The Words of In Jin Moon from 2010
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The Words of In Jin Moon from 2010 |
Good morning, brothers and sisters. How is everyone? It's been a while since I've seen you. We spent a lovely Thanksgiving weekend with our True Parents in Las Vegas, and we got to meet our West Coast members once again. Our True Father gave his heart in addressing those who attended the World Assembly 2010. Father's heart as the True Parent of humankind is to invest in his children, his eternal sons and daughters, so they can truly become great men and women of God. I'm realizing this as Father visits us more and more often, especially in Las Vegas. I told the congregation there that I've often wondered, why Las Vegas?
Of course Father wants to turn Sin City into a shining city on a hill by injecting a little bit of heaven. But people come to Las Vegas to win the jackpot, to experience their luck. It seems that our True Parents keep calling us to Las Vegas to remind us that we are all jackpot winners. We are, indeed, are we not?
We have our True Parents with us, and, knowing that they want America and our American movement to be great, they want our American sons and daughters to be outstanding people who can usher in a new millennium. They are here at this time together with us, sharing the breaking news. They are encouraging all of us around the world to think of ourselves as belonging to one family and to come into this family of God through being blessed to somebody who's from a different background, race, or religion. They are therefore encouraging all of us to respect where we come from but at the same time to learn how to live and love together as a family. This has been the most important message our True Parents have brought to the world. To be experiencing it at this time is an incredible thing.
When we were getting ready for Sunday Service, the band had to rehearse; after rehearsal I bumped into Dave Hunter and his beautiful wife Mitsuru with their new baby, "Little Dave." This is the first time I had a chance to meet Little Dave up close and personal. I had a chance to hold him. At Loving' Life we're terribly proud of Little Dave because we heard Mitsuru would be expecting while she was working for Lovin' Life Ministries. To have the baby come and to be able to celebrate him as part of our worldwide family are beautiful things. And it continues as we see Mitsuru now as a wonderful mom, taking Little Dave along with her everywhere she goes. He's such a bright spirit, and so cute.
I thought Dave and Mitsuru weren't back with us yet. But they are, and it's a definite improvement. Little Dave is so engaging. He has just started eating cereal and solid food. He's goo-gooing and talking his own language that we don't understand, but communicating nonetheless. He kept making eye contact with me. Chris Alan was seated on my left, and the baby was sitting on the other side, looking at all of us. He would stop and look at me and give me a big smile, and then look at Chris Alan and others and then come back and give me another big smile.
Chris turned to me and said, "I think he found somebody he likes." Babies respond to women and, I think, to a woman's voice because it's very close to what they're used to hearing from their mom's voice. Little Dave was a bundle of delight and so much energy. I held him facing his parents, but because he could hear my voice from the back, he kept on bending backward. Chris Alan was laughing because it looked like Little Dave was doing a backward dive into my bosom. That's what they're used to, right? They want nourishment and comfort and to feel loved. When I was thinking about Little Dave and what a treasure he is, as well as all the other blessed children in our midst and all the new members being born into Lovin' Life Ministries, I was thinking to myself, what kind of a generation is he going to be part of?
I wanted to share this You-Tube clip this morning because it poignantly expresses something very important for all of us to think about as human beings. [www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKzxV0QLhRo] It starts out, "We are a lost generation," and it conveys a whole litany of things that we're not going to be or do. It's a pessimistic look at how possibly a young person going through difficult times might be looking at his or her world. "I'm a part of this lost generation, of this generation that's going to put work before my family, is not going to understand the value of my children, and is going to factor in my divorce even before I get married." All of these things are so depressing.
I've often said that when I hear that a child is lost, to my ears it means that child is lonely, an orphan seeking some understanding or truth. Many times young people feel lost when they cannot find their center, or core, or an understanding, or their relationship with God. But the video clip is a litany of all the things making this a lost generation. I did not alter the text. I did not alter anything, but just by reversing how we read the text, just by changing the perspective or direction of the same message, we change a negative message or understanding or indictment of the lost generation into something that is extremely empowering, inspiring, and hopeful.
