Spiritual Advantage with Sam Stone

One of my psychology professors had an impressive skill in reading people. She could look at your face and determine what’s happening inside you. You might smile, but she knew you had hidden anger and bitterness. You might be funny, but she knew you had depression.
If you have seen the TV show “Lie To Me,” you know what I mean. She could read your mind through a twitch on your face and a twinkle in your eyes. You cannot lie to her. She also could ask you to draw a picture and interpret the state of your mind by looking at the picture you draw. She told me it took her over a decade of training to develop those skills.
Can you imagine talking to someone who can read your mind? It’s like standing naked in front of her. As you may guess, one day, during the class, she told me what I was struggling deep inside. I didn’t know I had that problem until she revealed it. The healing process began from there on.
Over the years, I have discovered that many people unknowingly carry a heavy burden in their hearts. Two of those heaviest burdens are guilt and grudges. It’s like carrying a sack of rotten potatoes wherever you go. Even though you don’t notice it, others can.
Let me tell you a story about the rotten potatoes.
One day, a sage gave his disciple an empty sack and a basket of potatoes and asked him to carve the names of the people he was angry with on each potato. He said,
“Think of all the people who have offended you, especially those you cannot forgive. Take one potato to represent each of them, carve their name on it, and put it in the sack.”
The disciple came up with a few names, and soon after, his sack was heavy with potatoes.
“Carry the sack with you wherever you go for seven days,” said the sage. “Then we shall meet again.”
At first, the disciple thought it was not a big deal. After some time, however, it became more of a burden. It seemed to require more effort as time passed, even though its weight remained the same.
After a few days, the sack began to smell; the carved potatoes gave off a ripe odor. Not only were they increasingly inconvenient to carry around, they were also becoming rather unpleasant.
He noticed he began to get used to the smell, but other people avoided him because he stunk.
Finally, the week was over, and the disciple went to the sage.
“Any thoughts about all this?” the sage asked.
“Yes, Sir,” the disciple replied. “When we are unable to forgive others, we carry negative feelings with us everywhere, much like these potatoes. That negativity becomes a burden to us and, after a while, it festers.”
“Yes, that is exactly what happens when you hold a grudge. So, how can you lighten the load?”
“I must strive to forgive.”
“Forgiving someone is the equivalent of removing the corresponding potato from the sack. How many of your transgressors are you able to forgive?”
“I’ve thought about it quite a bit,” the disciple said. “It required much effort, but I have decided to forgive all of them.”
(End of story.)
Forgiveness is easier said than done. Sometimes, we don’t even realize the grudges we are keeping, especially after years of carrying it on our backs. We might get used to it, but people around us can smell it, especially someone like my professor with decades of training.
We live in a fallen world and must deal with fallen people. You can never live a happy life if you don’t know how to forgive. If you want to travel light in your life journey, you must learn to keep the potatoes from weighing you down.
Jesus teaches his disciples to travel light by teaching them how to remove their grudges from their backs. Forgiveness is not easy, especially when someone hurt you deeply and left a permanent scar, but Jesus has taught us a secret to forgive everyone.
Forgiveness is a feature of social intelligence. It lightens the weight of your heart and allows you to be socially savvy—win friends and influence people. Most importantly, God promises to answer your prayers and accompany you when you maintain harmony with others.
There is a mystery about forgiveness. So, today, we will learn this vital teaching of Jesus Christ from this week’s scripture lesson. Let’s begin!

A man came to the village chief to complain about his brother, saying, “Chief, I am about to kill my brother because he has offended me seriously. I can’t tolerate him anymore. I know if I kill him, you will put me in prison. What should I do?”
The chief looked at him carefully to find out who this young man was, “Oh, I remember who you are. You are the young man who was almost killed by the wolf a while back. Am I right?” He said, “Yes.”
