The Words of In Jin Moon from 2010
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The Words of In Jin Moon from 2010 |
1) In Jin Nim greeted everyone. It's a dreary but beautiful rainy day, but she is delighted to see us once again.
2) We just had a lovely tribute to our members of 40 years, those who walked the walk without her parents for the past four decades, this past Friday at the Manhattan Center. We were honoring the old-timers who had been at the forefront of the American movement, who sacrificed themselves giving their blood, sweat, and tears to build this movement, this family community we call our home.
3) It was such an honor for In Jin Nim to spend an evening with the elders of the American church, comprised of not just American brothers and sisters (50) but many Japanese brothers and sisters (80), and 50 Korean brothers and sisters, being honored for their lifetime achievement.
4) In Jin Nim use the word achievement in her thanks to them, because, what they accomplished in their life of faith was to be the protective environment that supported our True Parents through this time of the wilderness. In a way these honorees were able to achieve and accomplish what the disciples of Jesus Christ were not able to do. When Jesus went the way of the cross he suffered a lonely death. None of his disciples were there to say, "Please take me instead, please crucify me instead, please save my Savior the son of God." Not one of his disciples were there to be in the position where they would sacrifice themselves to save their Lord. But the honorees who were honored on Friday evening, these were the incredible and courageous brothers and sisters who through their life of faith were there to say, "You're not going to take our True Parents. Please take me instead. With our faith and with our lives we will support and work and walk together with our True Parents."
5) It was because of their foundation of faith that our True Parents are still with us today, and based upon their foundation, that now we are coming out of the wilderness era and looking to the settlement era, when we can express ourselves in excellence, not just internally but externally. This is a time we need to celebrate the achievements of these great soldiers, brothers and sisters of God. As we look toward the future, as we look toward building this incredible skyscraper which will be miles up into the sky, it is most important for us to remember where we come from.
6) Just as we know, when we look at a building, as high as it is in height, so it is deep in the ground below. So we must be grounded in our faith and proud in knowing what our heritage is and what kind of tradition we come from.
7) In Jin Nim called the evening, "honor our tradition", the acronym would be HOT. So we were honoring the HOTness of our movement. It's In Jin Nim's intention, as we go forward in our life of faith, to manifest all that is glorious within us and build that great skyscraper for God, that we will also deepen our understanding of who we are, and deepen our foundation as we go along.
8) They asked In Jin Nim to give the keynote speech (on Friday). But, she would like to take this moment to congratulate the video editing team, Toshi and Koichi and other volunteers who put together this DVD of testimonies. We have many more testimonies to share, but time was limited so the honorees only got a taste of the testimonies. The personal stories that they shared were so moving.
9) One German sister shared how she was selected to be one of the first Europeans to come and work in the American providence. Her name is Clara. She was so amazed that when she arrived at the airport, guess who the welcoming committee were. It was none other than True Parents. To see their faces greeting this European group, to welcome them to this great country of America so that they could begin their work together -- these are the kinds of stories that need to be shared with our children and grandchildren. These kinds of stories really deeply moved In Jin Nim, so much that she was struggling to get through her speech without crying. When you hear the stories of these brothers and sisters, and they all look so much younger -- pictures of members In Jin Nim knew.
10) And when In Jin Nim was collecting the testimonies that will be put in the book about our 40 year members, she mentioned one story on Friday, the testimony from our brother Ron Pine. He was with the Hells Angels when he met our movement. He met someone who was also on a motorcycle who shared with him and that was how he found God. In Jin Nim wonders, what would Ron be doing now if he did not meet True Parents. Would he still be with the Hell's Angels? Where would he be working? What would his family be like? And Clara, what would she be doing if she had not come to America with that first group of missionaries? What kind of family would she have raised? What kind of life would she have had? But because she met True Parents … (it skipped a few seconds here) But here we are together sharing this incredible time, this breaking news time, with our True Parents. In Jin Nim thought how wonderful. Truly God works in mysterious ways in each and every day of our lives.
