Souls On Fire

Elie Wiesel, the great humanitarian and distinguished author, makes a powerful statement on human growth in his book, “Souls on Fire.” In it, he suggests that when we die and go to meet our Maker, we’re not going to be asked why we didn’t become a great religious leader or why we didn’t find a cure for cancer. Instead, we will be asked, “Why didn’t you become you?” (Why didn’t you use your God-given gifts to grow into the kind of full human being God intended for you to be?)

God has many remarkable ways of illustrating the growth process. For instance, in the case of the Chinese bamboo tree, the seed is planted, watered, fertilized, and for the first four years, there is no visible growth. Amazingly, however, during the fifth year, the Chinese bamboo tree grows ninety feet in just six weeks. Think about it. Did the tree really take five years to begin growing? Not at all. Although growth was not visible,…