The Third Carp Convention of World Students Closing Banquet

Hyo Jin Moon October 14, 1986 World Mission Center

How do you feel about going back to your homes and your countries? Do you want to stay longer? For the past few days, I've seen many, many beautiful things. When you say "beautiful thing',' the first people think about is a flower, something with a beautiful fragrance, something exotic. But I've felt beauty here in many different ways. I have found it in you. To some people's eyes a majestic mountain is beautiful, and to some people's eyes a cloud floating on a blue sky is beautiful. We all share different kinds of beauty within us. As children of God, we have to be able to taste all that beauty and be nourished by the beautiful things we see. Then we have to transform that into our own image of true beauty that God sees in each one of us.

I saw so many students get excited by the musicians at the CARP convention, especially by the Third World group. Everybody in that auditorium was standing up and cheering and dancing! I could see people dancing in the aisles! Before that, there were many speeches by many distinguished guests, and everyone was very serious, but when the music began, everybody got up! All the Doubting Thomases, who were just sitting and looking around, got up and started dancing and cheering! Even those people who knew nothing about our CARP Principle and had come here out of curiosity listened to the music and deep inside experienced it as joy.

Everyone has had some kind of experience of joy. It may be fallen ways of joy, but everyone has felt something. When people enjoy the taste of something they think they're feeling joy. American people like hamburgers and steak. When they go to McDonald's and eat a Big Mac or a Quarter Pounder they feel happy inside. Their stomach is saying, "I am happy, give me some more." And when people see beautiful things, they also feel joy. People find their moments of joyfulness in their own ways. For athletes it's the same. When they do their exercises, when they do their sports, they feel exhilarated, they feel happy, they feel contented. They find something worthwhile in their abilities.

The Greater Joy That's what we have to find. Here in this CARP movement, we are generating that kind of joy and making it a God -- centered joy. Before you joined CARP, your joy was individual joy. Some of it didn't relate to God, even though you felt joy with your five senses. You could relate only to what you could feel. But what is important in our mission is to reflect the kind of joy that is within God's domain.

You need to do that when you go back to your nations and back to your campuses. Reflect the joy within God's domain; that is the greater joy. It can be in dancing, in singing, when you do sports, even when you eat. You can bring in new members and cook for them. You should cook with your own hands. A sushi party's okay, if you're an expert at making sushi! I want you to do that. Make them taste your sushi! That would be something very special compared to sushi you buy at a restaurant. That's the kind of thing we all must do. That is important. Then we can feel true joy.

Also, you have to be courageous. You have to be confident. Even when you're tired, you have to try to make the goal. During the soccer tournament, many African members looked pretty tired because they had played so many games. Their physical bodies were exhausted, but they were trying up to the last moment. They still had the confidence that says, "Okay, I can do it, I can still make that goal." This is important.

It's always great if we can bring results right away, but sometimes it takes time. We cannot forget about the confidence that we have within us. It's like a seed. The potential for life is inside that seed. God has planted a blueprint for growth inside that seed. But it has to sprout, it has to work through the ground. Think about the little seed trying to break through that packed ground. How much suffering, just to break through that hard shell! That is suffering itself. But to try to break through ground that has been packed down is very, very difficult. After all that, it still has to grow! It has to survive the competition that is all around, because many weeds try to suck away all its nutrition. But after it has blossomed, it can give life to others. A seed that has blossomed into a flower can give life to the eyes of a beholder. When you see a beautiful flower, you see a beautiful life that has blossomed from a little seed.

So in everything we do, we have to develop our individual confidence, then progress through the family and national levels and ultimately understand the love of God. Our confidence must help us reach that goal. We cannot be satisfied with the confidence we have in expressing only our physical abilities. We