11) During the dinner Ron came up to In Jin Nim to finish his testimony. He shared that when he was 15 years old, he came to his father sitting on the front porch of their house, and he declared to him that he was going to meet the Messiah in his lifetime. About a decade later after he left the Hells Angels and joined the Unification Movement his father reminded him, "do you remember when you were 15, on the porch, you declared to me that you would meet the Messiah in your lifetime?" And so Ron said to In Jin Nim, "that's what I did, didn't I?"
12) And, yes he did. And you and I, we all have met the Messiah, our True Parents. As In Jin Nim looked out into the audience of old-timers, enjoying each other's company, many had not seen each other for many years. And because of modern technology, the evening could be shared with all of America. So it was really a family affair. And for the younger generation to honor our elders, the "HOT"ness of our movement, and for the Abels of our family to honor the Cains, it was really in the spirit of wanting to work together, of reconciliation and unity. Despite whatever we have gone through it is our desire to honor each other in the life that we have been given and truly recommit ourselves and march on until we build the kingdom of God that we are waiting for.
13) When In Jin Nim thought about the brothers and sisters she has met over the years, she knows their hardships, trials and tribulations, their triumphs and days of glory, and she thought about them. After the event she meditated about the evening and thought about how difficult it must have been to follow our True Parents for the last four or five decades, but because they were absolutely dedicated, they wanted to live a life of faith, somehow they persevered.
14) And she was thinking, just as she goes out of her way each day to find those 5 or 10 minutes of beautiful silence to commune and have a relationship with our Heavenly Parent in heaven, she knows that many of you have had those beautiful moments of silence with our Heavenly Parent in heaven where you found yourself emptying the cares of the world, turning ourselves into that empty vessel so that we can truly be a pure receptacle of the message that God wants to share with us -- or to be that pure receptacle so that we can be a true receptacle of the beauty of the magical words of music, the universal language of music, and of love, that our Heavenly Parent wants to share with us.
15) One of the most difficult things In Jin Nim has found in her life of faith, is that -- many times when we are dealing with modern-day life, with our ideal families, spouse, children, and job (hopefully) -- sometimes it seems that we are fighting with this huge Leviathan of a monster that we are fighting everyday. And many times it reminds her of the story of David and Goliath. In that story, taken in a metaphorical sense, Goliath can be symbolic of all our insecurities, worries, and anxieties, all the things that cause fear and petrification in all of us.
16) Many times In Jin Nim has experienced her own Goliath in her life of faith, and she is sure that you have done so too. But every time she is confronted by this Goliath difficulty or a conundrum that she needs to work through, she is always reminded of the story of David and Goliath in 1 Samuel.
17) Every time she reads this story a couple of things come to mind. Here is this young handsome boy who feels called to fight this huge giant of the Philistines, this Goliath. It caused a shiver in every person who heard his name, but armed with his faith in God, knowing that God is with him, David approached Saul and said, "I want to fight Goliath. Let me fight Goliath."
18) What David does, he does not stand petrified with the fear of Goliath. He is actually quite proactive. He says and asks Saul, "let me fight Goliath." Of course Saul laughed at David -- telling him that Goliath sends shivers down the spines of even the strongest and most experienced soldiers, and "You little boy want to fight Goliath?" And David says "Yes!" He told Saul how in his days as a shepherd he fought lions and bears and with the strength of God he chased them away and destroyed them. And, with the strength of God, he will get rid of Goliath.
19) He asks, but he is also seeking this opportunity to fight Goliath. To look at the thing which causes fear in our veins, but actually be proactive and ask for permission to go after it. And because of his youthful exuberance, or Saul just wanted to test them out, Saul let him go. And he goes, and what does he do? He doesn't just ask, or seek, he articulates exactly what he's going to do. He tells Goliath exactly what he's going to do, that he is going to destroy him because he is armed with the faith and power of God and he will chop off his head.
