Chapter 3
Mistakes

The members, who had been searching for truth, were so moved when they found it that they could not leave the church. They even forgot about going home. Those who came to the church in the very beginning had received revelation and were earnestly awaiting the Messiah.

As soon as they heard Father, they easily became members. They can be compared to sheep which had wanted to drink water for a long time. As I told you before, they became so inspired that they wouldn't leave the church. As a result, they got persecuted by the established churches and by their families. Those who experienced real joy couldn't stay with the established churches or at their homes. As I know you experienced it for yourselves, I won't speak about it any further. The very joy they experienced after they learned the truth and their joy at having met the Messiah, who knew God's will, couldn't be replaced by anything else or bought with money. They understood very well how valuable it was and therefore they invited the severe persecution, in a way.

After a certain period of time, Father guided them to convey God's word to their own homes and the established churches. However, they felt as if it were like going to a graveyard when they went back to their houses and established churches and they couldn't find satisfaction there any more, as they had come to know God's truth and true joy. Without taking Father's advice they came to him one after the other to hear him speak. However much Father told them to go back, some of them wouldn't leave the church. Perhaps you have had the same experience as them and can understand their situation.

I'd like to tell you another thing here: there are two occasions when people make mistakes. That is, you make mistakes either when you are happiest, or when you are most lonely or are suffering most. You can understand easily that we make mistakes when we are most sad or troubled; however, it might be difficult to understand that we make mistakes when we are experiencing joy. I think it is possible to explain this from the viewpoint of the principle of give and take action in the Principle of Creation.

Every existing being can maintain its stability when a subject and object within it form a give and take action. Pleasure or joy can be compared to exhalation or breathing out. When you continue breathing out, you'll get breathless or choked. In the same way, if you continue rejoicing to the end, you start feeling rather empty and lonely. In fact you feel so lonely that you start weeping. After you have wept as much as you can, you feel cheerful or bright, isn't that right? Why is this? Let's consider it in this way: pleasure stands in a subject position and the opposite of pleasure, sorrow, stands in an object position. This subject and object also will have give and take action. How do you do it? When you are happy I want you to consider how much God suffered to bring this pleasure to you, through fighting with Satan.

Suppose we are given God's word or the blessing: I'd like you to consider first how much Father suffered in order to bring us this pleasure and happiness. That is to say, where there is joy there has inevitably been the suffering of God, Father and the saints. When you are about to rejoice, you must think of the suffering of God, the Lord and the ancestors who gave this joy to you. When you think of this relationship of a subject and an object, you come to have a grateful heart, first of all to God, Father and the ancestors. You must make yourself happy, thinking of the object position. When you are sad, what should you do? Sorrow or loneliness stands in the minus position, or the object position. In this case you should think of the subject position or the plus position: the opposite position of sadness is happiness.

Human beings stand in the position of children before God and the True Parents. They are not at all happy to see their children suffering. Then why does God have to give us such suffering? Why does God have to push us into such a lonely and sad position? We must consider that there is God's love or Parents' love behind it, which wants to give the bigger blessing to the children after they have passed through the way of indemnity. We feel lonely or sad when we are given some condition which we have to fulfill by paying the indemnity. God or Parents can't help, as long as it is the children who bear the condition to be paid off through indemnity. But God is looking forward to giving a big blessing to the children when they are victorious over the difficulties. Therefore, when you are in the midst of hardship, you must think of God, who wants to give a big blessing to you. Then you cannot say that you would like to die because of the hardship.

You must feel God's love in the midst of hardship, then you can have hope in any difficulties. When our heart stands in the plus position, we have to think of the minus position, then we can have give and take to maintain our proper position and true way.

Normally people think they are happy when they feel happy, so they become empty after they have rejoiced. However, if you consider that God's suffering was there before your happiness, you'll never be empty, even if you've drunk in the happiness. However difficult your hardship may be you'll never be upset or confused, but rather you will find God's love if you have this way of thinking. If you don't have this give and take action inside yourselves, you'll lose your strength to live; both your joy and sorrow can consume your strength. Death is brought about when we stop give and take action.

There are many examples in this world: it is very hard to climb up a mountain, isn't it? But we endure the hard climbing thinking of the joy we can get on the top of the mountain. We can climb down safely if we have the same careful attitude we had climbing up. People often take it easy when they climb down and have an accident. Another example is when poor people suddenly become rich; they are apt to make mistakes. When poor people become rich they have to always think of the days when they were poor, and of those who are still poor, then they can maintain their wealth.

