Out Of The Pits

"You intended to harm me, but God meant it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives." --Genesis 50:20

Read: Genesis 50

Left out, left behind, left for dead. Young Joey could do no wrong in his father's eyes, so his big brothers squinted theirs. In a jealous plot, Joey's brothers took him for a long walk off a short pier. The next thing this favorite son knew, he was lying in a pit, listening to the sound of clanging silver in exchange for his life. And before long, he was in a foreign land full of foreign faces that spoke a foreign language.

Your boss gives the promotion to the one who sleeps in his cubicle. Someone else gets the credit for the work you did on the school group project. We may not be shipped off to another country, but we sure do know our way around the pits. But a neat thing about young Joey is that although the breaks got rough, they didn't break him. He made good. Learned the language, made friends, stayed focused. It wasn't long until the king alone out-ranked him.

In our week of looking at great life-closers, Joseph's story is unavoidable. From pit to prime minister. Of everything I draw from it, two things jump off the page. First, despite his circumstances, Joseph honed his unique, God-given gift. Everything around him might have been foreign, but the same God he knew at home was the same God in Egypt. So Joseph resolved to cling to his dreams, literally. (If you're a dreamer, keep it up.) And second, he chose to forgive. One snap of his fingers and his begging brothers would be begging for their lives. Nobody would have blamed him, but Joseph knew that what some people mean for bad, God can make great.

See, Joseph was a closer. Written off in chapter one, his rough start made for one great conclusion.

--Jimmy Peña

For Discussion: What do you love about the story of Joseph? What can his faithfulness and forgiveness teach us about our lives, our health, our perspective? Do you feel like you need a tighter grip on your dreams? Have you ever felt like you're in Egypt? Are you there now?

FAITH & FITNESS AT YOUR CHURCH: You have a house full of believers -- devout in its faith, dutiful in its service. But how is the physical health of your church? Is stewardship of health a topic of discussion? If not, it may be time to add a new message to the mission of the congregation -- one that places a higher value on abundant living, one that charges members to care for the body that carries the soul. PrayFit founder Jimmy Peña is hitting the road in the coming weeks and months to help spread this message of faith and fitness, of health and a heart for service. Click play below for more on this message and write us today at [email protected] to find out how you can bring Jimmy to your next church or community event.

Just Because

"Whatever you do, do it from the heart, as unto the Lord, and not for men." --Colossians 3:23

Read: Colossians 3 The last two days have been special in the Peña household. My beloved Yankees came to town to play the Dodgers. But stay with me, you football fans, it gets better. See, it's because I wasn't able to actually go to the game that I had the honor of listening to the legendary Vin Scully broadcast it. To hear him welcome "The Great Derek Jeter" to the plate (his words) was, well, was just about perfect.

For those who know Vin Scully, you're well aware that he can find the best stories about each player on the baseball field. Well, my night went from good to great when he reminisced about current Dodger coach Don Mattingly back in 1995 -- then the Yankees veteran captain -- talking to a young rookie Derek Jeter. Vin Scully recounted, "It was just a regular practice. The stadium was empty. Not a soul in the stands. And when it was time to go to the clubhouse, Don turned to Derek and said, 'Let's run. Always hustle. You never know who's watching.'"

You never know who's watching. Well, we know who's watching don't we?  Our verse today says, "Whatever you do, do it from the heart, as unto the Lord, and not for men." (Colossians 3:23) We've said it before but there's no reason why we should ever be out-worked. Never so that the world sees us, or for the social community to praise us, but simply for the Lord. You know, the longer I live the more I know that Jesus is the reason we summon whatever it is He made us with to answer life's call from the deepest parts of us.

He's why we forgive and give, hold the door, hold the hand, hold our tongues. He's why we serve, share, smile with people one day and cry with them the next. And He's why we see health as stewardship. He's why we take the stairs, take charge of what we drink, take ownership of what we eat. He's why we run, walk, swim, train and work with all our might. And He's why we do so modestly and quietly. Does He love us more or less if we succeed or fail at any of it? Of course not. And that's just why. So friends, today, in our own unique way, in whatever ways we have to or can, let's run. Always hustle. Just because He's watching.

--Jimmy Peña

For Discussion: Are you answering your life's call from the deepest parts of you? Is it time to run at work, school, the dinner table?

HUSTLE AT WORK

For as often as we espouse the virtues of high-intensity training, some may find our fitness tips to be a bit intimidating. After all, working harder than you’re accustomed to never sounds like a fun undertaking. And while there are some actual, defining guidelines for intensity — i.e. working to 95% of your max effort on an interval run — you can take heart knowing that it is also relative.

One example is interval walking. If you’re not up to performing sprints, you can simply speed up the pace of your walks. Try walking at a faster clip for 30 seconds, then falling back into your normal pace for 1-4 minutes. As you progress, speed up the pace — it may not be long before you’re into a slow jog — and/or shorten rest periods. Ideally, you want to work toward 30-second “sprints” followed by one-minute “walks.” One study showed that subjects who performed 4-6, 30-second sprints three times per week burned more bodyfat than those who did traditional steady-state cardio. But the term “sprint” is a measure of effort, rather than speed.

You don’t have to be a sprinter to get the fat-burning, heart-healthy benefits of high-intensity interval training (HIIT). By applying the basic tenets of HIIT to your cardio and implementing concept of progression, you can start right where you are — today.