Sitting is killing us. No, seriously. Sitting. Of all the things out there, it turns out that simply sitting is a significant risk to our health. In fact, experts are calling sitting, “the new smoking.”
According to a recent study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, (Click for Study), researchers have tied sitting for lengthy periods to an increased risk of death in subjects who were 45 and up. Regularly sitting more than 30 minutes at a time increases risk, and 90 minutes or more doubles the risk.
Do you know how much time you sit? Probably more than you think. Previous studies based on self-reporting had people sitting ~9.5 hours/day. But when participants wore activity monitors, the results were ~12 hours out of a 16 hour waking day!
Many of us have jobs where we sit…a lot. So we exercise. But according to the study, exercise doesn’t cancel out the problem. We still need to get up every 30 minutes and have 5 minutes of walking or moving around time.
Spiritually speaking, the same principle is true. Many of us think that by praying at meals, going to church on Sunday, and occasionally reading our Bibles, we have “exercised” our faith. But short bursts of exercise are no match for movement throughout the day.
We have been fooling ourselves. The truth? Most Christians today are morbidly stationary in their faith.
So what’s the solution? Move! That’s why so many of Jesus’ commands to His disciples encouraged movement. Our default is sitting. We need to be reminded… “Wake up,” “Get up,” “Go,” “Pray,” “Carry,” “You feed them,” etc.
Of course, there are limitations. Often, the elderly, infirmed, or physically disabled can’t literally “get up and go” so easily. But, spiritually speaking, we can “take five” from sitting far more often than we do.
I have a watch that buzzes and says, “MOVE!” when I sit too long. Some days I need a spiritual reminder as well, and I’m guessing you do too. Go ahead; take five; and stand up, stand up for Jesus!
There is a huge difference between “no risk” and calculated risk. When you were a kid and you wanted to do something that seemed risky, what did you tell your parents? “It isn’t dangerous!” Right? But the truth was, you probably just didn’t think through everything that could go wrong. It is called calculating risk, and as we get older and wiser, we tend to get better at it.