Instead of understanding this page of words and letters as almost a declaration of a lost generation, a generation that is lonely like an orphan, constantly seeking, never satisfied because it doesn't have the truth, when we change the way of looking at exactly the same thing, we can turn a pessimistic, depressing, and hopeless message into one that is inspiring and promising. Now the message alludes to a generation that is not lost but one that is found in God, in the understanding that we are his and her children, and that this is an incredible time to be living with our True Parents. We realize that instead of understanding ourselves as belonging to the lost generation, we can change that way of thinking simply by looking at it from a different perspective and realize that we are not lost. In God, in True Parents, and in each other we become a Generation of Peace.
Over the last year or so at Lovin' Life, I've defined what Generation Peace is all about by understanding the word peace as an acronym. We are children of our Heavenly Parent, P, and also of our True Parents. And E reminds us that we are their Eternal sons and daughters, with eternal meaning that we are divine human beings having incredible worth and a reservoir of true love that, once it's tapped, we can do extraordinary things.
In the letter A, we see our philosophy of Altruism, living for the sake of others -- not dying for the sake of others, but truly living, being empowered, and celebrating the life we have been given. We understand the importance of and the need for Compassion, C, in this cold, cold modern world. And so we recognize the value of empathy, being able to put ourselves in someone else's shoes and loving somebody not because we have to but because we want to.
Through the beautiful touch or healing of words of encouragement and nurture that we share with one another, we can become much stronger in our emotional, spiritual, and physical make-up. The final E stands for Excellence of internal and external -- meaning we are internally excellent in terms of our life of faith and our understanding of who we are and what we need to do. We are not a lost generation drifting on an endless sea with no direction, but we have a clear direction and purpose in our life. We know what we need to do. We know that we need to seize the moment, seize each day and make it worthwhile because, one step at a time, we are going toward that beautiful world we're going to call our own, the world of peace.
Knowing that we are internally excellent, we need to manifest our internal excellence outward through the different ways we can perfect people in our lives, through our professions and our ability to care, guide, or teach. In this way we can leave a beautiful signature on this world that is uniquely us, uniquely you and me. In that process we go through the stages of perfecting ourselves individually and then when finding ourselves in the context of a couple in a marriage, working on that marriage and dealing with all the obstacles and different issues that arise. As we understand that life is a process of growth and an opportunity to grow and deepen who we are, we can approach every difficulty with a grateful heart. We can approach every obstacle with the excitement of learning something new, knowing that regardless of how painful the process might be, in the end we will be holding a nugget of wisdom that we can share with our children and they can share with their children, and so on.
Thinking about this Generation of Peace, I also think about how I would like to see Little Dave grow up to be a member of that Generation of Peace, living his life as part of one family under God, somebody who looks at his brothers and sisters from different faiths and still loves them as his own, somebody who wants to do good things, not because he will be rewarded by his mother, but just because he wants to do good things, and somebody who wants to inspire others to do better, encouraging those around him to grow and prosper and, at the same time, becoming that excellent man, that excellent father and son of God.
As the senior pastor, this is what I wish upon Little Dave, and this is what I wish upon all of us. I know that this is what our True Parents and our Heavenly Parent want for all of us.
If we're going to be members of this Generation of Peace, believing that the most important thing in the universe is true love and that we as human beings have this precious opportunity to experience true love and share that with the rest of the world, then how do we exist as individuals in the context of a family? How do we exist as spouses in the context of a marriage? How do we exist in the context of a community like our own and practice love in our daily life? How do we go about loving each other, so that each day we can work on ourselves and hone our skills at making other people better than we are? How do we go about being the kind of person who can be the spark of a wonderful imagination, the spark of unity in the family, or the spark inciting young people to dream about all they would like to accomplish?