“Please tell me about the incident,” the chief asked. “Well, I returned to the village from work and discovered a vicious wolf followed me. So, I ran and quickly climbed up a tree. I had to stay up on the tree all night until the wolf eventually left in the morning.”
“Really?” the chief exclaimed, “What did you do to the wolf after that? Did you try to hunt for and kill it?” the chief asked. “No, I didn’t do anything. I’m just glad that it didn’t kill me.”
“Interesting,” the chief thought, “The wolf tried to kill you, but you don’t seem to be as angry as when your brother offended you.”
The man stayed silent for a moment and felt enlightened and left. (End of the story.)
That is another parable by Zhuagzi. The story doesn’t reveal the conclusion because it is for you to figure out the hidden wisdom. What would you do if you were in that situation?
The truth is sometimes we treat animals better than humans. We seem more patient with wild animals than our brothers and sisters, maybe because we expect more from humans.
The story stimulates a realization that we have better choices than revenge. With some effort, we can tame the wildest animals, even huge elephants. In the same way, with some social intelligence, God expects us to create harmony with fellow humans.
We live in a fallen world and must deal with fallen people. Human relationship is always messy. But God wants us to bring harmony out of the mess, just as God brought order from the chaos as described in Genesis. It’s called social intelligence or relational intelligence.
God created us in His image. When we bring order out of chaos, we exercise in God’s image and make God happy. The human mission is to create order out of chaos, and God promises to reward us abundantly when we attain and maintain harmony with one another. King David wrote:
See how good and pleasant it iswhen brothers and sisters live together in harmony! 
That is where the LORD promisedthe blessing of eternal life. (Ps 133:1,3b GW).
Jesus also said,
Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” (Mt 18:19–20).
That means if you can figure out how to live in harmony with fellow human beings, you will be blessed with a ticket to eternity, your prayers will be answered, and you will experience the presence of God. In other words, you will find fulfillment if you exercise social intelligence.
So, today, we will look at how to develop social intelligence through Jesus’ teaching based on this week’s scripture lesson. Let’s begin!

Zhuangzi, the great Taoist philosopher, woke up from a dream one day and felt confused because he dreamed of himself as a butterfly. The dream was so vivid that he felt realistically fluttering his wings, flying among flowers, plants, and trees, and enjoying the gentle touch of the evening breezes.
He felt unnatural to wake up as a human, wondering whether he was a butterfly dreaming of a human or a human dreaming of a butterfly. Zhuangzi told this experience to his students, asserting that he was unsure which one was real—whether he was a human or a butterfly.
What do you think? Sometimes we say, “Life is like a dream.” Is our life on earth just a dream? Will we all one day wake up to our reality? The French philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said,
“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.” ~Pierre Teilard de Chardin
If that is true, our human experience is just a dream. Like King Solomon said, “All is vanity.” If true, all the strife and bickering about life become meaningless. If you can attain that perspective, you will discover that most of life’s problems are but struggling against the storms in a teacup.
You are listening to this message because you believe life is more than a human experience. You feel there’s more to life than swimming in this little stormy teacup of this fallen world. That’s the story of Job. With all his suffering in the awful fate of his life, he was liberated at the end when he realized his experience was but a storm in a tiny teacup compared to God’s grand scheme of things.
We can strive for two things in this world—to maximize our human experience or to magnify our spiritual experience. However, there is a quantum paradox. Jesus said if we maximize our human life, we will lose it, but we will find it when we lose it for his sake. He said,
“For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” (Mt 16:25).
What does it mean? Putting it in the context of Jesus’ entire teaching, to lose your life for his sake means to seek the kingdom first. He said when you find the kingdom, everything else is given to you as well (Mt 6:33). You actually have both. Your spiritual enlightenment will enrich your human experience.
It’s simple but not easy. You still need to let go and let God. Letting go is the cross we must carry daily because, again, it’s simple but not easy. So, today, we will explore how to find life by losing it based on Jesus’ teaching in this week’s scripture lesson. Let’s begin!

