The Words of Hyung Jin Moon
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The Words of Hyung Jin Moon |
Good afternoon brothers and sisters! (Good afternoon) (Thank you)
We are always happy and honored to have you all here, especially since it's been two weeks since we last saw all of you guys.
As you know, we had Hyo Jin Nim's memorial service in Japan and 6,000 Japanese members came and did a big memorial service for Hyo Jin Nim. That's why we could not come here, and so we are apologizing once again about that, and we are also welcoming you, members who are joining with us via internet. We are welcoming you all. Thank you.
Brothers and sisters, I'd like to share with you from the Cheon Seong Gyeong, from page 1040. I was just casually reading from page 2 and I found this where Father says, "The question in loving God and people is how much we have exerted ourselves. This will transform into maturity of character in the spiritual world, and become the foundation of glory."
When I think about that, I really like that. How much in our lives are we really concerned for others. When we do that of course it's important to take care of ourselves -- when we do that, it transforms into maturity, it transforms into spiritual maturity. In our lives, in order to really truly be blessed, it is so important that we are concerned for one another, that we invest into one another, that we understand the value of our community. We are not walking alone in life, we are together with our brothers and sisters. We have support, we have help, we have a friend who can help us when we are in need, and that sense of security, of spiritual stability, I think is so important in our lives.
There are so many situations in our lives that can really get us down, and where we really can start believing, "I'm in this all alone, and I don't know why everybody's leaving." But it's so important in our lives that we remember that we are not alone. Sometimes we may feel alone, sometimes we may want to be alone, but it does not mean that we are walking alone. It's so important that when we need help that we can ask, that we have the maturity to reach out and say, "Hey! You know, brother, I need some help, I need some consoling. Could you encourage me a little bit?" And to have that in our community, I think that is so important. I am so happy to see that we are able to be at that point in our history in the Unification Church and family.
Brothers and sisters, as you know, every time when we start our service, we always try to re-frame our view, to view our lives with God's view, to see ourselves as valuable, creative, imaginative, successful, in order to be victorious in our lives, to be blessed in our lives. We determine the limits of our future by how we view our lives, by how we see our future.
It's so important that we always are refreshing our minds, reviewing our lives, seeing it with a fresh new view, a new hope, a new inspiration for the next day. And sometimes we may have things in our life that bring us down today, but let's start again and say, "Hey! Today's Saturday, on Sunday it's a new day!" Let us get up, let us say, "Hey! It's a fresh new day. It may be raining outside, but in my heart it's spring."
It's so important to have that victorious mindset. If we do that we attract victory in our hearts, we attract the right people to us, and God will really help us to bring together the people, the friends, the community, the support, that we need.
Brothers and sisters, it's so important that when we come to service that we are here together and that really we give ourselves to praising God and True Parents, remembering who we are. When we are here singing with the choir, it's so important that we participate with them. Let's really muster up our hearts, stir up our faith, and really let's try to participate with the choir. It's so important that we get up and stand and sing and offer that as a condition.
And I believe, I really truly believe, that when we do that at the beginning of our week, the rest of our week goes better. We start off with the right view, we start off with the right perspective, we start off with the right starting point. This is so important in our lives, and hopefully every Saturday we are here once again, overcoming our obstacles, being victorious step by step, accumulating merit, and really bringing a blessing to others.
Brothers and sisters, it's great to see you all here today. Let's really have a great service today. We are ready. You guys have the sparkle of victory in your eyes, I can see it. They're all sparkly right now. So let's really have a great service. Thank you so much for coming here.
I was always wondering why True Father made people sing at Hoon Dok Hae. Of course it has a great effect of making people wake up from dozing, but what else is he trying to teach people, to our members? What is he trying to teach to members? He's saying that he wants us to make an atmosphere of rejoicing, rejoicing for God. Members, people at Hoon Dok Hae come with different circumstances. They might have had a good day, or they might have had a bad day, but they come as one, and they come together and celebrate and listen to Father's words together. And True Father really wants to make a warm atmosphere for everybody. That's why, I realized, Father is doing that.
