What We Think About Shapes Who We Become

Blog Series

Helpful Tips for Saving Yourself from Trouble

It is said that you cannot break the laws of God. You can only break yourself against them when you violate them. In this Helpful Tips for Saving Yourself from Trouble series we are looking at some of the simple and clear “laws of God” – that is to say, “biblical principles” – that we must follow if we do not want to bring very negative cause-effect consequences into our lives.

We become like what we think about

Felix Mendelssohn, the brilliant Jewish composer who was also a Christian, had an astonishing memory and mental capacity.  One of his most famous works is his Overture to a Midsummer Night’s Dream, a dazzling composition still popular today.  After he wrote it in 1829, he carelessly left it in a horse-drawn taxi in London and it disappeared. He seemed curiously unconcerned about it.

The reason was evident when he sat down and, astonishingly, wrote it out again from memory. Magnifying that feat, the lost manuscript turned up at the Royal Academy of Music some 100 years later, and when it was compared with the second manuscript, out of tens of thousands of notes, there were no discrepancies!

In a similar feat of memory, immediately before a performance one evening, a clarinetist rushed up to the renown conductor Arturo Toscanini. “Maestro, Maestro! What am I to do? The E flat key on my clarinet has just broken.” Toscanini stared at him silently. The unnerved musician thought perhaps he was preparing to murder him. Instead, after a long moment, his trance-like stare was broken and he said, “That is all right. You don’t have an E flat tonight.”

These feats of memory are well beyond the capacity of mere mortals. Most of us identify more completely with a young man who had just witnessed the birth of his daughter. As the baby was cleaned up and brought back to her mother, the dad was allowed to hold her for just a few minutes. As he did, tears welled up in his eyes. He drew a breath and opened his mouth to speak. His wife paused expectantly to hear something poetic in this tender moment. Instead, he said, “What’s her name again?”

Most of us identify more with the new father than with Mendelssohn or Toscanini.

But as intriguing and intricate as the mind’s capacity for memory is, even more powerful is its impact on our behavior. The battlefield for the Christian life is in the mind. It is between the ears that the spiritual war is won or lost.

Physically, we are what we eat. Eat badly, and we bring on physical problems. Eat well, and we encourage physical health. Similarly, spiritually, we are what we think about. Think well and we encourage spiritual health. Think poorly and we bring on spiritual problems. For this reason, the Bible speaks loudly and clearly about our need to nurture and protect our mind.

• Jesus said, in Matthew 22:37, “You shall love the Lord Your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”
• Philippians 4:8 says, “Finally brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”
• 2 Corinthians 10:5 says, “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”

As we carefully guard what we allow our minds to think about, it shapes who we become.

We must be sure that what we believe is actually true

Jesus said, “You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). To the degree that we know and embrace the truth, we can be set free to unending spiritual growth. To the degree that we do not know and embrace the truth, we are vulnerable to ignorance and deception.

If we believe something that is not true, and act on that belief, the results can be very unpleasant.

A book titled Up to No Good: The Rascally Things Boys Do, is a compilation of stories recalling the childhood years of men who grew up to be “perfectly decent.”

One story recalled, “Lou was playing with some friends and decided to try flying. So, they climbed up onto the roof of the barn, and Lou strapped some heavy wooden boards onto his brother’s arms. Then they counted down, and he jumped. He was lying on the ground, groaning in pain with several broken bones, and Lou yelled, “Hey Shorty! You forgot to flap your wings!”

You see, Lou’s brother, Shorty—momentarily persuaded by Lou—believed he could fly. Based on that belief, Shorty jumped off the roof of the barn. But what he believed was wrong, and he paid the price.

So, we must start with what we believe, and must be scrupulous about assessing whether or not what we believe is actually true. This is especially important with younger generations who often reject the weaknesses of the previous generations, which is a positive thing. But a profound danger is the tendency to also reject the strengths of the previous generations.

Most individuals go down with the ship of their generation in this regard. It is vital for each individual to make the commitment not to do so – not to go down with their generation’s ship. It is vital that we are meticulous in assessing what is true and false, and only reject that which is false from prior generations. It is vital that we be utterly committed to the truth.

We must repeat the truth until it changes us.

We must take great care, because, as we said, what we put into our minds determines who we become.  That is why the Scriptures make a clear connection between our thoughts and our actions:

• Proverbs 23:7 says, “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.”
• Luke 6:45 reads, “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”
• Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Neuroscience adds current scientific observations to Scripture to help Christians understand how we can begin to win that battle. The brain always changes in the direction of what we put into it. Therefore, what we put into our brain shapes the very course of our lives.

Conclusion

There are 100,000 miles of electrical wiring in the brain. Every time we think a thought, it travels a specific route along that wiring. Interestingly, if we think that thought a second time, it travels the same route.  If we think that thought a hundred times, or a thousand times, it always travels the same route.

The more we think about something, the deeper its pathway is burned into our neurological wiring, making it easier to remember and think that thought. And, as we neglect thoughts, those thoughts’ pathways begin to overgrow, making it more difficult to remember and think those thoughts.

Therefore, as we reinforce positive thinking and neglect negative thinking, it rewires the brain, enabling us live consistently according to the positive thinking. It shapes  our brain and determines  who we become.

The Bible has said it all along. Neuroscience has shown us how. What we think about really does shape who we become.

In case you’re new here:
As this series continues, each succeeding post will be added to and available in the blog archives. The entire “Helpful Tips for Saving Yourself from Trouble” series is in the archives, beginning with the first post on July 26, 2022.

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