There once was a group of three friends a Rabi, a Catholic Priest, and a Presbyterian Pastor. They gather together every Wednesday morning for breakfast and talks. One day as they were having breakfast, a huge fire broke out and engulfed the town. They all rush back to their houses of worship to grab the most important thing from the buildings.
The Roman Catholic church was the closest, so the priest got in first and came out carrying the crucifix with him. As he ran away from the fire, he stopped by the synagogue to see if the Rabi was fine. When he arrived, he saw the rabbi running out carrying a giant menorah with him.
Further down on their way was the Presbyterian Church, and the two friends stopped by the church to see if the pastor had saved what was essential for him. The church was engulfed in flames, but the pastor still hadn’t left the building. They began to worry and wondered what was taking him so long.
After a while, they saw the pastor’s back backing up toward the door pulling something heavy with him. When he came out, they discovered he was pulling the copier—the Xerox machine—with him. (End of story).
This story makes me think about the most important thing for me. What would you carry out if our lives were on fire and we had time to save one thing with you? Or, if a war broke out and we had time to grab only one thing before escaping, what would you take with you?
Each of us has different things that we deem most important. What’s the item in your life you treasure most, something that you will give up everything else to get or keep?

“Lord of the Dance” is one of my favorite hymns; I am sure many of you love this song too. One of the verses says, “It’s hard to dance with the devil on your back.” That’s where I got the title for this message. If you imagine life as a dance, the image of dancing with the devil on your back sounds heart-wrenching.
We all know life is not a bed of roses but more like a mixture of roses and thorns. But you can still make the most out of life if you know how to smell the roses without touching the thorns. Life can be very joyful if you know how to dance with the devil on your back.
In fact, the devil on your back may not be the devil. That reminds me of a story of the Desert Fathers that goes like this:
Going to town one day to sell some of his handicrafts, Abba Agathon (a Desert Father) met a crippled man on the roadside, paralyzed in his legs, who asked him where he was going. (By the way, this is a different story from what I told you in my message two weeks ago.)
Agathon replied, “I am going to town to sell some of my crafts.” The paralyzed man said, “Do me the favor of carrying me there.” So he carried him to town. The man told him, “Put me down where you sell your items.” He did so.
When he had sold an article, the man asked, “What did you sell it for?” and he told him the price. The crippled man said, “Buy me a cake,” and Abba Agathon bought it for him. When Agathon had sold a second article, the sick man asked, “How much did you sell it for?” and he told him the price of it. Then the paralyzed man said, “Buy me this,” and he bought it.
Having sold all his items, Agathon was ready to leave. The man said, “Are you going back?” and Agathon replied, “Yes.” Then the man said, “Do me the favor of carrying me back to the place where you found me.” Once more, he picked him up and returned to that place.
Then the disabled man said, “Agathon, you are filled with divine blessings, in heaven and on earth.” Raising his eyes, Agathon saw no man; it was an angel of the Lord. (End of story).
This story humbles me and makes me reflect on my spiritual status—the fruit of the spirit I have. Abba Agathon personified a fruitful life. His love and patience are admirable. He didn’t question whether the man was worth carrying. He didn’t feel taken advantage of when the man kept asking him to buy things for him with his hard-earned money. I doubt I have that level of patience, kindness, generosity, gentleness, and self-control. Stories like this make me strive for a more fruitful life.
Until the end of the story, we feel Abba Agathon had the devil on his back, but the story surprised us when it revealed that he entertained an angel. What if Agathon stopped fulfilling the man’s request at some point? (This story contrasts with the one I have told you previously, in which the hermit lost his patience to help the old man who asked him to carry him to town.)
We live in a fallen world and have to deal with fallen people. How do we know whether we are being taken advantage of or entertaining angles? How do we know we are dancing with the devil on our back or an angel on our back? How do we know whether God is testing us or the devil is abusing us?