When we come together and rejoice together, it gives us strength to be victorious for God. So brothers and sisters, let us also be strength to each other and be victorious true blessed family members. Aju!
You know we always like to start with something a little interesting. When we were at the divinity school we always liked to see the funnier side of religion. It's always important to be able to laugh at yourself.
I heard a very interesting story. A young boy, Tommy, went to service with his mother and after service all of a sudden he declared to mum, "Mum I'm going to be a minister when I grow up." Mum was very surprised. She said, "Honey, I thought you wanted to be an astronaut. Why do you want to be a minister all of a sudden?" And he said, "Well I figure, you know, I have to go to Sunday service anyways, but instead of sitting and listening silently I'd rather stand up and yell at the crowd!"
I want to speak to you today about knowing that you are created for greatness. In order to live the blessed life, it is so important to know why we were made and who made us. When we think that Almighty God created us, then He also created us in His image. If we can understand that concept, we understand that we resemble Him, His creativity, His unlimited potential, His greatness, His love, His value. We have those seeds within us and it's so important in our lives that we nurture those seeds, allow those "trees" to blossom, become all that God has created us to be.
When our children fulfill their destinies and they become all that they can be, then as parents we receive so much joy, just seeing them fulfill their potential. And it's the same way in our own lives. When we live with excellence, when we're on the path to greatness, when we move in that direction, we bring great joy to God our Creator.
I know that Father knew this when he first received his messianic mission. I can see him on the holy rock praying, in North Korea, and I see him getting that revelation that he has to spread this message to the world and that he has to take on a messianic role. And you can imagine his mind at that time. There he is on a mountain, there is barren land all around, there's just farmland. He's never been out of Korea. He's just 16 years old. He can't imagine the world, he does not know how big it is but yet something within him, when God asked him to take on this mission, something stirred up inside of him.
When God asked him, Father denied Him two times. Father said, "I can't do it. The world is too large. I am not talented enough. I just don't have what it takes to do what You are asking me to do." But he continued to be asked, and on the third time he decided, he declared, "OK God, I will do this!" And in his heart, every step of the way, whenever he faced doubt, whenever he faced obstacles, he had to say in his heart, "I will become great in my life for You, God!" And it's so important that we are able to have that spirit in our lives.
Too many people go through life thinking, "I'm nothing special. I don't have the talents that are required for this occupation. He's better than me," or, "She's got a better personality than me. I'm never going to meet somebody who is really going to allow me to substantiate a blessed family. I'm just average. I really have nothing to offer."
Too many people start getting into this trap of thought and it's so important that whenever we understand, whenever we see these thoughts appear in our mind, that we get rid of them immediately. It's so important, because the thoughts that we have, projected into the future, set the limits of our life. If we have this kind of limited thoughts, thinking of ourselves as defeated or just mediocre, just plain old average, nothing special, then we will not be able to achieve, not be able to substantialize those seeds of greatness that God has planted within us. It's so important to understand this because even one persistent negative thought can steal our destiny, can steal our joy, can steal our potential.
It's so important that we know that whenever we hear even one word that says, "I don't have what it takes," that we eliminate that very quickly from our minds. It's so important that we're very quick to react to those kinds of circumstances and, that whenever those thoughts arise, we quickly move them out of the picture. When we keep our minds looking towards the future, it is so important that we see our lives getting better, that we see ourselves moving through obstacles, moving through circumstances, overcoming difficulties, succeeding on the path to victory.
I heard a very interesting story called, "The ostrich and the eagle." There was a beautiful eagle's nest, and the eagle was perched up there. Somehow one of the eagle's eggs fell down and landed in an ostrich's nest. And as you can imagine, the mother ostrich came and she saw this nice little egg, and she just thought, "It's one of my own" and she sat on it and nurtured it. Eventually the eggs hatched and all the baby ostriches came out. And of course there was this very unusual looking baby ostrich. He kind of looked like something that flies in the sky. But she didn't pay attention. She said, "They're all my children. I love this child, so I'm going to raise it just like everybody else."
