[Rev. Andrew Compton is the MC.] All welcome Hyo-Jin-nim and Yeon-Ah-nim and offer a standing bow.
[Hyo-Jin-nim bows to the audience as he approaches the stage.]
Good morning. [Good morning] Let’s talk about moving up. America is the most powerful nation in the world I guess.
Is it? [A brother from the former Soviet Union responds “Kind of”]
Kind of? Russia? [Laughter]
How many nations are there in the world? Over two hundred something, right? It goes up and down, but there are hundreds of nations. And those hundreds of nations, do they follow America’s ways and values in every which way? I don’t think so. They have their own way of dealing with quote-unquote democracy, the greatest gift from “white people” to mankind. [Laughter]
So there are all sorts of versions of that. So starting with yourselves, you make your own rules, right? You decide what is right and wrong. You make your standards and you manage your life. And with your ability that you have, that all God’s children have, the ability to imagine, to create, you try to envision yourself in something that is more than what you are now. Obviously you always want to see forward. You always want to move ahead. Because that’s life, that’s physics, time ticks forward. I don’t think it goes backwards does it? Maybe in fiction, a time machine or something, maybe that’s doable when you’re dead.
As for what is real for us at this point in time, what it is, is what it is, and what you see is what you get, and that’s it. And from there, you start. You make your own laws. You make your effort. You have your standard and you manage your life. And based on that you try to do the best that you can to envision yourself in the future, and based on that imagination, you use your creativity and try to make some kind of productivity how to make your ideal real.
Unless the ideal becomes real, it doesn’t exist. If you don’t have some platform to stand on, you can’t move up. You don’t build the Empire State Building from the hundredth floor down, OK? I don’t think that’s doable.
It’s that kind of stuff. It’s just basic physical things. We have to remind ourselves how we can relate to the basic function, dealing with physical reality. The more that we are realistic to that and approach it the way we can, knowing our limitations. You have to know your limitations, if you don’t know your limitations, it doesn’t work.
Power doesn’t mean anything if you don’t know your limitations. Remember even God, the Almighty God, the Omnipotent God, He has limitations in power, CALLED YOU! And if you don’t understand that limitation, and even if let’s say, you want to be helped. You want somebody to help you. You go to somebody who is powerful, if you lie to them, you compromise them too. Do you know that?
You truly have to know your limit. You have to be t-r-u-e t-o y-o-u-r-s-e-l-f. [tapping the podium to emphasize each word] first. And obviously I hope that you’re a good guy. I don’t think that you should shove goodness down somebody’s throat. We all know what is right and wrong, basically. You should have that basic decency, basic propriety, even if you’re asking for help from somebody else, because if you don’t, you’ll destroy them too. You’ll compromise them too. So what good is that?
So how do you move up? Ask yourself “how can I move up?” What do you think will last, you or a good deed that you might have done? The good deed that affects something else, something greater, that will last more than you. That’s for sure.
So what is the kind of stuff that we can do to make our lives more meaningful? Yes it is important to make laws, manage, and to create stuff. But even that, that’s stuff on a physical level, stuff on the intellectual level, and stuff on the spiritual level. That stuff is there.
It doesn’t matter where you’re struggling in. That’s irrelevant. Why, because in the end, of all the things that you can do if you want, the greatest that you can possibly do is something that can last LONGER THAN YOU. Your sorry butt will die!
Because I have to remind myself every day, I have to die well. I know I’ll die. It’s important. That’s what’s important to me. And life is nothing other than proving my faith. That’s about it. That’s the meaning of my cause in every man or woman’s life. In that short period of time, what are you going to do?
What can you take when you’re dead? The funny thing is that you can only take what you leave behind. What is meaningful in that stuff that you leave behind that you can take? That’s so funky. That’s the irony isn’t it? Well that’s true! Pretty much that’s about it. That’s what faith teaches you. That’s just the way it is.
What you got is what you got. More power to you! Spend it here. You aren’t going to take power and money and all that stuff, you aren’t going to take it with you. What is that? To me … IT’S EDUCATION, Something in the arts and science and GOD.
Hey! Make a pill that cures cancer. Be a billionaire, more power to you, but it’s money then right? Build a flying saucer, more power to you, be a millionaire OK. Something like that, and you want to create, OK, more power to you. Inspire people, and be rich and famous and be good.
I’m not going to tell you what to do. You know what to do if you had that stuff, right? But it takes effort. It takes time. It takes time to take money from outside people. [laughter] For projects like making movies I need millions, but anyway, I’m working on it.
You have to start somewhere, and you do it for a cause. You have a purpose, and certainly it’s not just for the sake of money. People have billions of dollars. Bill Gates has enough money to buy everybody, all humanity a [McDonalds] Big Mac meal. [Laughter] He’s rich, but that’s it one time.
Yes he’s rich but who cares? Are you going to change your life because of one Big Mac meal? It’s very difficult to persuade. It takes time, and that’s why it’s important.
It takes time. It takes time. If you have family, you know how it is, right? It takes time. It’s just that, and you have to multiply that on a larger level, and nothing changes. Nothing changes, you might have changed, but nothing changed. The standard did not change, that’s what you literally pull yourself back into. That’s why it’s difficult. You think “I’ve done my stuff and I’m ready to go to sleep. I’m ready to retire.” But no, no, no, no, no, WAKE UP! That stuff. That’s why it takes time.
Something precious doesn’t cook over night. Beliefs, what matters, is something that you can change for the betterment of humanity. That’s what’s the greatest.
And if through your effort, through your sacrifice you can leave something behind that can help other people, other than you, that’s what’s important.
So what can you do? Go make some medicine. Go do something. Build something great. Teach your friend something that they need to know.
If you know what is right better than your little friend, a friend that you like to be around, you have something to offer, something to share, do it whether they like it or not. And you keep on giving it to them. Why? Because it’s going to take a long time to persuade. Don’t give up. Nothing happens in just one shot. You want that, then walk on water.
Okay, see you. [Two taps on the podium]