from a movie I saw as a young boy called Mortal Kombat.  Raiden is a leader in the movie who guides the mortals who are willing to enter into single elimination tournament in another world.  He articulates and imitates what the Holy Spirit is to us.  The Holy Spirit from God is a guide which encourages us to be strong and courageous but also wise. 

He said this line to Lu Kang who is consumed by his brother’s death and continues to blame himself for the loss.  We all beat ourselves up sometimes for things that are just out of our control.  We have to understand that control is a dangerous thing and too much may make us think we don’t need God at all.  We all need him through Jesus Christ and although we can control some outcomes…. we continue to walk in faith by saying I trust in you Lord knowing that the ending outcome will be good. Salvation awaits all of us and He has prepared a room for you and me. “ My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?” – John 14

With Love,

Brendan J. Micik

FaithFocusFinish

Sedentary Suicide

It is no secret that America has been plagued with high rates of cancer, diabetes and heart disease.  Many medical professionals believe a large contributor to this recent upward trend has been linked to the sedentary lifestyle Americans have adopted.  In this day in age with the advancements in technology people have replaced the need to find food (exercise) with the ability to buy food 24 hours a day ( most of which is usually processed in some way).  Instead of working in the fields America works behind a computer screen, instead of playing outside children are playing video games inside.  All the exhaustive measures have been taken out of the equation, the consumer is handed a frozen TV dinner instead of gathering dinner by hand.

To make matters worse, researchers have discovered that not only is being sedentary bad for your health  you can't reverse it's negative effects with exercise.

"A large review recently published in The Journal of the National Cancer Institute confirms what we’ve been hearing for years: Sitting can be fatal.

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It’s been linked to cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. In this latest meta-analysis, Daniela Schmid and Michael F. Leitzmann of the University of Regensburg in Germany analyzed 43 observational studies, amounting to more than 4 million people’s answers to questions about their sitting behavior and cancer incidences. The researchers examined close to 70,000 cancer cases and found that sitting is associated with a 24% increased risk of colon cancer, a 32% increased risk of endometrial cancer, and a 21% increased risk of lung cancer.

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The really bad news: You can’t exercise away the habit’s harmful effects. “Adjustment for physical activity did not affect the positive association between sedentary behavior and cancer,” the authors write. Even participants who achieved the daily recommended levels of physical activity were at the same risk as those who spent their day sitting. “[The results] indicate that the increased risk of cancer seen in individuals with prolonged time spent sedentary is not explained by the mere absence of physical activity in those persons,” the researchers say.

1. Sitting –> weight gain –> elevated risk

When you’re sedentary, you burn only about a calorie a minute. Being overweight or obese is a known risk factor for many common chronic diseases. The cancer risk, the authors note, comes about because obesity can promote insulin resistance and bodily inflammation, two of the many things known to increase increase the risk of cancer for people of above-average body weight. Interestingly, the authors also mention the link between obesity and vitamin D deficiency, which has beenassociated with an elevated risk of colon cancer.

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2. Sitting –> inactive muscles –> harmful biological signaling

Sitting also means your large postural support muscles, such as the quadriceps and glutes, aren’t doing anything. When active, these muscles produce a suite of beneficial molecules. “Skeletal muscles have an electrical activity in them when they’re working which is like the light switch that turns on all these healthy things in the muscles,” explained Marc Hamilton, director of the Inactivity Physiology Program at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana in a recentwebinar. When you sit, you turn these light switches off.

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A widely studied casualty of this blackout is lipoprotein lipase, an enzyme that Hamilton likens to “a vacuum cleaner for fats in the blood stream.” When Hamilton forced rats to remain inactive for 24 hours, their lipoprotein lipase activity became virtually nonexistent (a 90%-95% reduction). This led to a more than 75% drop in the ability of their muscles to remove noxious fats from the bloodstream, as well as a significant decrease in “good” cholesterol (HDL cholesterol).

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Hamilton has also found that just a few hours of sitting suppresses a gene that helps keep your cardiovascular system healthy by controlling inflammation and blood clotting. The worrying thing, Hamilton told Runner’s World, is after a day of sitting, exercise doesn’t seem to turn the gene back on. As the article pithily put it: “Sitting is the new smoking—even for runners.”

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The good news for the proactive is you can break up the sedentary cycle fairly easy.  Take a walk around your building or through your hallways several times a day.  Go to the gym on your lunch break and instead  eat at your desk when you get back.  Try to include coworkers within these activities for entertainment and comradery value.  With every given problem there is a solution but it comes down to your will to put forward the effort in order to see change.