They traveled though life. The ostriches ran around. They ran fast but they were always looking on the ground, searching for insects, searching for little scraps, and always, whenever there was something that scared them, they put their heads in the dirt. One day a huge shadow floated over them, and they were filled with fear. The ostriches did exactly as their instincts told and they started burying their heads in the ground. And this eagle, the eagle ostrich that was raised with this family, he started trying to bury his head in the ground. But he couldn't do it. He didn't have what it took to start burying his head in the ground.
He hit himself on a rock and he looked up all dizzy and he saw this beautiful majestic bird floating in the sky. And he heard the cry of that eagle and something on the inside of his heart rumbled, stirred up within him. He said, "Wait a minute! That sound's so familiar to me." And he let out a cry, and he realized, "Hey I can do that, I can cry like that eagle!" And he started flapping his wings. Every day, every day -- he couldn't get off the ground at first -- but every day he tried to fly. He started to get higher and higher. Once he was looking at the dirt, scraping around for his scraps and getting insects, but now he was flying in the horizons, seeing the blazing sun, looking at limitless sky.
And it's so important that in our lives we understand that God never created us to be an ostrich. He created us to be eagles, to be majestic, to be bold, to be enchanting, attractive, to be powerful, and soaring to great heights. It's so important that as blessed families we start seeing ourselves not as the ostrich, running around trying to find a little insect on the ground, but that we are seeing ourselves as eagles. We are flying and soaring in the sky. When we look into our future, we find new horizons, new lands to discover.
In our lives we may have setbacks. We may even have thoughts that are continually replaying in our minds. Then it is important that we ask the question, "Who told me that I'll never make it?" or, "Who told you that you'll never have what it takes? Who told you it will never get any better? Who told you that you would fail and come crawling back?"
When we start hearing these ostrich thoughts, such as, "You'll never make it, you don't have what it takes, you're just going to fail. You're not going to get through this difficulty, it's going to last for ever, it's never going to end," -- whenever we hear these ostrich thoughts it is so important to say, "Hey! Wait a minute! God never created me to be an ostrich!" Get rid of those ostrich thoughts, and start putting new eagle thoughts in your mind, "God made me to be an eagle. I'm supposed to fly, I'm supposed to soar!"
When I reflected on this, I remembered a story about a blessed family, a wonderful blessed family, just fantastic blessed family. They had beautiful children, and the sister here, one day she wakes up and she discovers that her husband is gone. He ran away with another woman! Not only that. To make even matters worse, she looks at her bank account and she has $500 in the bank! She saved up for over 15 years, and now only $500! All the rest is gone! She's here alone, she's in a foreign country. She has three young children to feed. She doesn't know what to do.
And I remember talking to her. She was devastated emotionally, emotionally destroyed, "How could he do that? How could he leave me like that? How could he leave our young little children? How could he do that?" And I remember her just totally, totally devastated, totally in a mindset of defeat. And anybody can understand her situation. She was thinking, "How can I succeed here? I am a foreigner, I don't have any job experience in this land. There is no way I'm going to be able to make a living to support my family. I have three young children to feed. I have rent to pay this month. There's no way, I'm going to be able to survive in this land."
Also she knew that everybody in the community was talking about her, "O my God! Her life is over! I don't want to be in her shoes." Everybody was starting to gossip about her situation, and she was getting overly stressed, thinking, "What's going to happen to my life? How am I going to feed these children? What will my future look like? It's not going to look bright." She started seeing herself with this mentality.
And she told me how one day she got up, she washed her face and she saw herself in the mirror, and she just started crying in front of the mirror. She could see the water dripping from her face, from her hair, and in the background she could hear her three little children crying. On that day she put her foot down and said, "I'm not going to be a victim in my life. I'm going to be a victorious person in my life. I'm not going to just stand there passive. I'm not going to wait for somebody to hand me something to step up. I'm going to take a stand for my children, I'm going to take a stand for my life."
