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Three Cents Column by Director Bong
Three Cents Column by Director Bong of RGO 24! 'Although I am lacking and my writing is only worth as much as 'three cents...' I share the Sunday messages and interpret them with 'the language of the world.''
Three questions
One day, a child came into the house, looking upset. He told his father what had happened, as he huffed and puffed.
“Dad, this is what I heard at school. There is a really bad, mean kid and....”
When he was about to pour out what he had heard about this child, in his upset state….
“Wait a minute!!”
The father stopped him from speaking any further.
“Before you tell me about that child, let me ask you three questions.”
The kid was puzzled that his father had said that he would ask questions, even before he had begun the story, so the child asked him in return,
“You said three questions?”
“Yes, my son. Is what you were about to tell me definitely ‘true’?”
The son thought for a moment and hesitated before he answered the question.
“Well ... I don’t know, because I just heard about it.”
The father asked another question.
“In that case, is this story kind and righteous?”
“I think it is closer to the opposite.”
“Then lastly, is this story really necessary for me and you to hear?”
In response to the father’s question, the son answered in a discouraged voice.
“I think it is not that necessary….”
Then the father said to him with a smile,“If what you were about to tell me is not ‘true,’ not ‘kind,’ and not ‘necessary,’ do you think you need to tell me? Just forget about it, and in the future, whatever you do, whatever you say, stop ‘for a minute’ first and ask yourself these three questions that I asked you. Your life will become more precious and more valuable.”
If you wait and think a moment before you take action, that will change your fate.
Often times, we all live our lives saying whatever we want and doing whatever we want at each moment. Sometimes, what we do in these ‘moments’ determines fate significantly. There are cases where one decision that you make or one refusal that you put forth in a moment can change your fate. And sometimes, things get delayed so much because you have lost a moment…. As a matter of fact, one decision made in ‘a moment’ could result in irretrievable fate and it determines the fate of an individual’s life, or sometimes the life of a nation, or of mankind. We should not forget this.
Queen Vashti in the book of Esther was a very beautiful woman, as the meaning of her name would suggest, and she gained the favor of King Xerxes. However, since she refused to follow the king’s order at that ‘one moment,’ she was disposed of in the end. On the other hand, Peter the fisherman, who was poor and looked down upon, immediately threw away his fishing net and followed Jesus after Jesus had told Peter to do so. In the end, he became a hero in the history of the New Testament.
In the book, Decisive Moments in History (Original title: Sternstunden der Menschheit, written by Stefan Zweig), there are many stories in which ‘a moment’ changed the history of man, such as the story of the destruction of a great empire due to the mistake of leaving open a small gate of of the fortress, and a story of a commander who made Napoleon resign from power due to a wrong judgement that he made in one moment at Waterloo. These stories enlighten us as to how ‘a moment’ can be so important.
‘Wait a minute,’ ‘for [just] a moment,’ and think about whether it is ‘true,’ ‘kind and righteous,’ and really ‘necessary.’ It is very important. Things that are true, kind, righteous, and absolutely necessary are those for which the Holy Trinity has a Will for us. This precious teaching that has started the new year in a new way….I hope that we will stop ‘for a moment,’ receive the wisdom to seek the Will of the heavens, engrave it on our hearts, and will be able to take action.
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- 1/13/2015