20) Of course, Goliath laughs at him. Goliath is this huge crushing giant and David is a young lad, like a scrawny teenager, with just a few pebbles and a string. He must have looked quite funny, just as we must look funny when we are being crushed by our own demons, our own Goliath. God may be looking at us, maybe smiling, hoping that we will be victorious like David.
21) But what does David do? Even when King Saul offers him his helmet and coat, David takes it off and says he is not accustomed to them, "I will go as I am." He goes as he is. He takes away all the worldly layers people want to put on him. Because, when you're fighting with Goliath you have to be honest with yourself. You have to go with your truthful body. So, David going as he is, is representative of what we all need to do in this place where we want to commune with God, where we really want to explore and understand and overcome our difficulties -- we have to go as we truly are. We have to take off the external layers, armor, that we tote around.
22) Maybe some of us are saying , "I am not afraid . That doesn't cause fear or for me to shiver in my veins." We can fool other people, but it is very difficult to fool ourselves. When we go as we are, we are only armed with our power and faith in God. And, David goes and declares to the Philistines, "Goliath, this is what I'm going to do, I'm going to destroy you." Then, instead of just standing, he charges towards the enemy line. He is a very engaging fellow! He is proactive. He is asking, and he is seeking, and then what does he do? With his sling he hits him straight on and knocks him out.
23) When In Jin Nim thinks about the story of David and Goliath, it reminds her of a verse, Matthew 7:7 "ask and it shall be given to you." It says "Seek and you will find, Knock and it shall be opened unto you." In a way, what David was doing with his demon, this Goliath like demon, is he was destroying it with a rock and a sling. A rock is symbolic of the rock of faith, the rock of the church which Peter represented. The rock represented faith. The sling shot represents something that supports, that helps propel our faith forward. Therefore -- armed with the faith in God, armed in knowing that we are here to believe, he goes ahead, asks the permission of the King, seeks his enemy, and knocks him down with his faith.
24) When the good book, tells us to "ask and it will be given to you, seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened unto you," in a way, what God is promising his children, just like David, armed with our faith in our Heavenly Parent and our True Parents, all we need to do is to be humble and be in a position where we are asking. And when we ask it is because we want to request, we are making an inquiry, or actually wanting to invite something in -- in a way, when we invite God in, "it shall be given to you." All the things that we need will be given to you.
25) That sentence is a reminder in In Jin Nim's mind, to tell herself, "just believe, ask and it shall be given to you." When you invite God into your life -- there are so many things going on all around us in a life of faith, even as blessed children, dealing with our church, our friends, our family, things on the internet. In Jin Nim heard a report of one sister who attended a workshop in Los Angeles and the knowledge of all the bad things from the internet was shared there.
26) This perplexes In Jin Nim, why do we bring to such a holy place this kind of knowledge that dirties the minds of our young people. We have to be cognizant, and not be arrogant of our knowledge of certain things. "Do we really know? Were you there? Did you talk to that person in question? How do you really know?"
27) So when we think about it, we feel powerful when we think we know something others do not know. And so we want to go around acting like Goliath, before these seemingly feeble minded people who seem to not know anything. So in our knowledge we become arrogant and powerful, "let me tell you a thing or two about these people." And it puts them in a position where they get a lot of attention, for a little while. But when we find ourselves in that position, seemingly armed with this knowledge we have just learned, we as faithful people, wanting to be someone who honors God and True Parents with our lives, have to ask ourselves the question, "What kind of a person do I want to be?"
28) The Bible says ask and it shall be given to you. What are we asking? Are we asking God to solve all our problems or are we inviting God in? "So it shall be given unto you, the fuller faith, the stronger our knowledge, in who God and True Parents are. These are the questions we must ask ourselves.
