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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.''

칼럼_연재칼럼_Three Cents Column

A life that hoists sails, a history that hoists sails

A life like a voyage

In Barcelona of Spain, which opened the Age of Exploration (Era dos Descobrimentos) with Portugal during the 15th and 16th centuries, there is a shipyard that boasts about its thousand year history. In this shipyard, there is a separate exhibit hall that displays replicas of the ships that they have built, with brief explanations of their histories.

“Out of the hundred thousand ships that were released from our shipyard, six thousand ships were sunk in the sea, nine thousand ships were severely damaged to the point where they were never able to sail again, and sixty thousand ships went through major calamities more than twenty times. There were no ships that were not damaged on the sea. No matter what materials were used to make the ships, all that went out to the sea either got damaged, or could not avoid calamities.”

I think the reason why our ‘life’ is often compared to a ‘voyage’ is that both have traits of being rough and unpredictable.

A professor at Yale University, Daniel J. Levinson, likened people to boats and likened life to a voyage. He said that a person who has not changed at all is like a boat that has never gone on a voyage, but has stayed anchored at a dock. In this case, the boat cannot be considered as 'a boat.' However, we should not become a boat that just floats on the sea like a ghost ship without being able to root our one life on the earth either. This is something we need to watch out for.

Anchor represents ‘settlement, reality;’ sail represents ‘departure, advancement.’

The purpose of building a ship is just for voyage, but to actually to arrive and settle down where you want to go through voyage. Therefore, for us, anchoring is as important as sailing. Life is advanced by the ‘dynamics’ generated from the two axises-- ‘stability (settlement)’ and ‘change (migration)’--which interact with each other. This produces the driving force of our lives to advance forward. For ‘a boat,’ both the anchor and sail are necessary.

The messages that Pastor Jung Myeong Seok has been delivering for the two weeks since the New Year seem to ultimately be about the ‘anchor’ and the ‘sail.’ An ‘anchor’ stands for settlement and reality, and it is the starting point of all [our] actions of ‘departure.’ It relates to the portion of last week’s message, “if you forget, you will die,” and it also relates to the “possessions(material possessions?)”from this week’s message. It relates to what you must check while saying, “Wait a minute.” On the other hand, a ‘sail’ stands for ‘departure’ and ‘advancement.’ Hence, it means hope and future. It is a new point of direction and pertains to the treasure hidden in a field, which you have to sell all of ‘your possessions’ to buy. You can decide where to go when you clearly know where you are at. After checking the anchor that you should not forget about, you should now hoist up the sail and depart for ‘that place’ where you want to go, riding the flow of the wind.

Fortunately, no matter what material your boat is made of, the Holy Trinity said that They will personally become our ‘sail’ in this rough and unpredictable boundless sea that has been throwing calamities [at us] and damaging all of our boats. We really should not forget to be thankful for this. Beloved everyone, let’s now unfasten the rope of our anchor and go into the ocean. My heart is already filled with hope for the great voyage with the Lord who personally becomes our sail and stays with us.