Spiritual Advantage with Sam Stone

I’m sure you all have heard the great news this week. WHO has declared that the COVID-19 pandemic is over. Some localized incidents may still occur, but it’s no longer a global crisis. We hope nothing like this will happen again in our lifetime or in the future generations. We don’t know how long it will take for us to recover from the trauma of these three years. Now is the time for us to heal th...

Recently I discovered this human life expectancy and survival curve from the Our World in Data website. Even though the data are based on England and Wales, it gives us a ballpark perspective of the human survival rate. It shows a growing percentage of people are living longer. Half of the population born around 1930 live up to 80 years old; half of those born around 1960 will live up to 90. Howev...

Recently, there’s been a lot of news about ChatGPT and whether we should fear Artificial Intelligence (AI). Are we creating a robotic device that one day might become a monster to destroy us? For now, it’s fascinating to see what it can do. You might have already tried it and seen some fantastic outcomes. The last time I asked ChatGPT to write a sermon for me, it couldn’t do that. Since the releas...

As I grow older, I’ve discovered that life is supposed to be simple, but we always complicate it, and I often wonder why. Children are simple, and Jesus taught us to become like children. He said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt 18:3). Whenever Jesus begins his statement using “Truly I tell you,” he wants us to take th...

Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Someone sent me this story about three men that died and are at the pearly gates of heaven. St. Peter tells them that they can enter the gates if they can answer one simple question. St. Peter asks the first person, “What is Easter?” He replies, “Oh, that’s easy! It’s the holiday in November when people get together, eat turkey, and are thankful...” “Wrong!” r...

I wonder how many of you have heard of the “Imposter Syndrome.” In case you don’t know, it refers to feelings of inadequacy or self-doubt that persist despite evident success and accomplishments. For example, who am I to be the pastor of the Trinity Presbyterian Church in Bergen County, New Jersey, in this great nation of the United States? I’m just a hillbilly from the highlands of Southeast Asia...

I have a friend who is in charge of a mental health service. I have discovered that we are blessed living in New Jersey because our state ranks number one in mental health facilities. Many other states faced a mental health service shortage even before the pandemic. It worsened after the pandemic because many psychiatrists, psychologists, and nurses in the field left their practice, citing burnout...

Recently, I started reading The Gulag Archipelago, the life inside the communist concentration camps in Russia, written by the Nobel Prize laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. He said, “One man who stopped lying could bring down a tyranny.” ~Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn That stimulates my thoughts significantly because it’s so true. We have seen these people in our recent history, such as Nelson Mandela, Ma...

Legend has it that a reporter asked Michelangelo, “How did you create this amazing sculpture from a block of marble?” His reply has fascinated everyone for hundreds of years. “The sculpture is already complete within the marble block before I start my work. It is already there. I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.” ~Michalangelo I always wonder how the great artist knew the sculptu...

It has been a year since Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine. Since the beginning of the war, many people hoped some Russian leaders would stand up against him and remove the tyrant from office. So far, he is still standing strong after sacrificing so many lives. We might wonder when this will this end, or will it escalate to a world war? History teaches us that dictators are symptoms but not the root...

According to the Global Agenda 2014 survey, 86 percent of people worldwide agree we have a leadership crisis around the world. Today this crisis continues to deepen. Even our own President Joe Biden is hampered by old age and an approval rating of just 38%. Why is the quality of global leadership plummeting? I love reading books written by old people because they are packed with the wisdom of a li...

As a child, what small creatures scared you the most? I know most people fear spiders. I wasn’t afraid of spiders because my grandma loved them, and I learned to appreciate them from her. But I found caterpillars very scary and repulsive. They are poisonous, and the fuzzy tufts (tiny hairs) on caterpillars can cause an allergic reaction when they touch the skin. However, our attitude toward caterp...

I wonder if you have ever seen a golden pheasant. It’s one of the most beautiful birds in the world. They are native to Western China, but you can also find them in the Western United States. There are many breeders nowadays because they are beautiful, and people are willing to pay a good price to buy them. The Chinese regard them as a symbol of good luck because they look like the Chinese mytholo...