As a mother, I've often thought about this: "How do you practice love on a daily basis?" We have a conceptual understanding of where we would like to be, where we'd like to go, but in a practical sense, how do we apply what we believe and actually exercise and practice day to day what we want to be? How do we want to carry this out throughout the day?
I use in my life of faith and in my individual family what I call the three points. Whenever I am confronted with a situation that is difficult, pressing, or crushing, I remind myself of these three points. The first came from my mother, many years ago. She is an extremely elegant woman, a woman of few words, but when she speaks, there is a profound wisdom behind her few words.
A long time ago we spent the summer in Gloucester at Morning Garden, the beautiful house Father bought for the movement there. He spent summers there fishing for tuna, and I accompanied him almost on a daily basis. But on some days when I was not well, I was given permission to keep my mother company. One time when I stayed behind because I was not feeling too well, there were many ladies at the house who were eager to spend time with Mother. One in particular wanted her guidance. This woman said, "Father always teaches about the importance of practicing true love. I really want to practice true love in my life of faith and in my family. But I have a difficult relationship with my husband and with my children."
She started to describe some of the difficulties, first with her husband. It seems their characters were polar opposites, so he would do things that would really irk her. In wanting to return that in a loving way, the wife always felt she needed to teach her husband. Then, because the husband felt patronized at being taught by a woman, his wife, he would react more aggressively, which made her react even more firmly. There you had a major recipe for disaster.
When she talked about her husband, she brought out a list, almost like the list you saw on YouTube earlier. She went down the list, reciting the things that her husband did wrong. She actually put a check on how many times he did something wrong, canvassing several years of their marriage. She was a fantastic record keeper. The checks were almost like a computer printout. She remembered to the day the exact incident, how many times he did it, and whether it got worse or turned into something else.
I thought to myself, she should definitely get a job working for the National Football League, keeping score on all the plays. This woman had an encyclopedic knowledge of the scoreboard in their marriage. Not only did she have a list for her husband, but she had a list for her children, as well. She was reciting what they had done and how often, and asking, "What should I do, True Mother?"
I remember Mother just listening very quietly, very intently, giving the woman her full attention and nodding her head. Because Mother was nodding, seemingly agreeing with all the atrocities, the woman just kept on going, spurred on by Mother's silent nods and concern. When the woman was done, about an hour had gone by, but Mother was very quiet. The woman was almost pushing Mother with her words, "What should I do? You tell me. You're the True Mother. You tell me what I should do because my family has so many problems. I don't know how to solve this. You give me an answer."
Mother looked at her once again, nodded, and said something very simple. At that time I didn't fully understand what profound advice it was. To appreciate it, you need to know something about our family. We used to joke about all the different character types and music preferences we have, and Mother, of course, likes certain types of composers. I have brought this habit of joking about music and musical preferences into my own family. As a classically trained person, and with my children also being classical pianists, we have many ways to humor ourselves when we're enjoying classical music.
In advising the complaining wife, Mother took two composers' names and stuck them together. In the family we would call a shopping list a "Chopin Liszt." Mother simply turned and said to the wife, "Put away your Chopin Liszt." That's all she said.
Frédéric
Chopin and Franz Liszt
This woman inquired, "What is a Chopin Liszt?" Mother repeated, "Put away your Chopin Liszt." The woman looked totally puzzled, "What do you mean, Chopin Liszt?" I interjected, "Put away your shopping list. Put away your list."
This woman got angry and blurted out, "That's the advice you have for me, put away my list?! How else do I explain all the problems of my family?" She was taking my mother to task. My mother again quietly said, "Put away your Chopin Liszt." Of course this woman was not satisfied because she did not get the response from True Mother that she wanted. I think what she wanted was for Mother to call in her husband and children and reprimand them for all the different atrocities that they had committed.