What to do

"But there is some good news. Studies have found that simply interrupting your sitting time with short breaks of movement—just standing or walking slowly—has beneficial effects. In a 2008 study published in Diabetes Care, researchers from the University of Queensland in Australia equipped 168 adults with an accelerometer, measuring their every move for seven consecutive days. Those who took more breaks from sitting had narrower waists, and lower body mass index, triglycerides and glucose tolerance—all important measures for obesity and metabolic health. The average length of their breaks: just four and a half minutes.

Pinpointing just exactly how long or frequent these breaks need to be is still up for investigation. More recent research show signs of improved glucose metabolism with one minute and 40 seconds of walking every 30 minutes for a nine-hour sitting period, as well as two-minute bouts of light-intensity treadmill walking every 20 minutes throughout a five-hour sitting period. In short, getting up and walking around at least twice an hour can keep your skeletal muscles turned on and lower the risk of disease.

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Finally, sitting doesn’t have to be the default. Though we’re still awaiting a scientifically-backed, quantitative recipe for reducing the damage, there are some simple changes you can make to get out of your seat. You can take walking meetings, try standing desks (here’s how to build your own) or treadmill desks, take more breaks throughout the day, or add some exercise to your commute by biking, walking or simply parking further from the office entrance. Or, if you’re feeling particularly ambitious, you could try what Dan Kols, a writer for New York magazine, did, and eliminate sitting entirely. I wish your heels good luck."

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Newman, H. (2014, June 26). Why not even exercise will undo the harm of sitting all day—and what you can do about it.. Quartz. Retrieved June 27, 2014, from http://qz.com/223160/why-not-even-exercise-will-undo-the-harm-of-sitting-all-day-and-what-you-can-do-about-it/

Cell Phones and Manliness

Dear Friends,

I write to you today to address some thoughts I have on cell phones and manliness.  This week i have witnessed time and time again friends of mine putting on cell phone clinics while in the presence of others.  About 80 to 90 % of their eye contact is with their cell phone, they are mastered by whatever has their attention in the world of technology.  It may be a girl or social networks  regardless there is something un-manly about the behavior.  This video below is a very accurate demonstration of how many men and women conduct their days putting their cell phones before their friends and people they may come into contact with in society.

Below is another accurate illustration.

This picture I just love and hope to have this pocket square soon.

Recently I was watching a movie from the 1950's and Humphrey Bogart one of the actors walks into the room commanding a presence that is felt among all the people in the room.  He does not own a cell phone and the people in the room do not either.  His greets people with a simple hello and the women in the room can fell that he is an authentic man who cultivates his life.  Where are the men like Bogart in today's world?  lets say they are almost extinct.  You wouldn't be able to recognize most men today because they lack discipline, self control and the warrior heart.  They have lost heart, instead of taking risks that may benefit others they would rather take no risks and live a belittled passive lifestyle with high dosages of tinder and txting. 

Below are just a few passages i wanted to share with you that relate to this topic:

 "My wife, Grace, was teaching at a women’s event, and so I took the kids to a restaurant. Sitting around us were many other families like us, with one exception. Every single father was either talking on the phone or responding to emails on his Blackberry throughout the meal, not connecting with his children in any way. Sadly, rather than visiting with their kids and having some fun, these daddies allowed their technological gods to rule over them" - Pastor Mark Driscoll

"Cell phones and iPods are items we carry in our hands. We bring them everywhere. They are used when driving, walking, riding a train, even when hanging around our friends. They cause more distraction than anything.Will there come a day when people don’t even need to process verbal language to sustain relationships? It’s vital that we reconnect ourselves with one another through human communication and take a break from screen-staring all day." - Sean Boswell

"Personally, I don’t long to be in the company of people who are constantly connected to someone else. And it’s not just talking to other people on cell phones. Smart phones allow people to be connected to the Internet for sports scores, news and weather updates — all at your fingertips no matter what your social situation" -Mark Glaser via: http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2007/10/how-cell-phones-are-killing-face-to-face-interactions295/

Lastly, I would like to encourage all of you to take a personal inventory and look at your life.  Are there times where you can just leave the cell phone in the glove compartment or just turn it off.  This world although broken still has so much beauty in it.  I fear that we all are letting it pass by.  Some of the most beautiful things come out of ugly situations, don;t miss the beauty that emerges in your life.  
Some more reading on the subject:
Technology is Destroying the Quality of Human Interaction 

Emily Post Cell Phone Manners
Your Cell Phone Is Not Part of Your Body -- You Can Let It Go

God bless,

Brendan J. Micik

Faith Focus Finish