People say I am one of the richest people in the world, but they don’t know what they are talking about. I have worked hard all my life, but I don’t own so much as a single house in my name. Neither have I placed property in my wife’s name or in the names of my children so as to conceal its true ownership. Every adult Korean has his official stamp that he registers with the government and uses to sign legal documents. I don’t have such a stamp.

       You may wonder, then, what benefit I have received from working hard and not eating or sleeping while others ate and slept. I didn’t work so I could be rich. Money has no meaning to me. Any money not used for the sake of humanity, or for the sake of my neighbor who is dying in poverty, is nothing more than a piece of paper. Money earned through hard work should always be used to love the world and carry out projects that benefit the world.

       When I send missionaries overseas, I don’t give them a lot of money. Yet they survive wherever they go. It takes very little for us to support ourselves. If we have a sleeping bag, that is enough for us to sleep anywhere. What is important is not how we live but the kind of life we lead. Material affluence is not a condition for happiness. It is sad to me that the phrase to live well has come to be defined in terms of material affluence. To live well means to live a life that has meaning.