God’s Will and the Ocean: Episode 99

God’s Will and the Ocean
Excerpts from Published Speeches, page 326-329
1974-1983

There are so many varieties of activities and different projects in our movement, but when the summer comes, the most important of all is Ocean Church.

As you know, only one third of the surface of the globe is land; two thirds are ocean. Therefore, without knowing the ocean we can never have dominion over the entire globe. So every one of you, every member of the Unification Church, is required to take a basic training in Ocean Church, including navigation, repairing and so forth.

It is just incredible to think that the ocean is not dead! It is alive and moving; not only moving by itself, but moving in conjunction with the land masses and the solar system's sun and moon. It’s so wonderful to know the beauties and wonders that are hidden within the ocean. More than anything else in all of God's creation, the ocean is most sensitive to all the movements of the universe and the weather.

Once you understand the sensitivity of the ocean, have dialogue with it, and cope with it, you'll understand the most intricate of God's creation. By doing so, you can understand land masses in no time.

The ocean is not only sensitive, but is also very changeable. Therefore, to know how to cope with this changeable situation provides us with the best understanding of ourselves and nature. In order for us to mold our God-centered character we must know how to deal with the ocean, how to become subject over it, and how to have dominion over God-given creation.

Since God is presiding over the whole realm of dominion, God presides over all the changing and moving sensitivity of the entire creation. This is God's character, so we have to mold ourselves into resemblance of that character, particularly the American youth, because this nation is surrounded on three sides by the vast ocean. Generally, an American's interest is focused in one narrow direction, but that is not the way God likes. You must open yourself up to all four directions, and the ocean is presenting you with such a training ground. American young people have had very little interest in the ocean. Without this interest you might find it alright just for the present time, but as to a future vision, without an interest in the ocean you will never be a leader.

Many people say the space age has arrived, but you cannot dwell in space. From the ocean, however, you can draw resources, you can make a living from it. For this reason I founded and created Ocean Church. I feel in the future, the Ocean Church foundation can be greater than the land church. So far we've been living in the land church era, but from now on we'll be living in the Ocean Church era.

Becoming Flexible

Another important point is that when you deal with the ocean, you cannot be stubborn, cannot be inflexible - there's no way that you could survive on the ocean. The ocean-going person must be flexible, and understanding of all situations.

For example, land people work during the day and rest at night. There’s no such thing on the ocean; you work day and night because the tidal waters are moving and all the fish groups move accordingly. When certain tidal waters and the fish come at night, then you’ve got to work at night.

Furthermore, even if you have a perfect schedule, when a typhoon comes, you absolutely have to abandon that schedule. You cannot go by your own will; you have to adapt to your surroundings and accommodate others. So in ocean life, you have to make harmony with nature, particularly the ocean’s nature. On land you can mostly plan and set your goals, but on the ocean you cannot do so. While on the land, man confronts and tries to dominate nature. However, the ocean nature doesn't allow it so easily; therefore, men must learn how to live with the environment and how to be flexible. Instead of confronting nature, the ocean-going man must try to harmonize with it.

Training for Hopeless People

Some people have an inherent difficulty with the ocean because they have seasickness. Father sees that those guys have very poor ancestors! (Laughter)

In the long run, it is true that there was something wrong with their ancestors; either they had ulcers, or some kind of physical problem, some kind of deficiency—you cannot deny that. Unification Church members can be classified into three different groups. One is as the champions of the ocean. You know we favor them, and the second class would be the mediocre: they're not so bad on the ocean but not so good either. Finally the third category is the hopeless group.

The Ocean Church mission is to use this hopeless group and make it into champions. This is true with any country that a nation is declining not because there are no strong people, but because there are so many hopeless or weak people. So the nation's well-being is assured by making the hopeless people strong, then the safety of the nation is assured. To transform hopeless people to hopeful people, that is the challenge of the Unification Church, particularly the mission of the Ocean Church. That means that the hopeless people will go to Ocean Church first, because they need the most training. So I have to tackle those people first.