God’s Will and the Ocean: Episode 93

God’s Will and the Ocean
Excerpts from Published Speeches, page 306-310
1974-1983

I have been going out to sea in a boat called New Hope. The public may think I just go yachting for pleasure, but every day I am collecting more material. God has hidden unlimited resources underneath the sea, and the oceans will be the key to future development in the world.

I know very well that in the course of developing sea industries, we may sometimes suffer some sacrifice. Eventually, we will have hundreds of fishing boats, and some of them may be lost at sea. Even losing husbands and brothers will not deter our pioneering zeal because that work will be for the sake of humanity.

We want to become masters of the sea. The ocean surface is twice as big as the surface of the land. Furthermore, there are vast resources beneath the sea. Any nation which can overcome the difficulties will conquer the sea. We first learned to have dominion on the land, and with the same pioneering spirit we can conquer the sea as well.

Our battle is now being waged on the land, and we must be victorious here, being tested and seasoned by a hurricane of persecution. Then, when real storms come at sea, we can welcome them. The Pilgrims who came to America were pioneering people, otherwise, they would not have crossed the Atlantic Ocean, especially during the stormy months. They realized that an uncertain destiny lay ahead of them, and that they had no guarantee for their lives. Few before had ever safely arrived in the New World, but they started anyway. By their hope and faith in God they overcame. Now, in the 20th century, we also are forging ahead, like a boat in a rough ocean, with faith in God. Whatever the persecution and blowing winds, we have faith in God.

I look at the vast ocean resources as God's blessing waiting for the Unification Church. I have promised to God, "Give me twenty years' time and we will conquer the sea, taking dominion over it and returning the glory to You." That is how I think every time I go out. Later, we will establish a great foundation, and even the Ford or Rockefeller Foundations will look like peanuts in comparison. That is the way we must realistically feel.

All these things are our pride in the Unification Church. The fisherman's life is a hard, dirty, even crude life and fishermen have to be very rugged. Furthermore, fishermen have often been known as thieves and liars. Why should I have us get into the kind of business which is known as a living hell? I go down to the bottom of hell, and by revolutionizing such a place, by bringing heaven there, I can hasten the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

Our Pride
June 5,1977

The characteristics of beauty include contrast, like the combination of blonde hair, blue eyes and white teeth. At sea, there is nothing but blue water for miles and miles, and after a while the blue color becomes boring. If suddenly, you see a black ship approaching from far away, that black dot attracts your entire attention. When the black ship raises its white sails, it becomes more exciting and dramatic to watch. If the black ship raises a multi-colored flag, it becomes absolutely gorgeous. Since everything else around is blue, you become content to watch only the black ship with white sails and multi-colored flag. That is what I call dramatic.

I am causing a lot of controversy because the white culture is like a vast ocean in which a yellow dot has suddenly appeared, and is attracting attention. Some Americans are not welcoming me, but God has been sailing vast oceans and is bored with man's present culture. All of a sudden, I have appeared, like a black ship. God is focusing His entire attention upon me. I will not only raise white sails, but also the multi-colored flags of all the nations. Put yourself in God's position and look down on the little ship, raising white sails and waving multi-colored flags. It is a very dramatic sight to behold. You are the sailors on that ship which is attracting so much attention. White, black, yellow, red and brown people are waving to the nations. There is a great deal of excitement and action on our boat!

The Desire of God
June 19,1977

You must have the faith and conviction that you are a lighthouse lighting a dark world. The lighthouse will shine forth even in the worst kind of weather because that is the time ships need the lighthouse most. When you are surrounded by the thickest fog, you must shine forth all the more. The more adversity, the greater must be your light.

I have become a legend in the Gloucester area; the newspaper there wrote several articles about our fishing and we have been a topic of conversation for the whole town. Hundreds of boats come every year from all over to fish in that particular area. When the New Hope put out to sea and dropped anchor, many other boats would follow and anchor in the vicinity. When we had a tuna strike, other fishermen would bring out their binoculars to watch what I was doing. At first, the negative people would want the tuna to break loose and escape, but after a few days of successful catches, they began to change their thinking and the rumor began that I have something good working for me.

I was always the first one out to sea. Some of the seasoned professional fishermen would go out early to outdo me, but no matter how early they got out, the New Hope was already there. The fishermen were not inspired by this, but when they tried to compete with me, they had to work so hard that they had no time for their usual drinking or laziness. By the end of the summer a rumor was going around that declining town that I was the only one who could save Gloucester.

Without any exception, I got up every day at 3:00 a.m. The New Hope went out in the moonlight and in many cases returned home with the stars and moon shining. Do you like to get up early in the morning? The staff members working on the boat were never told what time to get up, but since I arose at three o'clock every morning, they followed me, no matter how sleepy they were.

This has been my tradition for four years in America. It is not easy to follow me because no one can outwork me. My crew knows what I would do, and if I tell them to be out by 1:30 a.m. on the Atlantic, they get up and go out with no grumbling. I have even set the tradition of staying out and working all night.

This summer, I did not earn much in terms of money, but in terms of tradition, I earned billions of dollars worth. By following that tradition, the fishing industry in our movement will blossom and contribute much to America's entire fishing industry in days to come. Because I have now set the fishing tradition, no one will hesitate to go out to sea, even the women. If I were a coward, then no one would go seriously, but now people will be eager to go. There is a record of when and where I caught each fish and how big it was. In the future, fishermen will try to challenge that record.

Even though fishing is incredibly hard work, I wanted to give myself without any reservation to set the tradition for the posterity of the Unification Church. That has been my work for the last seventy days.

The Heart of Reunion
September 11, 1977