Most pastors could quote Mark 12:30 in their sleep: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” We usually hear “mind” as a call to sound doctrine and careful thinking, and it is. But the mind we love God with depends on an organ, three pounds of tissue that God formed and entrusted to our care. How often does that organ come up when we think about faithfulness?
Fitness and nutrition coach Laurie Kelly raises that question in her article, The Brain: Your Body’s Most Important Muscle. Her practical counsel is worth hearing, and it matters even more for those of us in ministry, where the brain does nearly all the heavy lifting.
Think about what a typical week asks of your mind. Sermon preparation. A hospital visit followed by a budget meeting. A hard conversation with a staff member. Carrying the weight of a congregant’s crisis while working through forty emails. Pastoral work is overwhelmingly mental and emotional labor, and the brain absorbs the cost.
“Eat the Fats Your Brain Is Built From Your brain depends on essential fatty acids, especially omega-3s, which your body cannot make and must get from food.”
As Kelly notes, the brain makes up only about 2% of body weight, yet it uses roughly 20% of the body’s energy. It is also built largely from water and fats, which means what we drink and eat directly shapes how well it works. And the long-term stakes are real. Many of us have walked with congregants and family members through Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s, and we know what is lost when the mind begins to fail.
None of this is a call to anxiety. It is a call to stewardship. Paul writes, “You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Your brain is part of that body. Caring for it isn’t self-indulgence. It is faithfulness with what has been placed in your hands.
Here are five practices from Kelly’s article, considered through the lens of pastoral life.
When Elijah collapsed under the broom bush, exhausted and ready to quit, God’s first response was not a rebuke or a sermon. An angel woke him, and beside his head was “some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water” (1 Kings 19:6). Before God addressed Elijah’s despair, He tended to his body.
There is wisdom in that order. The brain is mostly water, and even mild dehydration can bring on fog, fatigue, and a shorter fuse. Many pastors run from Sunday services into afternoon meetings on coffee alone. When you feel drained, scattered, or overwhelmed, the first remedy may be as simple as a glass of water.
Your brain depends on essential fatty acids, especially omega-3s, which your body cannot make and must get from food. Kelly explains that omega-3s support the growth of neurons and the brain’s ability to form and reorganize connections, the very processes behind learning and memory.
For someone who studies, retains, and communicates truth for a living, that matters. Fish and seafood are excellent sources, as are flaxseeds and hemp, sunflower, and pumpkin seeds. Small, steady choices here support the mind you bring to the study and the pulpit.
Kelly points to the benefits of meditation for mental clarity and emotional resilience. For Christians, meditation is not a technique for emptying the mind. It is the practice of filling it. The blessed person is the one “whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night” (Psalm 1:2).
Pastors handle Scripture constantly, but much of that handling serves the next sermon or lesson. Meditation is different. It is unhurried attention to God’s Word for your own soul, and silent prayer in which you “cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). Even Jesus, “very early in the morning, while it was still dark,” went off to a solitary place to pray (Mark 1:35). Slowing down before God quiets the anxious mind, and that quiet shows up in clearer thinking and steadier emotions.
Exercise is usually framed as physical care, but Kelly highlights research showing that physical activity supports the growth of new brain cells and connections and may help slow some effects of aging on the brain. For pastors, whose days are often spent at desks, in meetings, and in hospital waiting rooms, movement is one of the most effective ways to sharpen focus and restore mental energy.
This doesn’t require a gym membership. A daily walk, perhaps one spent in prayer, honors both body and mind.
The brain runs on glucose, but the source matters. Kelly recommends meals built around vegetables, leafy greens, fruit, and lean proteins, and she advises steering clear of refined sugars, which hide in soft drinks, baked goods, white bread, and even salad dressings.
Ministry culture doesn’t always make this easy. Fellowship hall donuts, potlucks, and drive-through lunches between appointments are part of the landscape. The goal isn’t rigidity. It’s intentionality: choosing food that sustains the mental energy your calling requires.
Caring for your brain is not about optimizing performance. It is about receiving your mind as a gift and stewarding it so you can serve with clarity and endurance for years to come. The pastor who drinks water, eats well, moves, and meditates on God’s Word isn’t stepping away from ministry. That pastor is preparing to keep loving God, and God’s people, with all their mind.
Where might God be inviting you to steward your mind more faithfully this week? Start small. Choose one of these practices, ask the Lord for grace to keep it, and trust Him with the rest.