What did she do? She started calling everybody that she knew. She started applying for jobs. Somehow God made a way. She couldn't see a way. Somehow He made a way. In spite of so many obstacles she eventually found herself 10 years later as the head of the bilingual department of a university. She's now successful. She now owns her own home. She has sent two of her children to the blessing. She has instilled faith within them of their blessing even though her blessing didn't work out. She sent all of her children to college and now she's financially independent, secure. She can look towards her future with confidence knowing that she succeeded in her life.
And of course, when we look at her life, we can say, "Wow! She's incredible. She really was able to actualize the strengths that God placed within her." She'll be the first one to admit, "I never thought I could do it. I thought I was totally gone, I thought my life was totally ruined." Imagine if your spouse one day leaves. You have children depending on you, and leaves you just some five hundred dollars in the bank. What can you do? She was in that situation. But she says, "Now after the years of tribulation, after the years of trial that I've endured, I am at peace. I can't say that I'm totally victorious. But I'm at peace."
God made a way for her, because of that victorious spirit, because she chose to think, "I'm not going to live as a victim in my life. I'm not going to continue to let other people poison my thoughts. I'm not going to look at my future with a bleak mindset, with a limited mindset. I'm going to believe even though it looks like there's no way. I'm going to know that there is a way." And I do believe that with her spirit she will continue to have victories in her life, she will continue to have winning circumstances.
And when we look at her situation we know that there may be obstacles. Maybe her children will have difficulties in their marriages, maybe they may struggle -- all families do, all marriages go through some type of tribulation. But in the end she was handing down this spirit to her children, she was trying to raise that independent mind in her children, saying, "Don't you ever believe that you can't do something. Don't you ever believe that there's no way. Always believe that there's a way, always move forward with confidence, God will provide you a way." She lived that life and she gave that blessing to the children.
It's so important how we think of our lives. If we think we are not special, we won't act in that special God-given way, we won't act in our unique way, we won't develop our unique traits. If we think we are not talented then we won't invest into ourselves to build ourselves up, then we won't invest to make ourselves talented. If we think that we're not going to get out of this financial difficulty, we won't be ready for God's victory, for God's abundance in our lives. If we're not thinking that we're having good personality, we're not going to meet that person that God is investing to meet us. He's preparing that person, that person that can really help us in our life, or maybe the person that we may eventually be blessed to.
But if we don't believe that we have the right personality, if we don't make that step to go out and to meet that person, if we don't go to gatherings, to church, to find the right person etc... then we will never be able to be in that situation. If we think we're average in our minds, we'll never be great. I've heard it said like this, "The greatest enemy of greatness is 'good'. The greatest enemy of greatness is 'good'."
When I was young, I was such a terrible student, I really couldn’t do so well. Here I am, in high school, and I was flunking algebra. My average score on test was 24 out of 100! That was hard work for me to get 24 in Algebra every week. It was only in college that I started turning that around. I started turning that around but it was not only because of my own help, not only because of my own talent. My brother Young Jin Hyung was really supporting me, really helping me, encouraging me through that period of time. I remember that he encouraged me and raised me up to be a more confident, academic student. I remember that I once got a 3.3 out of 4.0. I got myself from a 1.6 up to a 3.3. Hey! I was saying, "This is great, I am good, this is good, this is more than I ever expected, this is fantastic! I just want to coast from here."
And Young Jin Hyung said, "Wait a minute, I'm not going to let you be content with that. You have so much more in you than you ever can believe. You have more potential than you're giving yourself credit for. I want you to start seeing yourself in a new way. I want you to start renewing your life in a totally new way. Stop saying you're a 3.3. Don't be content with 'good', be great in your life. Show those people who don't believe in you, show those archangels who say that you're genetically born with mental deficiencies, show them that you have the capability to be academically strong." He told me that, he put words of faith into my mind. He put words of boldness into my mind; he tried to instill encouragement, hope, into my heart.