But basically Mother was throwing it back at the woman. She's the True Mother, wanting to guide, nurture, and support this woman to be a good mother. True Mother was not going to take the place of this woman in her role as the mother and wife in the family. By saying, "Get rid of the list," what Mother was saying was, "Get rid of all your grief and your complaint." By not getting involved with the family herself, something that the woman as the mother should be responsible for, Mother was respecting this woman's position as the wife and the mother to her children. True Mother was saying, "Start by getting rid of all the negativity. Start by realizing that you as the mother and the wife have a responsibility to turn that negative list into a wonderful shopping list that can supply the family with the necessary ingredients for the family to be a grand and glorious feast." That was what my mother was saying.
She was asking this woman not to keep score, not to hold on to lists that would bind her to something negative and make her family heavy with burden. She was saying, "Relieve yourself of the cares and burdens of your family. Realize how important you are as the mother, and stand in your role as your family's true mother and true wife." Instead of going over the negative list, the way the lost generation and youth of our world tend to do, thinking of themselves as lost and hopeless and the world as dirty and ugly, my mother was basically saying to reverse it. Instead of dwelling on a list of atrocities, the woman should think about creating a wonderful list that can be beneficial to her family.
Maybe the list could include extra time with the daughter who is having difficulty in school or hand-knitting socks for the son, just to let him know that the mother, caring and thinking about him constantly, wants him to be warm and protected against the elements and that she knows he is going to make her proud. This was the message True Mother was trying to share with the score-keeping woman.
One of the things I learned very early on from my mother is that she does not micromanage. She is the True Mother, but she is not going to do your work for you. She will provoke you to think. She will give you guidance that will provoke you to look at the same text in a different way, or she will be the instrumental one urging you to read the same text from a different angle. But reading is what you have to do. This mother had to be the mother; this wife had to be the wife.
After being married for 27 years, when I think back on the wisdom that True Mother shared with me and other sisters in the room, I realize that so much thought, care, and concern went into what she was saying. She was trying to be humorous, calling a shopping list "Chopin Liszt," but at the same time she was trying to encourage this woman, "You can do better if you stop reading the negative text."
We can be our worst enemies in that we can literally brainwash ourselves for failure and misery, just as the youth of the world are indoctrinating themselves to think pessimistically and be hopeless about the world by reading a litany of seemingly factual or realistic words that is damaging how they think and how they perceive the world. Therefore, instead of being empowered and inspired, many times they feel they are victims of their particular situation or environment. That is what True Mother was trying to encourage this woman not to do.
Over the years Mother encouraged us not to keep scorecards. When you're playing sports or yute, a scorecard is wonderful. But when it comes to human relationships, loving relationships, it's never a good idea to tally up points on who did what.
When one of my best friends growing up got married, her favorite song was Janet Jackson's, "What Have You Done for Me Lately?" Whenever we went out, it was kind of a joke when she would sing this song for her husband. She would provoke him like this, "What have you done for me lately?" There was never even a question of what have I done for you lately. She was projecting this understanding of what everyone else is supposed to do for her, without asking herself the question, "What can I do?"
The first point is, Don't keep score if you want to practice love in your life. If you want to invite love into relationships, it's not a good idea to tally up points against each other.
The other thing that True Mother would say is, "Always think of the other first." Those who have or have had young children know that one of their first motor skills is to grab something with their hand and bring it to their mouth. There's an African proverb that says the hand always knows the way to the mouth.
We should always be like the hand, knowing where to go when it concerns God. Regardless of where we are in life, even in pitch-black darkness, when the hand grabs onto some morsel of food, the hand invariably knows how to take it to our mouth. When our True Parents ask us to live for the sake of others, to put somebody first before ourselves, what they are asking us is whether we can be the kind of people who, without thinking, take that delicious morsel and, before it naturally and instinctively comes to our mouth, offer it to the mouths of our children, our siblings, or better yet, our True Parents or our Heavenly Parent.
