Your 20-Watt Brain

Psalm 119:11
“Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.”

Picture in your mind the sight and sounds of popcorn popping. As you picture the popping becoming more frantic as the popper fills up, do you begin to smell the popcorn? That’s part of the wonder of the brain. The brain can not only store words and ideas, but sights, sounds and even smells.

The average person’s memory is able to retain about 100 billion bits of information – the information found in 500 sets of encyclopedias. But, to use computer language, the brain is not only a place where information is stored, it is also an information processor. Yet it only weighs a little less than four pounds and uses about 20 watts of energy. Our most sophisticated modern computers don’t even begin to approach such efficiency.

Research has shown that the more you use part of your brain, the larger that part becomes – just like building muscles. And if you don’t use part of your brain, it starts shrinking. Few of us have developed our ability to memorize things to any great extent. But to show you what can be done, in May of 1974 a Burmese man recited, from memory, 16,000 pages from a Buddhist religious text!

What are you doing with that marvelous organ, the brain, that your Creator gave to you? How much of His Word have you stored in your memory as a treasure which can never be taken away?

Prayer:
Heavenly Father, thank You for the wonderful gift of the brain. Forgive me for thinking that my brain isn’t as wonderful as it truly is and for comparing it to others. Help me to develop the gifts You have given me for Your glory. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Notes:
Painting: “Memory” by Olin Warner. Bronze door at main entrance of the Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building.