I would tell you to sit down before you read this blog, but it seems “Sitting for eight or more hours a day can be deadly” (Washington Post).

As a child of the “Just Say No” campaign, it was hard to imagine smoking adults. Of course soon enough I was surrounded by smoking teenagers (who often embraced Marijuana, since cigarettes were deadly…). Yet I had an understanding of my grandparent’s generation. They were addicted before the implications were apparent. They started and were hooked long before studies connected smoking to lung cancer. You might have argued a product that brings fits of coughing should not be inhaled. But, as a counter argument, exercising is painful at first.

This idea of not understanding the consequences, makes me wonder about my current actions. I worry about the day when coffee will become linked to some horrible disease. How will I explain to my grandchild why “grumps” still drinks black death? (I am not very hopeful on kicking the habit…)

There are real warning signs that to point to environmental calamity. Just today the UN released a report that CO2 levels continue to rise and last year showed the biggest year to year increase in thirty years. Yet I never pause driving my car. So I may someday need to explain my affinity for fossil fuel powered automobiles.

Add to this the potential dangers of plastics and preservatives and sitting in chairs… At some point our brains are left unable to make choices. So many decisions might lead to our early death or the world’s demise… we might as well drink another soda with a burger and fries.  (Did I forget to mention obesity.)

Logic would decide “better to be safe than sorry”, but who makes safe decision? Most of us can make good decisions for other people. There is no secret to identifying the problem/solution when I counsel. Anyone could. The secret, one I often do not find, is how to motivate the person to make the right choice. As people we seem unable to make choices for our own best interest. We have so much, even too much, knowledge. But we have no idea how to wield it for our own sake. Our selfishness, our need for instant gratification, gets in the way…

Our hope must come from the outside. From the one who stands at the door and knocks. In communion with Christ even our mundane decisions should become His. Thankfully God likes to walk in the garden, which should keep me from sitting at this desk too long.