The good news is Jesus came on earth and showed us how to dance with the devil on our backs and still make a difference in this fallen world. Today, we will explore this subject based on Jesus’ Parable of the Weeds.
Can we take the devil off our backs? If not, how do we enjoy life to the fullest despite the devil on our backs? Let’s begin!

Deep learning is a term often used in AI (Artificial Intelligence) to indicate a more sophisticated level of machine learning. It teaches computers to think like the human brain. However, I’m not talking about AI today, but about SI—Spiritual Intelligence. Just as “deep learning” is to teach machines to think like humans, “deep learning” in SI can teach humans how to think like God. Paul said,
“Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else’s scrutiny. ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Co 2:15–16).
Would you like to be able to “discern all things,” see the world through God’s eyes, and have the mind of Christ? You have heard of the concept of WWJD (What Would Jesus Do), but it’s more important to know WWJT (What Would Jesus Think) because actions start from thoughts.
To develop the mind of Christ, we need an environment for deep learning. Deep learning is like growing Chinese bamboo.
After sowing the bamboo seeds in the ground, the farmer has to water the ground and fertilize the soil regularly without seeing any bamboo for four years. Can you imagine working on an empty farm for four years? It talks a lot of faith to believe the bamboo will eventually shoot up from the ground.
If it were me, after the first year, I still have the patience; the second year, I might begin to wonder if I planted the seeds correctly; the third year, I might wonder if the seeds are dead in the ground; the fourth year, I would want to dig into the ground to make sure the seeds are still there. I might wonder, “What if I have wasted four years of water, fertilizer, and labor for nothing?” It seems a risky business.
In the fifth year, you will suddenly see the bamboo shoots sprouting. The miracle is once they break through the ground, they will grow 90 feet tall within five weeks. All of a sudden, your farm becomes a bamboo forest. And it keeps propagating year after year. You wait for four years but will harvest for a lifetime.
Bamboo farming is a very fruitful business, but the first four years could be nerve-wracking. Because Chinese bamboo can be about 100 feet tall, they require deep and firm roots underneath. That’s what they do in the first four years, growing a deep and robust network of roots to prepare for massive growth and be able to stand against the winds.
It’s a perfect analogy for deep learning to yield the fruit of discernment, the God-like brain, or the mind of Christ. Life will be entirely different if you can discern all things because you will have less anxiety and confusion living in this fallen world. You will also know what actions to take for your future.
Today, we will learn from Jesus about what could prevent us from deep learning and how to prepare ourselves for a fruitful life based on this week’s scripture lesson. Let’s begin!

I’m a recovering overthinker. One of the biggest problems I have is overthinking. I tend to ruminate and get trapped in analysis paralysis. I am getting much better; maybe I am getting older and practicing Jesus’ teachings longer. But recently, I found out I am not alone. 99% of people overthink everything.
Some people overthink because they are perfectionists; some because they are people-pleasers—they want to impress people. Still, some people overthink because they want to please God—in fact, they misunderstand what really pleases God.
Let me tell you a parable to start with.
There once was a farmer who discovered his horse disappeared one day. The neighbors helped him search for it, but they couldn’t find it anywhere. It must have run away into the forest far away. So, they expressed their sympathy, “Old man, we are so sorry for your loss. What did you do to deserve that misfortune? Without a horse, how can you make a living? You are cursed.”
In those days, owning a horse was essential to making a living as a farmer. A horse helps till the soil, plow the field, and carry the produce to the market. So, losing the horse was a big blow to the family’s livelihood. However, the old man responded to the neighbors, “Don’t worry! It may not be as bad as you think.” To which the neighbors thought the old man was crazy not to worry about it.
A few days later, the old man woke up and saw a bunch of horses standing in front of his barn. This horse had returned, bringing ten more wild horses with her. The neighbors came praising the old man, “Old man, you are so lucky, and now you are wealthy with eleven horses. You will be the richest man in the village.” The old man replied, “Well, it may not be as good as you think.”
