We have all heard the phrase, “You are what you eat.”

We know that what we eat has an impact on our health.

We all know that what we eat starts to create who we are as a body.

But did you know that what you think and what you do over time also creates who you are in your brain and in your soul?

A few years ago, I read a book about the plasticity of the brain called, Train Your Mind Change Your Brain by Sharon Begley (Ballantine Books, 2007).

There are two main points in this book.

First neuroscience has discovered in the past few decades that our brains remain plastic, or changeable from the day we are born until the day we die.

Until very recently, modern science thought that the brain you are born with is the brain you die with, perhaps some changes occur throughout childhood, but basically once you are an adult, your brain no longer grows or changes, except in cases of injury or disease, when it deteriorates.

What the most recent science has discovered, however, is that this is just not true.

What you do and think each and every moment actually impacts your brain.

Our brains are changing all the time.

If I focus on the bad things around me all the time, I will actually change the way my brain functions.

If I perform specific brain exercises, I can actually improve the way certain parts of my brain function.

Our brains are much more like muscle, skin, and bone than we ever knew.

The second and most important point of the book is that the mind can and does affect the brain.

What do I mean by this?

Well, first we need to define mind.

The mind is our thoughts, and the brain is the physical organ found in our skull between our earlobes.

Science has held until very recently that it is our brain that produces our mind.

In other words, it is our brain that creates our thoughts.

Therefore, if your thoughts are disordered—overly pessimistic or violent for example—then it means that there is something wrong with your brain—a chemical imbalance or some other injury.

What neuroscience is discovering, however, is that while injury or chemical imbalance can cause changes in the brain, the reverse is also true.

What you think can actually change the chemical balance and structure of your brain. This can be seen with cognitive therapy used with people with depression.

In cognitive therapy, a depressed person is asked to write down his or her negative thoughts and to analyze and then rethink them.

For example, say that somebody comes up to me after the service and says to me, “Suzannah, that was a lousy sermon, how can you call yourself a priest?” and my first thought is,

“Wow, I must be a horrible priest, person, and Christian because that person didn’t like my sermon.

I ought to quit now and never preach again,”

I would probably start to feel pretty down on myself and a little depressed.

Using cognitive therapy, I would write my negative thoughts down and then analyze it.

Does my value as a person depend on how well I preach my sermons?

No, I am a beloved child of God.

Even if this one sermon was not so good, does that mean I always preach poorly?

No, we all have good days and bad days.

Because one person doesn’t like my sermons does that mean that everyone doesn’t like my sermons?

No, that was one person’s opinion; it doesn’t mean that all people feel that way about my preaching or this sermon. In other words, we are what we think.

So, we are what we eat, we are what we think, and we are a third thing—we are what we do.

Aristotle, the philosopher from ancient Greece, wrote that knowing virtue does not make us virtuous.

Being virtuous or doing virtuous things is what makes us virtuous.

He asked this simple but deep question, “would you rather know what virtue is or be virtuous?”

In other words what we do day in and day out forms and changes our brains and creates who we are.

Athletes and musicians know this.

That is why the practice for hours every day for years and years and years.

They know that talent or ability is not enough.

Athletes and musicians know that you must repeat the action of playing an instrument or a sport over and over and over again if you wish to become an athlete or a musician.

You can read about music or sports, you can watch it, but the only way you will become an athlete or musician is to do it over and over and over again.

Think about the pilot, Chelsey Sullenberger who several years ago successfully landed his damaged airliner in the Hudson river, saving all who were onboard and possibly hundreds of others on the ground who could have been hit by the downed plane.

He was able to do this remarkable feat not because he had studied flight and crash landings, but because throughout his career he had practiced over and over and over again for just such a situation.

He was a hero that day because he had practiced being a hero over and over again.

So, we are what we eat, what we think and what we do.

And this is exactly what I believe Paul is talking about today in his letter to the Ephesians when he tells us to “put on the whole armor of God. . .” so that we “may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”

I think that Paul understood human beings very well, and he understood that the reason virtuous people are virtuous is because throughout their lives they have practiced virtuosity in all the little actions that made up their lives.

Then when these individuals were faced with a big moral decision, they were trained to make the virtuous decision and were able to do so.

And what are the virtues that we are to practice every day, what is this armor we are to put on?—Well, we are to be truthful, we are to act justly and rightly, we are to practice and speak peace, we are to behave in a trustworthy manner, we are to live our faith, we are to pray regularly, and listen and read the word of God.

As we practice these things each and every day, we will become better at them, and we will grow stronger.

Then when we are faced with bigger moral challenges, we will have the strength to make the right decision.

We will find ourselves clothed in the whole armor of God.

And there are many disciplines we can take on to develop this armor.

We can not only speak the truth but also seek to learn the truth about the world in which we live and the society in which we are a part.

Join a book group that reads books that tackle hard subjects such as racism or climate change.

We can read scripture deeply so that we can begin to understand this way of Jesus that we have chosen to follow.

Join or start a Bible study group.

Read books written by those who have chosen to study Scripture as a profession.

Pick up a small devotional like Forward Day by Day and start and begin your day with Scripture.

Find intentional ways to put yourself in others’ shoes, especially those who are very different from you or who you find yourself judging.

Join with others in worship at least once every week that you might be reminded that God is God and you are not.

Make a practice of looking regularly at how you spend your money and use your time.

Does it match the values you hold?

If we are what we think and what we do, who are you?

What do your actions and thoughts say about you?

What are you practicing each and every day?

Is it time to take on some new disciplines so that you might be more of the person you always hoped to be?

“Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” Amen.