How much?

"Tell us, if there were one thing we could do for your village, what would that be?"

"With all respect, Sahib, you have little to teach us in strength and toughness. And we don't envy you your restless spirits. Perhaps we are happier than you? But we would like our children to go to school. Of all the things you have, learning is the one we most desire for our children."

- Conversation between Sir Edmund Hillary and Urkien Sherpa, from Schoolhouse in the Clouds

(Three Cups of Tea)

Have it all figured out yet? Or are you still learning?

Oh the gift of learning, how we take it for granted at times...

While I was away, I missed out on my niece and nephew's, notorious question stage. You know the one, where every sentence ends with "why?" and you begin to believe there is no way to make it stop. It feels as though someone recorded this one word and then jammed the repeat button.

Soon that stage passes and relief comes only to be followed by the "nothing" stage, which I am pretty positive some of us never grow out of.

What did you learn today?..."nothing." What did you do today?..."nothing." And I think to myself, really? So you really did nothing today? You learned nothing today? How sad.

I know that this is not true. But for some of us adults, we do choose to go through each day, our same old routine, not open to new thoughts and ideas, not willing to learn and challenge ourselves. And that is sad.

When we stop learning, challenging ourselves, embracing new experiences, asking real questions, searching to understand Truth, we miss out on so much, we miss out on the depth GOD wants to take us. We miss out on Life.

"Are we willing to let GOD explode our comfort zone and expand our capacity for him? Or do we want a GOD we can manage? Unfortunately, a lot of the time that is exactly what we want - enough of GOD to make us happy, but not enough to make us change. We'd never say it, but our attitude is just what Wilbur Rees had in mind when he wrote: I would like to buy $3 worth of GOD, please, not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine..."

(Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World)

How much do you want? How much do you choose to take? How much do you choose to give?