The Words of Won Pil Kim
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The Words of Won Pil Kim |
I would like to express Father's heart to you by sharing his testimony, so you can reflect about him and really concern yourself with him. I am not standing here to teach you so much as to share with you about Father.
When I joined the family about 35 years ago, I was very young; even now, I think of myself as just a three-year member. So the difference between someone who joined the family 35 years ago and someone who joined just a few years ago is slight. If I consider myself as just a younger member, then I wonder what I can teach you, since you are older than I!
In truth, the more I know and understand about Father, the smaller I feel. To recognize our inadequacy is to acknowledge God's perfection and our responsibility to others. When we feel small or insufficient, at that very moment we can sense God's love.
As a central figure, I realize that I was not always adequate to lead and guide the members under my care. When we touch God's heart and feel so much love coming to us from Him, we find it so easy to forget how many brothers and sisters have had to suffer because of our shortcomings and faults.
Let me give you some simple examples. In order to become an excellent physician, a doctor needs to accumulate a lot of experience. But sometimes, due to inexperience, a doctor in training may hamper the patient's recovery and perhaps even cause a patient's death; still, in order to become a good doctor, he needs to go through such experiences. Thus, a great doctor should be deeply grateful to his early patients who sacrificed themselves so he could become great. Although as an eminent doctor he may have the respect of many people, he should never allow himself to become arrogant, but always reflect on the many patients that he failed to cure or even let die, because of his shortcomings.
The same applies to a great general. As a young officer, he probably made many errors in planning, perhaps causing many soldiers to die; still, through these experiences he was able to develop into a great general. Even though he may have many great victories to his credit, when he comes to the tomb of a great soldier who died under his care, the general should feel humble and grateful for his sacrifice.
In a similar way, we as leaders who stand in the position of responsibility for one nation or one state must never forget the brothers and sisters who suffered because of us, allowing us to gain the experiences we needed in order to become good leaders. Maybe some people left the family because we could not give them enough care; still others may have suffered deeply because of our faults. Because of the experiences we gained through them, however, we could now stand in the position of leader.
Whenever we receive blessings from God, we should reflect on those who suffered for our sake and also be grateful to True Parents and to God, who at the sacrifice of other members guided us to the position of leadership. Because God wanted us to be even greater leaders, capable of guiding even more people, He sacrificed others for us and put us in the positions we have held.
Please recognize that when Father guides us, he does not just see our condition at a given moment; rather, he observes us from the beginning of our life to the present time; he does not interfere with the small details of the moment but rather sees us from the viewpoint of the whole. Father is always interested in us. Although we may feel that Father has forgotten about us, that is never true; he is continually concerned about us.
You might think that if you walk very closely beside Father, you can understand him better, but that is not necessarily true. If you hold something very close to you, just in front of your eyes, you cannot see it well; neither can you see clearly something in the far distance. So the important point is to keep the proper distance. The same is true with people; it often happens that you do not know well either those who are very close to you or those who are far away.
Therefore, it is good to maintain a proper distance and a respectful attitude towards your leader. If you are too close to your leader, the relationship tends to become habitual and sometimes you become careless about maintaining a respectful attitude.
With this in mind, I would like us to consider together Father's course. Father's way is the way of the Principle, so we must study not only the Divine Principle lectures, but also the standard of Father's life. Probing Father's daily life is more effective than merely receiving lectures as a method of understanding Father. Today I want to share with you one incident from Father's life, an encounter with one woman during the early days of his teaching in North Korea.
At the end of World War II, the Christian spirit was burning brightly in Korea, and the Korean Christians really thought that the Bible was their life. At that time, there were not so many Bibles in the country, and each one was highly treasured. The Christians always carried their Bible with them wherever they went, never leaving home without it. Like a dictionary whose corners become ragged after much use, their Bibles became well worn; they would read the Bible through many times over, as many as a thousand times. Some would memorize a whole book, such as the book of Revelation. If children stepped on the Bible, their parents would really scold them. Thus, you can see how precious and holy Christians considered their Bibles. This was the attitude of the Christians in general, but the spiritualists had an even higher attitude.
Compared with the Bible, our Divine Principle is much more valuable, but how many of us always carry it with us everywhere we go and treasure it as much as the Christians did their Bibles?
There was one spiritualist lady who after many years of involvement with the Christian churches received a revelation and came to see Father. She joined the family and committed herself to Father within a couple of months.
During this time, people would come to visit Father every day of the week in order to listen to him speak. He was young then, only 36 years old. One summer day, this spiritualist lady came to see Father. Father rarely took a nap, but that day, he happened to be lying down, using the Bible as a pillow. When this spiritualist lady saw that, she was so shocked.
I was there at the time, and I also wondered why Father put the Bible under his head, because I too had been taught a high regard for the Bible.
This was the first time Father used the Bible as a pillow, and he never repeated such an action. Therefore, Father must have done it especially for this lady. We can look at two reasons for such an action, one historical and the other directed towards this lady.
Father's entire life is centered on the Divine Principle, so you know that the Principle must provide a reason for his actions. Two thousand years ago. Jesus came to earth to culminate the Old Testament age and bring in the new one; Jesus came as the perfection of the Old Testament age. Then, what about the second coming of the messiah? Not only does he have to complete the Old Testament but the New 'Testament as well. Jesus came at the top of the Old Testament age, so the messiah returns at the top of the New Testament age. Thus, Father's putting the Bible under his head and using it as a pillow means, in the first place, that he came at the top of the New Testament age. It symbolizes his mission and position.