I've always thought one of the most interesting things about being human is that birthdays are such a huge celebration. It doesn't matter where you are from; birthdays are a huge celebration, and it becomes like your day. Of course, the day that you were born is a celebration of your birth for your family, but if we think about how we're going to honor God, True Parents, and our own humanity with the way we live our lives, a birthday could be a wonderful day of remembering what we want and seizing that day to reach out and thank our Heavenly Parent for this life. My birthday is a day that I thank God that I'm alive, that I'm living at this incredibly precious time with our True Parents.
A birthday is the day when the Second and Third Generations have a chance to thank not only our God up in heaven but also to thank our True Parents, who brought your parents together so that you could be born. A birthday is a time when you can say, "Thank you," to True Parents, and to your own parents. It's really a day when we should be celebrating our parents and thanking them for the life and opportunities they have afforded us. Just as we can read the same "lost generation" text from many viewpoints -- and this one in particular we read it forward and we read it in reverse -- but if we are living for the sake of others, putting others first, something like our birthday that belongs to us then becomes the most precious day when we can use our most precious moment to give something back -- a heart of gratitude to our parents.
Can you imagine, teenagers in the audience, what you would do for your father and mother if on the morning of your birthday you would wake up and the first thing you would do is to say, "Good morning, Father and Mother. I love you, and I am so grateful for this life you have given to me. Please accept my full bow of appreciation and gratitude." Can you imagine what that would do for other people, even outside our community, if their teenager came back home and said, "I was in a rush this morning, but today is my birthday. This is my day to honor God and you and to thank you for my life."
Can you imagine what that would do for a family? That simple small gesture of putting others first and expressing what you are feeling inside, would, in such a short snippet of time, be like a nuclear explosion in that family. It could be the beginning of the revolution of heart that we talk about. We're not talking about a major overhaul here; we're talking about simple repositioning of our mental ability to see or understand what we are in the context of our families. It's basically deciding to see things not negatively but in a positive way.
Seeing things in a positive way doesn't mean everything is easy and, "Hallelujah!" It doesn't stop us from dealing with our families. We are still on our way to creating ideal families, so positive thinking doesn't mean we will not suffer disappointment, pain, or misery. A positive attitude or way of thinking is like the guide or environment we create for ourselves. If we step on a nail, we clean the wound, get up, continue on, and think, "Thank goodness it wasn't my leg or my buttocks. Thank goodness it wasn't the right hand that I need to write with." It's the way we approach our life that determines what kind of environment or family or country we're going to have.
These examples of wisdom from my mother are extremely important because it's that simple difference of wanting to look at things from a different perspective that vastly changes our human experience. A simple thing like a birthday, that precious day when the individual becomes king or queen, can be turned around if we decide that before I celebrate my awesomeness, I will celebrate the awesomeness of God, my parents, and our True Parents, and thereby change their world.
Another point that True Mother would say to us over and over, in addition to "Make sure we put others first" and "Don't carry around a scoreboard," was "Try to find a way to serve discreetly, without much fanfare." She was asking us to do things for people we love without seeking accolades, such as, "Oh, great job, honey. You finally vacuumed the apartment"; without seeking, "Oh, this is wonderful. You actually tidied up the bathroom before you left." It's not waiting for congratulations or for the carrot that tells you that you are wonderful; it's finding ways to do something discreetly, not expecting any reward, but doing it just because.
This point of guidance means not taking out the garbage because you know your mother will be so happy if you do it, or not holding the door open for your parent just because you want to hear your parent say, "What a fine gentleman!" or "What a fine young lady you are." It means doing it just because it gives you an innate sense of pleasure, knowing that you are taking care of and serving the people you love, and that even if they never realize how much you love them -- maybe even in this lifetime -- one day they will realize it, maybe in spirit world, when they have a chance to review their life on earth. Then they might realize, "My mother really, really loved me." Or, "That brother really cared for me but he never wanted recognition, accolades, or fanfare."
It's that kind of serving and living for the sake of others that is truly beautiful. I grew up in a big family with many brothers and sisters, and because our True Mother was terribly busy, I was given the responsibility of taking care of the siblings younger than me. That's an incredibly difficult responsibility, and I know I fell short many times because, how can you be a substitute mom to your siblings who are in dire need of parental love? You are never enough. You will always be in the way.
