Success

Hyo Jin Moon November 12, 2006

Here are my notes from Hyo Jin nimm’s speech Sunday 12 November 2006. My ability to convey what was actually said is limited. These, at most, convey some sense of what Hyo Jin nim said and are not a verbatim record. Hyo Jin nim’s website is: http://www.canaanstation.com/ To see two of the projects that Hyo Jin nim is working on log on to: http://definingmoment.tv/ and http://definingmoment.eu/

Joe Kinney

Rev. Andrew Compton is the MC. All welcome Hyo Jin nim and offer a bow.

(Hyo Jin nim bows to the audience as he approaches the stage. He places a small notebook on the podium.)

Hello.

We all want to be successful, right?

Let’s talk about success.

What is success? What do you consider success?

In America especially there are a lot of kids who graduate from Ivy League schools; by mid-twenties or late twenties a lot of people become millionaires. When you make a lot of money it does give you a lot of opportunity to move into things and do things that you want to do.

In the end success is defined by individuals. It is true because it connotes something that has to do with one’s career. Is success just based on your career? A career doesn’t have to last until the day you die; you can retire I guess. What’s today’s average retirement age, sixty? It used to be sixty-five but it’s going down right? Now it’s going back up again, but anyway something like that.

I guess the way that we should look at success; it should be about a lifetime. It’s one’s lifetime and you should define it as such, because the way that we look at Father is basically that. He’s a successful teacher. He’s a successful father of mankind, and because of His lifetime work we define His example as something to be revered. That’s what we’re trying to do; to commit our life to follow that kind of exemplary life. And He’s still moving on right? He didn’t retire yet. I don’t think He’s going to retire till the day He ascends to Heaven, that He dies.

So when I look at my Family model pretty much that’s how you define success in my family. I don’t know about other people, but it’s because of family tradition that’s what I have to accept. I could make my own definition of success. I could define it in my own way just like everybody else in a free society. But because of what I choose to accept that’s pretty much what defines success in my family. If you can’t do that, if you don’t have something that’s within you that you can make that kind of commitment you have the definition of success then you have no goal.

You feel Father is rich and owns a lot of land. "Oh if I acquire this land and that land this property and put it together I’ll have a billion dollar company." You can think like that statistically. You can think like that as if that is your right. But nobody in the world will recognize that as success. What success? That’s just privilege gone bad. That would be the reality. You can certainly do that….

If I do pray, and I rarely do, but if I do pray, I pray that "Father, you had a great start! I want your ending to be great as well." That’s what I want to see happen to Him. I want that to be