Let's suppose that you start a 40 day prayer condition for indemnity. As it is not easy, you are happy when you finish your condition safely and victoriously. You are apt to make the mistakes just after this happy moment. Why? Because it is very easy to forget about the hardship you had during those 40 days. If you have time to think back on the hard process to the victory, you'll never make a mistake while you are filled with the happiness of victory. The early members were all overwhelmed by the happiness of meeting the Messiah; they went out witnessing and directly spoke out that the Messiah was on the earth. If they had thought of God's hard work in bringing about their happiness, they would not have made such a mistake. They lost their heads because of their happiness in meeting the Messiah and they couldn't take Father's advice to go home and go back to the established churches. That's why they came to be persecuted by their families and churches. They themselves came to bear the indemnity; Father, as their leader, also came to shoulder their indemnity.

Whenever you are happy or lonely, please remember the way of give and take action. We tend to jump for joy when we are happy or we express our grief when we are sorrowful. I have observed Father and noticed that he doesn't express his inner feelings so much. When we tell him very good news, Father doesn't show so much interest. We may think he's lost his feelings or that he doesn't think that it is good news, but our guess always proves to be wrong after a few days when, in front of the people, Father talks of that good news. Then we can understand that Father was also happy to hear the news.

When something sorrowful happens, Father doesn't show his heart and keeps silent, or rather he speaks of something joyful. When he is about to be led to the minus direction, he pulls his heart to the plus direction deliberately. So Father doesn't show his reactions, either happy or unhappy. Father looks like an old moss covered rock which doesn't say anything but has looked on many things. Father has so many secret things inside himself, but he doesn't show anything in his expression that's why Father looks so solemn and doesn't ever look careless or light.

I'd like to tell you another story. Already 30 or 40 years before Father went up to North Korea there were religious groups there which had been prepared to welcome the Second Advent. Father visited one of them. One day he said to them: "If you believe Satan's word completely and absolutely to the end as God's word and if you attend him, even Satan will take you to God." Suppose you believe, learn and practice Satan's word completely and actually you attend Satan, Satan won't take you to himself but to God. Do you understand clearly?

I'll explain it, taking an example. Take one brother -- Mr. Tanahashi. Now here is another brother who believes in and attends Mr. Tanahashi very much. But this brother has a misunderstanding that Mr. Tanahashi is John. He has a firm conviction that he is attending John, even though he is actually attending Mr. Tanahashi. Then is Mr. Tanahashi happy or not? Satan knows why people are attending him: they mistake Satan for God and attend him just as earnestly as they attend God. They listen to Satan's words absolutely. Then Satan can't make them his own since they believe completely that they are attending God, not Satan. Therefore Satan thinks they should go to God, not to him; Satan leads them to God. Suppose we happen to believe and follow even Satan's word as God's word; as long as we believe and follow it completely, we'll be led to God not to Satan. Father had this much faith -- it's incredible, isn't it?

The members of this religious group couldn't believe so much that Father was the Messiah sent to the earth, but thought he was the sage of sages since they could understand the meaning of his words. You can see that their faith was not ordinary either. If we believe and obey a child's word just as we do Father's word, we'll never divert from Father. Therefore, however young your team member may be, as long as you listen to and attend him well as if he were Father, you'll never miss God's blessing. I don't mean you should obey a command, say, to leave the church. If your member tells you Father's word, you should obey that word as if it were Father's direct word. If you attend the member as if he were Father, you are attending not him, but Father.

There are many examples of this in the Bible: we should help a poor beggar, thinking what we would do if this beggar were Jesus. If you attend the beggar as if you were attending Jesus, you'll get the blessing of the Messiah. Father has obeyed and attended even a small child. While he was looking for the truth, the Divine Principle, he looked for people who were speaking of things nobody in this world could believe. Why? The things people think of as good in this fallen world are not the Principle. The things people think are bad are rather closer to God. Is what a bad person thinks of as bad closer to God or to Satan? Is what a good person thinks of as bad closer to God or to Satan? The Principle recognized in this unprincipled world is closer to "un-Principle". How have those who brought the good message of God been treated in this world? They have been thought to be crazy or mad. The man regarded as a crazy man in this world is a true man. Now you can see why Father looked for the people who spoke of things nobody in this world could believe. Father had this kind of faith. I'd like to conclude this morning's speech here. Thank you very much.

Return to the index of the book Father's Course and Our life of Faith, a biography of Rev. Sun Myung Moon by his first disciple Rev. Won Pil Kim.