Many times the resentment that is heaped up in not having your parents there will be thrown at the substitute mom. But being in that kind of environment was richly rewarding in the sense that having gone through taking care of my siblings better prepared me to be a mother to my own children.
Despite how difficult it might have been, I was able to garner bits of wisdom here and there that could help me along my journey of being a mother to my own children. As mothers, we always try to encourage our children to serve other people, doing things "just because," not because we want to be rewarded.
I remember when my one daughter was little, my parents wanted Ariana and Rexton to travel with them all around the world. They were gone for a good chunk of the year and were enrolled in kindergarten in Korea, and I did not see them for a long time. I remember one thing in particular about my daughter. I don't know if it was spurred on by her teacher or her nanny, but she continued this even after she left kindergarten: She got in the habit of writing beautiful little notes to Omma (meaning mother in Korean), and many times I was not there to receive it. But nevertheless she kept on writing letters and making many drawings for Omma.
Even though I wasn't there (and I never really realized how much my daughter missed me or wanted me there), when I went to Korea finally to bring her back I found all these drawings and notes that she wrote to the mommy that she could not see for a long time. I didn't ask her to do this. She did it because it was in her heart. Even though she was a little girl, the words and the language that she used was, "Oh, Mother, I want to take care of you. I want to make you yummy food": all these words of care and nurture. She seemed very much like a mom, even though she was a kindergartner.
I remember how that made me feel. It was not asked of her to prepare something like that for me, but she did it, nonetheless. She never knew when I was going to get it, but it didn't matter. She seized that moment to do something beautiful because it was an expression of her heart.
When I think about that, I am many times reminded of how I fall short because every time I want to say something to my parents, I don't necessarily write it down and turn it into a beautiful card. But when I think about what my daughter did, it makes me want to be a better mother, too, and a better daughter to my mother.
These little acts of kindness and service weren't done to get approval and a compliment for thinking about other people. They were something that naturally came out of her, wanting to take care of somebody. I realized how life altering that was for me as a mother. Can you imagine if we as a community, if we as members of our respective families, started expressing more, even in the form of a little note or card, to let each other how much we matter to each other, what it might do for a couple, a family, or a community?
When I think about our True Father talking about a revolution of heart, it sounds so huge, so incredibly out-there, a mighty force to reckon with. But what he's really talking about are those simple shifts in the way we view ourselves, in the way we look at our lives, in the way we understand what our family is.
If I were to create a list of complaints of how difficult it is to be a public person, that litany would be endless. But again, it takes a simple shift of my thinking to say that public life is incredibly difficult, but if you can approach it with a grateful heart and an understanding that you as an agent of change can make that change in yourself and thereby change other people, you realize what a gift it is. What is initially seen as burdensome, something troubling, something too painful to overcome or work through actually becomes an invitation for us to be a little more creative and perhaps read it in reverse. Or we may take a fresh look at the same situation from a different perspective.
When Chris Alan sang the song, "Miracle Called Us," I reflected that we're always waiting for the miracle. But it was Rumi who said that the joy of being human is uncovering the call that we already are, the treasure within. It's the treasure within that we already are. We as divine human beings have incredible potential to change our life, simply by deciding to be an agent of change and by deciding to look at the text in a different way. Our lives that we live on a weekly basis, sometimes tough, sometimes wonderful, are mere exercises in helping us become those great human beings that God would like to see all of us become.
Many times people look to me as the senior pastor to solve their problems. But just as True Mother gave it right back to this woman and said, "You stand up and deal with your problems, but I will be there with you every step of the way," that is really my job as the senior pastor. It's not to do your job as parents of your children or as the spouse of your spouse but to really stand here together with you and share that we can do it together.