At that time I was thinking, "He's crazy. I can't do this. I am a 1.6. I'm mentally deficient. I can't get academically strong. I've been told I'm mentally handicapped for the majority of my life. How am I going to get up to this level of greatness? I'm only a 3.3. That's the best I'm going to do. It's a miracle I'm here." But Young Jin Hyung pushed me. He said, "No, I'm going to push you. I want to dare you to be bold. I'm going to dare you to see yourself in a new way."
And so what happened? I eventually took on his mindset. I started believing the words that he was planting into my heart. I started to say, "Wait a minute, maybe I am not as mentally deficient as I thought. Maybe I am partially mentally deficient, but I am on the way to becoming free from that deficiency." And I started seeing myself in a new way. What happened? I did get a 4.0. I ended up getting a 4.0, getting on dean's list, and eventually transferring to Harvard. If you told me 10 years ago that I'd go into Harvard, that I would be a 4.0 student, be on the dean's list, and that I would be graduating from Harvard University, I would have told you, "You are crazy, insane and should be immediately institutionalized." (Laughter)
But what happened? Young Jin Hyung pushed me. He pushed me to see myself not as 'good', "Don't just see yourself as good, see yourself as great. Start viewing yourself with the eyes of God. Start re-viewing yourselves with those eyes." And I want to tell you all that God's view of your life is so much greater than your own. It's so important that when we look at our lives, that we don't see with those limited mindsets, that we see it with those limitless mindsets, that we see with the eyes and the view of Almighty God. Young Jin Hyung spoke those words of faith into me. He spoke boldness into me, he spoke courage into me. He truly encouraged me at the time when I could not believe that it was possible. I thought it was impossible for me to succeed academically.
And I know that some of us are in the "storm" right now; some of you are encountering difficulties. You may not see a way that you'll get through this difficulty. You may not see a way, "How am I ever going to find a method or a procedure to get out of this? Who's going to help me? How do I know that it's going to turn out OK?" But it's so important that in our minds we're not like the ostrich, that when the storm comes our way, we do not just hide our head in the ground. That's not the way to tackle it. We've got to be like that eagle. We can't just see something and put our head in the ground. We have to spread our wings, put a smile on our face and soar above that storm.
It's so important to understand that when we are moving in the right direction in our lives, that we can start bringing our future into that direction. I heard a saying like this, "Some of us may be in a storm right now but don't let that storm get into you." What does that mean? It means this: We may go through hard circumstances, maybe something that you believe you don't have the potential to overcome; we may be in that storm now, you may be in that circumstance, you may be in suffering right now. But don't let that circumstance, don't let that storm get inside of your heart. Don't let that thing plant its seed, its roots, into your heart. Don't let it start convincing you that you're just going to be 'good', to be average, or just mediocre. Start taking out those roots. Start planting new seeds of hope in your life, start seeing your future with a new view.
And it's so important that when we see that in our lives, we say, "In my future there are going to be new horizons. Whenever the sun sets in the West, it's already rising in the East. It may be dark right now, but right around the corner is the dusk of morning." And it's so important in our life that we move with that kind of confidence, that we know that a new horizon will open for us. Even though we may not see it at this time, we know that God is going to bring it to pass.
I know it's sometimes hard to do that. Sometimes the circumstances may feel huge and mountainous, but let us remember that no mountain is bigger than the power of Almighty God. It's so important that we always remember in our lives, whenever we are encountering circumstances that want to steal our joys, steal our potential, steal our happiness, that we say, "I'm not going to let you steal it. I'm going to keep it. I'm going to put a smile on my face. I'm going to be all that God created me to be. I'm going to be successful for God. I'm going to be great for His name!"
When you see yourself as talented, as creative, as intelligent, not mentally handicapped, when you see yourself as intelligent, as sophisticated, attractive, as victorious, on your way to greatness, then you are praising the masterpiece that God has made. When we start doing that, this is not a selfish thing. All you are saying is,"God, You made me, You created me and You are proud of me. You made me out of Your creative energy, and look at what You have created! All I'm doing is praising what You've created. All I'm doing is giving You credit for the things that You have planted within me."
