With whatever we do, we have to add an artisan’s touch to it even if it is simply to do something we are told to do.
While I was developing Wolmyeongdong, God told me to work on it as if I were developing an art piece. The reason He told me that is because making a work of art and just working on something are completely different.
A person who works here in Wolmyeongdong as if they were making an art piece contributes more to this place than a regular person who has worked for 50 days. This is the difference when you work as if you were making an art piece before God.
However, for those who simply work, their work has no special value.
Things like houses cost a lot because they are made as works of art. Some art pieces cost over 2 billion dollars even though only 100 million dollars were invested into them. With whatever it may be, if you make it into an art piece, it becomes that much more valuable.
The podium used for morning services is expensive because it has been made into a work of art. It would not have had any value if it were just cut and made.
This is something that people do not know well even though I’ve continually taught about it.
Here in Wolmyeongdong, because we make and raise even the pine trees as works of art, people who see them go, “Wow!” and are surprised.
When you go to sculpture parks, the art pieces you see look like they could have been made by elementary school students. They’re not eye-catching, and you can’t even tell what they were trying to make. However, people still go around to see those works of art.
Yet, because they have not been dedicated to God, I wonder, “Can these things really be called works of art? There’s nothing to see…”
~Excerpt from a message Pastor Jung Myung Seok delivered on September 1, 1998