A community like ours affords people who come for Sunday Service a lot of advantages. We have a social network here. We have different groups. Seeing old friends is always wonderful; catching up is always wonderful. But I challenged the West Coast members that our church is not just a social network, and Sunday is not just a time to gather and feel good about ourselves. It's really a chance for us to share the breaking news with the rest of the world.
Instead of looking at me as senior pastor to be the person to fix everything for you, I would like to ask you to please think about what you can do for the sake of the community and not always what the community has to do for you. We need a reciprocal relationship on all levels: between the congregation and the minister, between a father and mother, between brothers and sisters, and even between the best of colleagues. There has to be a sense that we're all breathing together, that it's not just inhaling all the time or exhaling all the time. We as a movement need to breathe. I need to exhale, you need to inhale; you need to exhale, I need to inhale. We've got to work together.
What I would like to do in my life is to leave behind a beautiful generation that can call itself a Generation of Peace. I think that's the desire of every parent: to leave that beautiful generation behind, knowing that the world is in good hands, knowing that our children will not kill over racial differences, over religious differences, over differences in economy and so on.
We need to know that our children will reside in and experience true love. We need to know that they are here to substantiate true love, true life, and true lineage. We need to know that they will try their best to build ideal families. And we need to know that we're going to leave behind a community that is supportive, that empowers all of us to try our best to be better than who we are, to be better than our neighbor. And we need to know that we are a group of people willing to put service first -- meaning even if we are never acknowledged for doing good works, we are satisfied and grateful simply because we could do the little acts of love that we have the opportunity to share with others.
Brothers and sisters, this is an exciting time. For myself as a mother and as your senior pastor, I feel our True Parents' desperation in wanting the world to recognize the value and preciousness of the blessing that is being shared. It's something that we should not just hold within our own community; it's something that should be encouraged and shared.
Many great men and women have lived great lives, honorable lives, waiting for the Second Coming, waiting for Jesus to return, waiting to have an understanding of how to lead their lives in faith. But you and I are the lucky ones. Maybe we had great ancestors. But we are the lucky ones that have this opportunity to be like Jesus' 12 disciples. And unlike the 12 disciples who were not there when Jesus was crucified, who could not give up themselves to save Jesus, we need to be the kind of people to protect our True Parents, and not just protect them but celebrate them with our lives every day that we live.
Brothers and sisters, our True Parents are back in Korea, finishing the third leg of the World Assembly, celebrating God's Providence, Universal Peace, and Abel UN. Our True Parents are calling forth all nations to think of themselves as belonging to one family under God. Just as Chris Alan sang, "Miracle Called Us," "miracle" sounds like "me-rocker." Once we decide to be an agent of change, we need to be our own rockers, our own miracles, those shining examples for our country and for the rest of the world.
When we gaze in the mirror, instead of seeing our own unworthy reflections, we need to be looking in the face of God. The reflection we need to see when we look in the mirror is the reflection that God would see when he's gazing into our eyes. When God looks into our faces, God sees love, God sees life, and God sees lineage. These are the precious gifts that he wants us to experience in our lifetime. God as our Heavenly Parent wants us to be successful in everything that we do.
Let's unleash ourselves from our own bondage that we put upon ourselves, keeping ourselves feeling hopeless and worthless, keeping ourselves riddled with fear so we cannot fully accomplish what we need to do. The only thing we need to say is, "I am that agent of change, I am that eternal son or daughter of God. I am going to decide to be successful. I am going to decide to be that person who dares to read the text backward, and becomes part of a Generation of Peace and not of a lost generation."
Instead of waiting for God to do all the work, we have within our hands to create our own miracle, to be that reflection that we want God to see when he gazes into our faces. It is within our hands to set our hearts on fire. It's the fire of true love that is going to blaze across the universe and really bring about the millennium of peace that we're waiting for and so wanting.
Brothers and sisters, let's start this week with a heart of gratitude, with our hearts on fire with the revolutionary spirit of true love. In the small things we can do, let us think about becoming that spark that can be the start of something extraordinary. Let's for example, reshift our understanding to simply see our own birthday as a day when we can honor God, True Parents, and our parents. It's that simple shift of our minds that can totally change the outcome of the kind of life that we're living to become the kind of life that we will have.