And maybe we can't see it right now, maybe all our talents have not blossomed at this exact point. But it's so important that even though we can't see it all in its fruition, that we keep praising, that we keep speaking words of faith over our lives, over our future, over our destinies. It's so important that we remember, "I have to rejoice. I'm a child of the Almighty God!"
I remember what the Apostle Paul said. He was writing a letter to the Romans, a different church over there, and he said, "Rejoice not because of your circumstances, rejoice despite your circumstances."
Too many times we think, "My circumstances are going pretty good right now. I'm on the mountain top, things are looking OK, now I'm going to rejoice, now I'm going to say, 'Thank you God, thank You so much!'" But everyone can rejoice when he is on the mountain top. Everybody can praise God, "Hurray God, thank You for my victories!" But it's more important to rejoice when we are in the valley, it's more important when we are walking through the desert, when we can't see our own potential. In those situations it is so important to say, "You know what? I'm not going to rejoice because of my circumstances, I'm going to rejoice in spite of them. I'm going to be happy. I'm going to put a smile on my face, I'm not going to let any archangel steal my joy. I'm going to be victorious in my life." It's so important that we have that kind of talent, that kind of creative spirit within our minds.
But don't just stop there. In our lives let us speak these words of faith to somebody else, let us encourage others, give them hope in their future. Make them believe, "Hey! There is a way! I may not see it now, but there will be a way." If we can speak those words of faith to others, if we can help somebody to get a new view of his/her life, then we will truly be living the blessed life. We won't only be blessed in our own lives, we will be blessings unto others. We will be blessed blessings in this world.
What can we learn today, brothers and sisters? Let's dare to see ourselves in a new way. Let's dare to review our life in the way that God is viewing us. And let's praise Him for His goodness, not necessarily when all things are going all right and all things are going our way, but even when things are not going our way, even when we have more archangels coming against us than we can ever assume.
Let us praise God even more in those circumstances, in those times of difficulty. Let's just say, "Hey! God, You gave me so much potential. This is too easy, God! You're sending me only three archangels, it's so easy. I have more talent than that. Thank You so much for giving me all this talent, all this ability, all this creative energy. I'm going to solve this problem."
We have to have that kind of victorious mindset. We don't want to fall into thinking, "I can't do this, it's too big, the challenges are too large. I can't see my future." If we start thinking like that, we're going to be thinking ostrich thoughts. We don't want to be thinking ostrich thoughts, we want to be thinking eagle thoughts. Fly, put a smile on your face, stand up proud, be proud of who you are, walk out with confidence, be an eagle, soar above that storm.
And some of you may not have a brother like Young Jin Hyung today. So allow me to be Young Jin Hyung for you today. I declare that every one of you will not only be good; you will not only be mediocre, you won't be just average. You'll be great. You'll be outstanding. You'll leave your mark on this generation. I declare that you will have, every day of your life, more victory, more illumination and more peace. And I declare that you will truly live the blessed life that True Parents have blessed us to live.
Brothers and sisters, if you can accept this, be a blessing, give the blessings unto True Parents. Come on! (Loud applause).
We always like to finish our service by coming back once again into True Parents' family. Just join for a brief prayer.
Heavenly Father, True Parents, thank You for this day. You have planted within us the seeds of greatness. Father, if we have done any things that we want to tell You, Father, if we have any wrong doings, Father, let us offer them up now, Father, in our hearts, right now. We don't have to tell anybody about them at this point. We can just offer them as a condition to You, spiritually, right now, Father, allow us to do that. Father, please make us the palace of Your love, make us the palace of Your life, of Your lineage. Do great things through us, Father. Allow us to accomplish and become all that You have created us to become.
We pray these things in the power and authority of blessed central families, in the power invested in us by True Parents. Aju! (Aju!)