There’s a human paradox. We all know we are social creatures, but at the same time, we often get hurt by social interactions. When I look at my emotional wounds, most of them are caused by people. Of course, there are self-inflicted wounds due to my own mistakes and stupidity, but there are many wounds inflicted by others—sometimes by strangers, sometimes by friends, and sometimes even by family m...

The other day, I was with a group of parents and grandparents talking about the mistakes we made raising our children. Each of us shared our experiences and laughed our “guilt” out—we were laughing at one another’s stories but at the same time feeling so guilty for those mistakes. After hearing everyone’s stories, I felt relieved that I was not the only parent who made mistakes! To err is human. H...

One of the major breakthroughs as we enter 2023 is the increasing accessibility to AI (Artificial Intelligence) technology, especially for writing and painting. Many of you have heard in the news lately that you can type a subject or headline on the computer, and it will write a pretty well-researched essay for you. You can ask AI to write an article or a blog post in seconds. My son told me that...

Happy New Year! What are your expectations for the year? I researched the forecast for 2023 and found many optimistic predictions, even though they are more toward the end of the year. For example, the pandemic will end globally by the end of the year. The economy will also recover by the end of the year. Don’t be discouraged by the phrase “the end of the year.” At least we know the light is at th...

An expert in human development told me that a person’s foundation of faith and character is solidified by about 14 years old. That means if your child receives proper nurturing, discipline, and education, including attending Sunday School regularly before age 14, they are likely to turn out well. After 14, they may go astray and explore dangerous territories like most teenagers. You will feel frus...

Legend has it that when John Lennon was in kindergarten, his teacher asked the class what they wanted to be when they grew up. Each kid stood up and voiced their dreams. “I want to be a doctor!”  “I want to be a teacher!”  “I want to be an engineer!” “I want to be a firefighter!” When it came to John Lennon’s turn, he said, “I want to be happy!”  The teacher said, “John, that’s not my question. Wh...

As we entered December, I heard people talking about their New Year’s resolutions already. Even though I’m a last-minute planner, I admire those who plan early. Some want to eat healthily in the New Year. That’s a great habit because food is medicine, and if you eat right, you will prevent many troubles down the line and save a huge amount of money on medical costs. Some want to quit a bad habit,...

There is a Burmese idiom: “Drinking the Bitter Rain.” It came from a fable about a man in an ancient village who somehow foreknew that the upcoming rain would be poisonous. It would taste bitter and cause insanity if people drank it. In that village, every home collected rainwater for drinking. So, he announced his forecast and warned people not to collect the upcoming rainwater and never drink fr...

This week, everyone has heard the news about Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), formerly known as the youngest billionaire in the world, suddenly being exposed as the biggest fraud, dragging down over a million investors with him. Let’s analyze this case from a spiritual perspective on this Reign of Christ Sunday because there’s a life lesson for all of us to learn. Rember no one is an island. One man’s fal...

Recently, I watched an inspiring Standford GSB (Graduate School of Business) interview with Eric Yuan, founder of Zoom—the video conferencing software. Many companies collapsed or faced a crisis during the pandemic, but Zoom blossomed into a ubiquitous communication app by turning the crisis into an opportunity for exponential growth. I am sure all of you have used Zoom for family chats, business...

When I was in college back in Burma, some of my friends loved to tease me about my faith. They asked, “You guys believe God is almighty? Can God make a giant rock that he cannot lift?” Without realizing it was a trap question, I said, “Of course, He can since he is almighty.” They said, “If so, can he then lift it?” Seeing I was trapped, they laughed at me. If I said, “Yes, He can,” they would say...

I’m sure most of you have heard Elon Musk closed the deal with Twitter this Thursday. You might have also seen the video of him carrying a sink into Twitter’s headquarter in San Francisco, tweeting, “Let that sink in.” People like him because he is hilarious and down-to-earth. He bought Twitter for 44 billion, but many experts believe he had overpaid—at least about 20 billion. His purpose is to al...