The miracle is within our hands. So please have a lovely weekend and a beautiful Sunday. God bless.
I realize this may be a shock
but
happiness comes from within
is a lie, and
"Money
will make me happy"
so in 30 years I will tell my
children
they are not the most important thing in my life
My
employer will know that
I have my priorities straight
because
Work
is more important than
family
I tell you
this
once upon a time
families stay together
but this will
not be true in my era
this is a quick fix society
experts tell
me
30 years from now I'll be celebrating the 10th anniversary of
my divorce
I do not concede that
I will live in a country of my
own making
in the future
environmental destruction will be the
norm
no longer can it be said that
my peers and I care about
this earth
it will be evident that
my generation is apathetic
and lethargic
it is foolish to presume that
there is hope
And all of this will come true unless we choose to reverse it.
it is foolish to presume that
my
generation is apathetic and lethargic
it will be evident
that
there is hope
it is foolish to presume that
my
generation is apathetic and lethargic
it will be evident that
my
peers and I care about this earth
no longer can it be said
that
environmental destruction will be the norm
in the future
I
will live in a country of my own making
I do not concede that
30
years from now I'll be celebrating the 10th anniversary of my
divorce
experts tell me
this is a quick fix society
but this
will not be true in my era
families stay together
once upon a
time
I tell you this
family
is more important than
Work
I
have my priorities straight because
My employer will know
that
they are not the most important thing in my life
so in 30
years I will tell my children
"Money will make me happy"
is
a lie, and
happiness comes from within
I realize this may be a
shock but
A lost Generation
What's up girl?
He stood me up again
Again?
Mmhmm
Well
what's up with this guy?
Do you really like him that much?
Yes
honey, I love him, he is fine,
he does a lot of nice things for
me I know he used to do nice stuff for you,
but what has he done
for you lately?
Used to be a time when you would pamper me
Used to brag about
it all the time
Your friends seem to think that you're so peachy
keen
But my friends say neglect is on your mind
Who's right?
What have you done for me lately?
Ooh ooh ooh yeah
What have
you done for me lately?
Ooh ooh ooh yeah
Used to go to dinner almost every night
Dancin' 'til I thought
I'd lose my breath
Ahh
Now it seems your dancing feet are
always on my couch
Good thing I cook or else we'd starve to
death
Ain't that a shame?
What have you done for me lately?
Ooh ooh ooh yeah
What have
you done for me lately?
Ooh ooh ooh yeah
I never ask for more than I deserve
You know it's the truth
You
seem to think you're God's gift to this earth
I'm tellin' you, no
way
You ought to be thankful for the little things,
but little
things are all you seem to give
You're always putting off what we
can do today
Soap opera says, you've got one life to live
Who's
right, who's wrong?
What have you done for me lately?
Ooh ooh ooh yeah
What have
you done for me lately?
Ooh ooh ooh yeah
What have you done for
me lately?
Ooh ooh ooh yeah
What have you done for me
lately?
Ooh ooh ooh yeah
Get with it
Uh, let me know, and from the front
Let me know,
and let me know from the
What have you done for me lately?
Ooh
ooh ooh yeah (yeah ha)
What have you done for me lately?
Ooh
ooh ooh yeah (yeah)
What have you done for me lately?
Ooh ooh
ooh yeah (yeah)
(No oh oh, no oh, yeah, mmmhmm
Da di da di, da di da
da
Da
Mmmhmm
Yeah-e-yeah-e-yeah ha ha, hey
Mmmhmm, yeah
ha ha)
What have you done for me lately? (lately)
Ooh ooh ooh yeah
(Uh, uh, uh, da di di da, di da di da, a di do da da, yeah)
What
have you done for me lately?
Ooh ooh ooh yeah
What have you
done for me lately? (lately)
This is wild, I swear