In my youth, there was no place in Korea I hadn’t traveled to. I stayed up all night in a truck… The truck driver wouldn’t let me into the cab, but I managed to climb.
[Laughter] As I couldn’t sit in the driver’s seat, I tried to get into the truck and—finally—sit in the place where the goods were. I thought, “If you want to go without letting me in, you’ll have to kill me first.
Letting one person in wouldn’t hurt the truck.” When I got out the following night, I said to the driver, “Ajoshi, let me pay for dinner.” He agreed, and while eating dinner, I poured out my story to him. This won his heart, and he forgot that I had said I would pay for the meal. He paid for it instead. [Laughter]
Another time, a lady had made rice for her husband, who was working in a field. She was on her way to him with the meal in a basket she was carrying on her head. I stopped her by the roadside, and later she somehow ended up serving the rice to me. [Laughter]
A serious undertaking
You may not know how much I thought before I started down this road. I have shed sweat and blood to go this way. I have prayed and devoted my life, risked my life, to do this way.
While receiving God, I have never asked, “Am I right or wrong?” I set out on this road with life-or-death determination. I am a person who thinks in that way. Furthermore, I am still alive, my body hasn’t collapsed, and there is still more of the road for me to travel and other roads I have promised to take. Thinking in this way leaves no room for regret.
What kind of person does God call?
Not someone who has a good character externally or a strong belief internally, but a person who has truth. Though seemingly weak, that person has a sword of love and a loving heart, so that when confronted with hardships, he or she can cut through them and continue.
Unless we become this kind of person, we cannot go toward our mission’s destination and can’t be acknowledged for having gone that path that is uniquely ours to go in front of the Being who called us.
I have solved all difficulties by myself. Consultation with others could not lead to an answer. No one, not even my parents, could understand the course I was about to embark on.
What I determined as a teenage youth has today passed through the historic bitter sorrow of restoration and reached the position at which we can open the door to our victorious God. When we come to understand that, we see how great is the power of a determined young man.
The road beyond hometown and family
The direction we go in depends on Heaven. In other words, God’s heart does not move by human nature or thinking; human nature should move by Heaven’s heart.
It follows, then, that those who are to develop heavenly nature should get rid of human nature. I mean, one should give up a humanistic cause for the sake of the heavenly path.
I was not even able to buy a handkerchief or a pair of shoes for my parents, who loved me so dearly. Even today, when I think of that, I know from a human perspective, I was not a filial son.
However, I changed myself so as not to betray God, though I may have betrayed my parents. Since I have dealt with all other things with such determination, I am determined not to rest until my goals are accomplished.
God’s work shows that He has been restoring the Cain-like world by taking and sacrificing those He loves most and those who are closest to Him. I wasn’t able to speak a word to the Principal to my mother, and father.
Everyone in my family, including my older sister and younger brother, received some spiritual inspiration. So it was quite probable that the Principle could have been communicated to them directly. Still, since they couldn’t listen to it…
If I tried to tell them, the words just stuck in my throat. There is a time for everything.
Once one makes up one’s mind to do something, he or she should do it. It’s the same with me. I made a promise to Heaven…
Since I determined to go in a set direction, even if my companions betray me, my parents betray me, or my wife or children betray me, I am going that way.
If my nation betrays me and the Unification Church itself betrays me, I will go even if it means sweeping them aside. I have been going this way ever since I received my calling. I am going this way now, and I will also go this way tomorrow.
Father’s prayer about his course
Dear Father,
The time when you called this innocent child a few decades ago and instructed me seems like yesterday. I am grateful to you that today, having passed through countless historic crises, I have been allowed time to feel repentant for the past and to once more think about life.
Your voice was refreshing as you calmly instructed me, though I, who did not know anything, was calling out to you. Rather than the times when I was humming a tune, pretending to be happy, I miss the times I pledged in front of you, biting my lips, blood mixing with tears.
I miss the situations where I could boast of a bond with Heaven, even though I was being chased out and persecuted. I don’t miss the occasions where I just conversed with people.
Though other people on earth did not know, I knew the path that sons and daughters were to take in search of Heaven, the conditions for that relationship they had to establish. I also knew that every time I voluntarily went down a road toward death, you made it into one leading to resurrection.
I can’t forget the days when I was suffering, starving, and in dire circumstances after I had come to know Your will. I know that many tearful crossroads are underpinning the Unification Church tradition.
In retrospect, they have become points of resolve for resurrection and revival that cannot be blocked. I have gone through the era under Japanese rule, I have been through North Korea, I have been through South Korea, and America; I have journeyed throughout the world.
Having learned why the road to Heaven is accompanied by so much persecution, I can only be grateful to You that You have had me walk that road throughout my life. For this, I offer you my gratitude once again.
Sun Myung Moon