4th Step to Heaven on Earth: Edification

According to Mencius, the great Chinese philosopher, you need three advantages to be successful in life:

1. Spiritual Advantage
2. Local Advantage
3. Social Advantage

Let me explain from the bottom up. Some people are born with a Social Advantage, such as having wealthy parents or well-connected relationships with higher-ups. However, you don’t have to be born rich or well-connected to have Social Advantage because you can build Social Advantage by learning people skills. In that case, you have a 33% chance of success.

Secondly, if you live in a good location, you have the Local Advantage—as the real estate slogan says, “Location, location, and location!” For example, if you live in the United States, you are in the land of opportunity. Some people risk their lives to come here. So if you can manage to move to a beneficial location or somehow turn your location to your advantage, you have another 33%, making 66% total. However, this is not as easy as building social skills.

Now, if you add the Spiritual Advantage, you have a 99% success chance. The good news is, having the Spiritual Advantage could overwrite some other disadvantages you may have.

Spiritual Advantage means having divine favor. A person with divine favor is destined to succeed in life. Even if you don’t live in a good location, even if you don’t have good social skills, Spiritual Advantage will make up for those disadvantages. I am sure you have seen some people like that. They look quite stupid, but they turned out to be successful beyond expectation. Maybe that’s why Mencius put it at the top of the list. Jesus said,

“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Mat 6:33).

It means if you have the Spiritual Advantage, everything else is taken care of. You become one of the luckiest people in the world.