But we can also view this incident from the spiritualist's point of view. The purpose of her life of faith and her experience in the existing church was to prepare her to receive the second coming; but she herself had to find her own way of encountering the second coming. Man's responsibility, in other words, is to discover the second coming by himself, although in her case the spirit world had helped her by guiding her to Father.
If a person could receive the messiah without making any personal effort, he could be accused by the spirit world. Even Satan could protest, "If God and the spirit world had told me everything, I would never have fallen; the fall would never have taken place."
Although this lady was helped by God or the spirit world to find the messiah, that does not mean she fulfilled her own responsibility, which was to find the messiah by herself. Thus, she had to make the condition of finding the messiah by herself.
So how could she find the messiah? Father had to do something which transcended her concept of the messiah. She supposed that the messiah would consider the Bible as a guide, as a precious object; but when she saw Father sleeping on the Bible, she had doubts. This was the opportunity for her to overcome her doubts at seeing Father's actions. She had to trust in the revelations that she had received in the beginning. In this way, then, she could believe in Father as the messiah, and that was equivalent to finding the messiah by herself.
When I saw Father asleep on the Bible, I too had some questions, but they did not linger. Through living together with Father day in and day out, I had observed his high personal standard and came to understand many things about him. Then, although I wondered why Father would do such a thing, I could reflect on it, confident that in time I could understand.
The Bible is a representative of ourselves. We have a spirit body and a physical body. Our physical body can be compared to the Bible and our spirit body to the contents of the Bible. The contents of our life is our spirit self, but although our spirit self is important, it does not mean that we should neglect our physical body, because it is the base on which the spirit self can grow. To take care of the Bible as a precious book ultimately means to take care of its contents and, secondarily, of the book itself.
The book itself does not have life, for material in itself does not possess life. Still, if for instance, some piece of Jesus' robe had been preserved for 2,000 years, you would take care of it -- not because it in itself is important, but because of Jesus who wore it. If a piece of his garments remained until this day, it would still know Jesus and would understand his sufferings. Thus, when we would touch it, it would mean we were touching the body of Jesus.
Some of you wonder why Father gives such long talks. Try to place yourself in Father's situation and see things from his point of view. Father really wants to give us life. If God had to take responsibility for just one person, then the providence would not have been so protracted. But God's responsibility is to save not only the messiah but all mankind.
When Father gives a speech, if he had to focus on only one person, he would not have to spend so much time talking. But since Father wants to give life to everybody, to save us all and to give blessing to each one of us, his speeches become so long. To give a long speech is really difficult; it makes you really tired. Many years ago -- even several years ago -- Father never sat down while speaking. Even though he feels tired, why does he speak so long? He does it for us, for our salvation. He does not speak for me alone, but for everyone; he wants to give the blessing to everybody. A parent who has many children cannot give blessings to only a few, because then the others would feel lonely. That is why Father wants to give everybody the same blessing.
Sometimes we feel Father has been speaking too long, and we get sleepy and wish he would quit soon. But at that time, we should think of our ancestors, who know the value of Father's speeches better than we do; if we are not attentive, our ancestors feel heartbroken. When you listen to Father's words, your ancestors rejoice; so put yourselves in their position. Imagine how frustrated they are when you fall asleep during Father's speeches and how anxious they are for you to wake up.
Let me give you a practical example. Teachers sometimes invite parents to observe their children's classes. The teacher may give several pupils the opportunity to give their opinion, but can you imagine the feeling of the parents whose children had no chance to speak? When the teacher understands the parents' desire, doesn't he want to give the child a chance to speak, even though the class period has to be extended? The parents are happy to spend more time there, as long as their child has a chance to contribute to the class. Likewise, Father's deep desire is to give blessings to each one of us.
Furthermore, a surgeon who has to operate on a patient may have to spend long hours. The operation might normally require five hours, but at the end of the allotted time, if the surgeon sees that a little more remains to be done, he cannot stop the operation because he planned to take only five hours. He has to stay until the job is finished.
So we must examine our feelings about Father's talks; do they arise from a selfish motivation or from Father's point of view? As Father gets older he tires more quickly; so for him to give long talks means suffering for him. Thus, we should feel sorry for him. Is this our motivation, or do we become tired of listening to him? When we check our motivation unfortunately, we find that it often comes from our point of view. We are apt to think that after a long speech our brain becomes tired and we do not absorb so much; when he gives a short speech we think we can understand it better.
Although the members in general may think this way, we as leaders never should. We should have a different understanding and feel sorry that because our comprehension is not yet deep enough Father has to take such a long time to explain things. In actuality, we are responsible for Father having to speak so long.
If we can help Father, he will not need to suffer so much. As leaders, we should care for our members and prepare both ourselves and them to receive Father's words by making a separation from Satan and laying a good spiritual foundation for Father's speech.
Visualize yourself and your members as containers to receive blessings from God. Father's responsibility is to give God's blessing and our responsibility is to prepare an adequate container for it; to remove the dirt from the container is our task. If we do not do it, however, then Father has to drop down to our level and spend time cleaning our containers before he can fill them. If the container is pretty clean, then maybe one hour of speaking is sufficient; if the container is dirty, however, then maybe it takes three hours to clean. So if we want to help Father, we have to clean our containers.