29) In this sea of fear, and a whole lot of static going on, how can we stay vigilant and true? There is a very interesting story that Rev. Jenkins shared with In Jin Nim when they were talking about the new vision for ACLC. He shared about Tonya Edwards, the beautiful wife of Rev. Jesse Edwards. She was visiting True Parents at East Garden. She has a face that looks very angelic to In Jin Nim. She has beautiful bright blue eyes, roly-poly cheeks, and her eyes have a hint of sadness. It reminded In Jin Nim of a dream she had. When True Father first met Mrs Edwards, the first thing he said to her is that her faith is like a kindergarten.
30) Mrs. Edwards was shocked. She said "My faith is not like a kindergarten." But True Father said it again. And she responded, "My faith is not like a kindergarten." Then In Jin Nim explained to Rev. Jenkins that True Father gave to Mrs. Edwards the highest compliment. True Father has often said in order to go to the kingdom of heaven we must be childlike, pure, innocent, practicing the words "just believe." The child just believes in their parents and in God. They have yet to be contaminated by all the static in the air. So, she told Rev. Jenkins True Father was giving Mrs. Edwards the most sublime and profound compliment, because he probably looked upon her face and saw the angel that In Jin Nim sees. The face of an angel, of a child, someone in kindergarten. When Rev. Jenkins shared this with Mrs. Edwards she was so inspired and again she realized that True Father does not just look at the externals of a person, but he was seeing her heart, her inner self. He saw what In Jin Nim saw.
31) When the Bible tells us, "Ask and it will be given to you" -- to put yourself in a position to ask, is a position of a student, like a child, asking, and beseeching, and inquiring -- and requesting of a parent. We need to be childlike, in that simple frame of mind, no matter how staticy, how complicated our life might get, it's important to keep pure and innocent in our faith, and in our love of God and our True Parents, and just believe.
32) And when the Bible goes on and says, "seek and you shall find," not, it shall find you. Seek and you shall find. The verb seek is a very interesting verb. It means to go after, to discover, to find. What David did in engaging the enemy Goliath, is again, very proactive, it was an articulation, something he did not have to do but wanted to do because he was moved and inspired knowing that God was with him. He was propelled by his faith in God and he wanted to defeat this terror that was terrorizing his people. David went after, he sought after his demon, his Goliath.
33) What the Bible is asking us to do, instead of sitting idle and being crushed by the weight of all the static and all the information we don't know how to digest -- seek and discover, be proactive, engage your demons, your Goliath. And not because you have to do it, but because you want to. David was not seeking his own glory. He was seeking the enemy because he wanted to relieve his people of this terror.
34) When the Bible says "seek and you shall find," it is a reminder to live our lives in a certain way. It is asking us not to sit idle and be crushed. It is asking us to grab our life, grab the horns of destiny within our hands and do something about it. And, grab onto the horns of destiny not for personal glory, but like David, because he was serving his community, he was living our philosophy of living for the sake of others. He was thinking about his people. It is a reminder for all of us to serve and conquer and seek our own demons and burdens that are crushing us, because we want to continue to serve and to bring glory, not to just our families but to our community, nation and world. In a way, it is an invitation for us to practice living for the sake of others, just because.
35) The Bible says seek and you shall find. It is within our hands, within your hands. When you and I decide to serve, we are that agent of change that will help us find exactly what we need to defeat, to overcome, to go through -- to be the kind of individual we would like to be.
36) When the Bible goes on and says, "knock and it shall be opened unto you." It does not say knock and it shall be opened into you, or over you. It says unto you. We have this incredible grace when we realize in our moment of silence, no matter what we are going through, God is with us each and every moment of our lives.
37) And the Bible says knock, it does not say crush the door and it will be opened unto you. The Bible does not say explode and it will be opened unto you. The Bible doesn't say destroy and it will be opened unto you. It says knock. The Bible is reminding us once again, how we need to be childlike.
