Pyeong Hwa Gyeong (018) - The Foundation of the Future World
1. Seventy years with God as my motivating power
Many distinguished speakers have praised my work generously. Today’s occasion would have little significance, however, if its sole purpose were to applaud my past accomplishments. The substance of our celebration ought to be determined by the degree to which my work up to now is reason to have hope in the future, the degree to which my work can brighten the future of humankind, and the degree to which it is related to the providence of God, who governs the entire cosmos.
Throughout my life, I have been running at full speed to pioneer a course never before traveled by anyone. It is already widely known that on an external level, I have been continuously buffeted by opposition arising from a lack of understanding. Within the realm of my heart, however, I have been in a constant state of tension, fighting every minute and every second to stay focused on how I can accomplish God’s desires during my lifetime. My life has been so intertwined with God that I can never speak of it without reference to Him. Because my life has been directly connected to the fate of the nation and the world, I have shared every aspect of it in a deep give-and-receive relationship with God. As I now recall how I shared with Him my deepest sorrow, my greatest pain, and my most exalted joy, I offer my deepest gratitude to God, with a heart that perhaps cannot be fully shared with anyone else. All the glory of this day I offer up to the living God, my Father.
It is true that the foundation I have laid around the world is an astonishing accomplishment. However, I take less pride in the external and visible aspects of this foundation than in the fact that no part of this foundation has been established centering on myself. Each part is geared more to the future than the present, more to the benefit of the whole than the individual, and more to the larger purpose than the narrower purpose. The value of this foundation lies in the fact that God was its motivating force, and that it was established under God’s protection even under the severest hardships and most turbulent vicissitudes. |