The next day, the old man’s son tried to tame the wild horses. He fell from the horse and broke his leg. The neighbors came and said, “Old man, you are cursed. Since your only son is crippled, who will work the farm and feed the family when you are old? Now, you have to take care of him instead.”
In those days, parents depended on their sons to secure their later life. But the old man said as usual. “Don’t worry! It may not be as bad as you think.” The neighbors again thought the old man was crazy. How could anyone be so optimistic about not having anyone to depend on in their old age?
A few weeks later, a war broke out with a neighboring country. The government came to draft young men to go to war. The old man’s son was spared because he was disabled. The neighbors came crying, “Old man, you are so lucky. Even though your son is crippled, he is at least with you. Now, we don’t know if our sons will return from the war.” The old man replied, “It may not be as bad as you think.” The neighbors ignored him. (End of story.)
This simple parable depicts human nature. It describes the wisdom of the old man among the overthinking villagers. Today, we will look at how Jesus teaches us to stop overthinking. Do you overthink? If so, today’s scripture lesson will help you. If you don’t overthink, you can use this lesson to help others not to overthink because many people around you suffer from overthinking. So, let’s begin!

I don’t know how many of you like Tom Clancy’s international spy thrillers. All thirteen of his novels have hit #1 in the New York Times bestseller list. Jack Ryan is a TV series based on Tom Clancy’s fictional character who works for the CIA. The show is fascinating because each episode covers multiple countries, like the James Bond movies.
In the final season that was just released, Jack Ryan tries to take down a Burmese drug cartel based in Shan State in Burma. Tom Clancy knows how to draw his audience’s attention with exotic locations.
Shan State in Burma is known for its hospitality. Shans are one of the largest tribal groups in Burma. Just as we often talk about Southern hospitality in the U.S., people there like to mention Shan hospitality.
However, there’s a quirk about their hospitality. If you travel to Shan State, you’ll see most homes have their front door open, especially in small villages. You can enter any home without an invitation. In the living room, there’s always a tea table with a pot and cups ready to serve the guests.
They will serve you a cup of tea as soon as you enter the house. If you know the culture, you just sit down and start sipping the tea. The host will also sip his tea. No words are needed. You commune with the host in a realm beyond speech. Then you start talking about the reason for your visit.
The problem is, you must drink the tea they offer, at least take a sip. If you don’t drink their tea, they will treat you as an enemy. In their mind, they think, “Why don’t you drink our tea? You think we’ll poison you?” So, they take offense for not accepting their hospitality. That’s the quirk I’m talking about.
As society progresses, hospitality also erodes. In big cities, most people keep their doors locked and protect their privacy. Of course, one of the reasons is the fear of crime. Robbers and thieves keep us suspicious of strangers. Sometimes, we don’t want people to see the skeletons in our closet.
Nowadays, even most church doors are tightly locked. It used to be that we could walk into any church and sit down to pray. When we were in Paramus, every now and then, people would stop by to pray in the sanctuary. After some churches and synagogues shooting, some churches began to have armed ushers.
How do we provide hospitality in an age of hostility? Maybe we should put a tea table at the door. If you drink my tea, you are my friend; come in. If you don’t drink my tea, leave! Just a thought.
The Bible reveals that hospitality is one of God’s hidden commandments because it is not listed in the Big Ten but shows up everywhere, both in the Old and New Testaments. Stories and after stories indicate that God takes hospitality seriously.
Jesus also talks about how God generously rewards those who are hospitable as well as severely punishes those who don’t. I know some people love to throw a party anytime there’s a reason, but others stress out thinking about entertaining guests.
Jesus wants us to regard hospitality as a ministry. He is not talking about randomly throwing a party but purposefully using hospitality to fulfill his mission. Since God takes hospitality seriously, we should develop it as one of our values. Today, we will look at how Jesus reveals this hidden commandment. Let’s begin!