38) Whenever In Jin Nim approaches the door where her parents might be, she would never approach the door to destroy. "Mom I'm here! Boom!" You would never explode it open because you want a dramatic entrance into your parent's room, and you don't barge through the door. You treat the door with respect and quietly you knock, with respect, honoring who is behind the door. You knock
39) When In Jin Nim thinks about this it reminds her of the story a friend once shared with her. He went on a Boy Scout outing. He and his colleagues were spending a week or two outdoors in a mountain log cabin with a beautiful lake. There was a great deal of canoeing and water sports. One day everyone decided to get into their canoes and go to the other side for a campfire or get-together. Everybody got into their boat and pushed off. Then this friend's teenage boy looked around and saw all the boats and said to his dad, "it's a competition, let's win!" And the other boats joined in and began racing. Her friend and his son ended up getting there first, and his teenage son began jumping up and shouting, "we won, we won!" And he was waiting for the last boat to come in, the boat which contained his dad's best friend, and he yelled to them, "we won and you lost!" He was celebrating his victory jumping up and down. He was competitive and he won and he wanted to let the last boat know. But his father's friend turned to him and said, "you won, but we had the longer trip." Meaning, they enjoyed the trip, they enjoyed a longer vacation. Then this boy could not say anything.
40) This is what this Bible passage, "knock and it shall be opened unto you," reminds In Jin Nim of. Many times we are barraging God, "God, help me!" We are exploding in front of God. "SOS God!" -- my family, my husband, my children -- many times we are destroying ourselves in front of God, not realizing that in front of God we have to honor our Heavenly Parent, and respect fully -- "knock and it will be revealed to us."
41) It reminds In Jin Nim of the importance of just breathing. Matthew 7:7 reminds her of her own philosophy that she tries to remind herself of day in and day out -- she usually starts her day saying -- just believe. Ask and it shall be given to you -- just believe. Seek and you shall find. Serve others, love others, and you will find exactly what you're looking for. And what are we looking for? All of us, we are looking to experience the heart of God. When we love each other, not because we want something at the end of the rainbow, but because you want to experience the heart of God. We want to love just because.
42) It's a reminder to practice our own philosophy, just because we want to experience the heart of God. And when the Bible says, knock and it shall be opened unto you, it's a reminder for In Jin Nim, just breathe. She always reminds herself, before she goes into her parent's room, she takes a moment of silence -- she knows she will be in the presence of her parents, and she knocks respectfully. But before she knocks she always remembers to breathe, a deep breath. Three times to calm herself and then she knocks.
43) This Bible passage reminds her, sometimes we take things too seriously, or if we tried to do things too desperately, or to furiously, or to quickly, when it's not time yet -- then we end up frustrating ourselves more than we need to be. And when she reminds herself -- just breathe, it's her mother's voice reminding her in the back of her mind, just breathe. Like in the words of the Beatles, just "let it be."
44) And knowing that we are armed in the faith and love of our heavenly parent, we need to just believe that things will turn out fine. And invariably and in due time, they do. What is seemingly crushing and insurmountable at that time, as long as we remember to breathe, and remind ourselves to just believe, and love each other just because -- it helps us through the difficult moments and we realize that, just as David slew the great monster Goliath with his faith and with the support of those who love us, our families and friends and community -- we can do the same.
45) If we are armed with our faith and we decide just to believe and we decide to practice that in our daily lives, just because -- and we want to do that knowing that God is with us every step of the way, so that we are breathing together with God, not being destroyed or exploded by all of our problems, not knowing where we are, but in understanding that we have Parents up in heaven, but more important than that we have our True Parents with us walking with us and guiding us -- the only thing we really need to do is to concentrate on our unity with our True Parents and really be together in heart and mind. And in understanding what they are hoping in their children is a revolution of heart so that we can truly experience the heart of God. In this incredible thing we call an ideal family. That is a beautiful thing.
