The human brain is a unique part of the human body. It's about the size of both fists put together and weighs just a few pounds but, like the world's smartest supercomputer, has the ability to process millions of pieces of information every second. It controls how every part of our bodies function making it the most important organ that we have. When we are children it has the ability to soak up large amounts of information very quickly, much like a sponge, making this time in our lives very important educationally. As we get older the learning process becomes harder and we have to train and trick ourselves in order to better be able to retain information. Learning becomes less a matter of ability and more of a matter of willpower and desire. In America, unfortunately, that desire tends to decrease as we get further into our educational careers. You can look at the dropout rates in many of our country's major school systems and see the evidence of this. For the children of Cambodia, however, the desire to learn and grow is alive and well. There is an eagerness and hunger to learn. It is evident in the expressions on their faces and makes attempting to teach them English much easier. It allows greater flexibility in planning and preparation because we can have a little bit more fun than we would otherwise. I saw this excitement the most in their desire to hear the stories of the Bible. While we had anywhere from 10 to 15 children in each of our 4 classes during the week ranging in skill level from very basic to very advanced, there was easily more than 100 each night for our Bible studies. They didn't just come to listen, they came to participate and through that participation really took to heart what we were teaching. After observing this over the course of the month I began to realize that often that same eagerness is missing from my own life, at least when it comes to knowing the things of God. When it comes to sports, especially baseball and college football, I can spout off statistic after statistic and record after record but when it comes to the Word of God it's sometimes much harder than it should be, at least I feel like it is. That's probably one of the main reasons that I enjoy being around squadmates like Betty Gomez and Tia Roberts so much. They know Scripture and they know it incredibly well. Since my time in Cambodia ended I've asked myself a few times what it would look like if I had the same eagerness and desire to learn Scripture and worship God in the same way that these kids want to learn and practice the English language. Let's extend this idea a little bit. What if the entire church body approached the throne of God with this same type of boldness and expectation. I have a feeling that we'd be seeing many more miracles than we are these days. Certainly there are those who regularly meet with the Father excited about what he is doing and is going to do in their lives but God wants more than just this select group of people, he wants everybody. He wants all of his children to come humbly in worship to listen to what he has to say to us individually and corporately. While I as an individual have gotten better at this as the Race has gone on I still have a long way to go. Fortunately I have my entire lifetime to hone this skill and seek everything that God has for me.
