Making God's Hope a Living Reality
You may have heard that we’ve hit the road with a rather exciting and inspiring mission: to look for people who want to help strengthen America’s relationship with God for the sake of the world. When Rev. Moon, founder of the Unification faith, first came to America in 1965, he said, “Together we can make God’s presence in America a living reality.” And we want to prove him right!
The tour is halfway through, but it will not end on the day we reach the West Coast. From the trees at which we pray to our events at which local community leaders speak, there is a resounding cry from Americans, and it seems to be saying, “Yes, we want to bring God back to our families, to our lives, to this nation and the world!” Waking up to this realization is only the beginning.
As desperately as God has longed for us throughout history, so have we longed for God. Take, Daniel and Casey, for example. We met them in Oklahoma City, and found that they had just started their own 40-day spiritual quest in prayer. Highly inspired by our pilgrimage, they became our reminder of how many people are open and waiting to meet God with us and bring God to the world.
This is just one of many encounters that showed us that what we’re doing is something that Americans have been thinking about, wanting and needing for a long time. Mirroring the call for a new beginning that the Pilgrims made in coming to America with nothing but faith in God, our own 21st-century pilgrims have been reviving the nation.
This much is clear: America is ready to get up and do something. We are ready to claim our identity as God’s Children, and spread this to the world. On July 8 we arrived at the State Capitol Building in Atlanta, Georgia. At the base of a grand staircase in a space that housed the offices of judges, senators and other members of state, the group gathered to share the vision of God’s Hope for America with the great state of Georgia. Senator Miles Steen said:
I haven’t felt this much spirit in this capital in a long, long time. I do believe God’s Hope for America is represented in this room. We are part of the vision of Rev. Moon and we are, first and foremost, family. Family is love’s first classroom and the cornerstone of our communities. There is an African term called ‘Umbuto’ and it is a reflection of a West African proverb which says, ‘I am because you are. And because you are, therefore, I am.’ It is the circle of life; it is who we are. I am not apart from you, just as we are all connected biologically. Even the trees are connected to us chemically to cleanse the very air that we breathe. And so on this pilgrimage we have stopped under mighty oak trees dripping with moss, trees that are hundreds of years old on this soil across this nation to realize a vision of one family under God.
Every one of us is God’s Hope, and together we make up one family under God. Ask someone today, “What do you think is God’s Hope for America and the world?” Start a conversation with your friends and family, with yourself and with God, and share your own story. Find more of these stories and follow the bus at www.godshopeforamerica.org!