46) In Jin Nim was reading a speech True Father gave (God's Will and the World), Sept 11, 1977 -- he spoke about the Heart of Reunion. He had been gone for about 70 days or so, and when he came and saw the members he was so happy and he spoke to us about the beauty of East and West, why the West needs the East -- how the West is like the high noon culture -- everything is bright and glorious, but in order for the Western culture to continue to grow and become great it must understand that high noon comes when it knows, and when it has gone through the midnight, the darkness, or the deep mysteriousness of midnight. Everything is a cycle, so fathers spoke about the beautiful relationship between the East and West, something so unique to our community.
47) One of the things that he shared is his definition of what an ideal family is all about. An ideal family is not something that is something symbolic of uniformity and regimentation. Those two words were very much our understanding of a religious life when we were in the time of the wilderness, we were like soldiers, we had to be regimented, we had to be put in uniform's literally so that we could stay coalesced and focused (lost about 15 seconds here) … not uniform and regimented people, but harmony resulting from people in their distinctive roles, and their distinctive ways.
48) Some of us might have brown hair, some of us might be white, some black, some yellow, but an ideal family is the place where we can all come together in harmony and in love. Keeping our distinctive and unique values makes us who we are.
49) That speech, for In Jin Nim, when father was talking about the heart of reunion, was an incredibly profound one. As we move forward into this millennium of peace it doesn't mean that we are all going to be boring, that we'll all be the same in uniform. We need to develop our divine potential. We must exercise our divine creativity. We must allow the signatures of our distinctive roles to be left behind as something beautiful for our children and our grandchildren to share. So just as the great honorees on Friday evening, have in a way left their signatures by sharing their testimonies with us, the life of faith -- in a way they have left something truly beautiful behind. In Jin Nim will never forget Mrs. Ang's personal testimony about the Blessing, how she was so afraid that Dr. Ang was not going to show, because he was really late to the blessing. One of the most beautiful things that she conveyed to all of us, the only thing she remembers from her blessing were the tears of her husband falling on her hand, drop by drop by drop. These are the kinds of stories, testimonies that will be carried and shared with our children and grandchildren.
50) So, what we were celebrating on Friday, was not to just lift up the elders -- we were celebrating everything that our community is and will be. In a way when True Father shares in his Heart of Reunion speech -- he talked about how America is symbolically in the autumn season when everything is in full bloom, the time of harvest. This is a country of plenty that everyone wants to come to. But True Father warned the American people -- you know when you are in autumn you know you're looking towards winter before you can see spring.
51) True Father comes with the message of True Love, trying to get everybody to fulfill their true potential. He says he comes armed with love and faith, but also armed with a certain amount of discipline. Because a certain amount of discipline needs to be carried out in autumn for human beings to have enough to eat through winter in order to face spring. Some beautiful fruits need to be changed into marmalade, some cucumbers need to be pickled so that we can enjoy the crunch of a fresh cucumber in the dead of winter.
52) So, True Father spoke about the importance of disciplining ourselves to be that incredibly strong seed in the wintertime that God will grab with his hands and sprinkle all over the fertile ground that he has prepared.
53) That is what God wants of all his children. We are living in a country that is representative of autumn. There is so much of everything. There is lots of technology, television, fashion, lots of money, and lots of whatever you want in this country. But we must be mindful and prepared to meet our winter knowing that there is a spring ahead.
54) In Jin Nim reminded the audience on Friday that you have gone through the 40 years of your winter season and because of your discipline and hard sacrifice you kept our True Parents alive, something that Jesus' disciples could not do. This is an incredible accomplishment in and of itself, but this is the time of spring when God is waiting to sprinkle all of us into his fertile grounds so that we can grow and we can enjoy the prosperity and we can actually enjoy loving life, truly celebrate life with each other.
55) So brothers and sisters, our True Parents are coming back to America once again! In Jin Nim hopes that we can join with her in sending them a lot of good old American lovin. With that in mind have a lovely Sunday and a beautiful, beautiful week!