Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Narrator: Today's guest is Amy Chanthaphavavong.
[00:00:04] Amy Chanthaphavong: Hopefully it is insightful and less offensive because, disclosure, I have strong opinions, so I probably will be offending a people.
[00:00:13] Josh Galt: That's wonderful.
No, but the thing is, if people are offended and they need to question. They need to question themselves and say, well, why am I offended by this, if it is true? Or what does this make me feel insecure about in my own beliefs? And then go deeper on that. And that's. That's a question we'll actually get to. Is. Is questioning.
Narrator: You're listening to the Bad At My Religion podcast, hosted by Josh Galt.
[00:00:33] Amy Chanthaphavong: that's a great perspective. And I. I would say one that doesn't really exist in our generation. I think oftentimes people get triggered and they get offended versus wondering why I was triggered, and maybe it was a personal trigger and to dig deeper. So, yes, I do hope that that's the path people take. So my background, I am Lao American. My parents are from Laos, and they came to America as refugees. So I grew up in California. As a Buddhist, I would say a Jack Buddhist, which means I didn't know jack about Buddhism.
[00:01:12] Josh Galt: Okay.
[00:01:16] Amy Chanthaphavong: I would go because it was a part of my tradition, and it's a beautiful, rich culture. And, you know, the temples, the clothing, the alms bowl, maybe it was wood at one point, then turned into gold and silver, and the whole ritual just became a lot more opulent than maybe what I learned. Siddhartha may have practice.
That's the kind of hypocrisy I saw, right?
[00:01:45] Josh Galt: Sure.
[00:01:45] Amy Chanthaphavong: So I knew my traditions, and I practice them, and I think they're lovely. And then I would be curious, and I'd learn about it more specifically in university.
I went to Catholic school, and one of the requirements is world religion. So I was like, you know what? Let's study Buddhism. And so I learned about Siddhartha, all the magic that happened around his birth and enlightenment. Eight, Eightfold path. I was like, this is nothing like what I have practiced all my life.
[00:02:20] Josh Galt: Why, though? Because.
So what. What was the difference between what you practiced and. And what you were learning?
[00:02:28] Amy Chanthaphavong: Okay, so here we go. I am not trying to speak poorly of my culture, but we have certain practices in the law culture. Um, we have a bossy ceremony, and we do it in celebrations. We do it for various occasions when someone gets married, when someone's born. And it's basically a calling of spirits. You kind of call in your spirit and shoe away the bad spirits.
That's an animist practice.
And, you know, we have certain things where we give offerings to our ancestors and we have a ghost house in front of the house where we invite spirits to live there and we give them offerings to make peace, to let them know, you know, we're kosher, we're okay. That's an animist practice. I don't think that's a Buddhist practice necessarily, so. So I started noticing these kind of discrepancies. And when I went to live in Laos for three years, there was a lot of darkness and a lot of dark magic, voodoo, animism.
And it made me dig further into the history and I realized that before the 1300s, Laos as a people, as a country, and Lao people practice animism.
And I don't know the details of animism, but I know it's engaging. Worshiping different types of spirits. It could be animal spirits, ancestral spirits.
I did a journey out into the remote villages to tribes that didn't speak Lao. And they practice animism when they went to do offerings in the forest to the spirits. Wow.
And so that was the first time I got to see the original religious practice of the country. And in the 1300s, I think that's when Buddhism came.
And a lot of times when you have an underlying practice and a new religion comes in, it's not a clean cut. You don't say, stop everything. We're going to push that away and we're going to embrace this entirety of Buddhism. You kind of understand bits and pieces and you mesh it together and you create something subjective. And I think what I realized in Buddhism was there wasn't a Bible for me to go read that I could understand and reference legalistically. What does it say? How should I interpret it? What do people interpret it in the past? And so that was missing for me. I studied law, so I tend to think a bit legalistically.
And when I was in college, I also explored Judaism, Christianity, Catholicism. I think the most spiritual or the most sense of love I felt was when I went to a non denominational Christian church.
[00:05:45] Josh Galt: Interesting.
[00:05:46] Amy Chanthaphavong: And it was there that I was exposed to Christianity in practice.
[00:05:54] Josh Galt: And this was in California?
[00:05:55] Amy Chanthaphavong: Yeah, this was in San Francisco.
[00:05:57] Josh Galt: Okay.
[00:05:58] Amy Chanthaphavong: Non denominational church, San Francisco.
[00:06:00] Josh Galt: Not the place you would think is like a, you know, bastion of. Of the Christian faith.
[00:06:06] Amy Chanthaphavong: Well, what's interesting is the Jesus revival started in San Francisco in the 60s because while people were high off drugs, they're open to spiritualism and it made them open to all sorts of things.
So I was looking for spiritual. I wasn't looking for Religion and I felt like I met God's spirit in that church in San Francisco.
[00:06:31] Josh Galt: Wow. And so how did you connect that then with your, your need for a logical framework, as you had said, and with what you were missing in the, the Lao form of Buddhism?
How did you connect that with the non denominational Christian church and the spirituality and the, the sense of love you felt there?
[00:06:53] Amy Chanthaphavong: Every time I watch the Chosen, I'm like, I am so grateful for the Jews and how they scribe.
I love the Bible. I love that it's been recorded in so many different languages, so many different versions and there's texts that I can go back to and the text, it doesn't change much, but every time you go back to it, the Revelation does with the Holy Spirit. But I love that, that I could fact check everything. I can go into non religious historical artifacts, research online and cross reference to see if what the secular world is saying is the same as a Christian perspective.
I feel like the availability of the data, the knowledge works really well for my mindset, I guess.
[00:07:50] Josh Galt: And so when you discovered that in college, then you were still in California. How did that, like, how did your journey go from there to now? Because now you're in, you're in the uk, right.
So it's like a more secular sort of society with a very strong Muslim influence, it seems like from the outside. I'm, I'm not an expert on the.
[00:08:09] Amy Chanthaphavong: Uk, but nope, you're dead on. There's been a huge decline in attendance in the Church of England and the recent census was like Christianity was less than 50% and there is a increase of people declaring Muslim Islam as our faith or various other, or atheism or agnostic.
So the Christian faith has been on the decline in England. Yeah.
[00:08:39] Josh Galt: And have you. So go back to, to California because that's, that's sort of what I'm more familiar with. So during, during your time there, you're discovering Christianity, you're going, I, I imagine you joined a church there in San Francisco or where you were living in California. Like how, how did you connect that personally with modern lifestyle in California? I mean those two things, even though, and this is sort of where, because I'm, I'm a West coast kid, so I, I lived for some time in San Diego, but I'm from Portland originally.
But the whole west coast is very much like, you know, as we saw in this last election, it's very blue in terms of the way people think. It's very, very open, very more, more on the left politically.
I didn't see, for example, in the church, I didn't see as much like true passion for Christ as you might see in the south, like in Texas or someplace like that. So how did you develop your faith in a place that's, that's more materialistic than it is spiritual?
[00:09:50] Amy Chanthaphavong: I think San Francisco could have only been the place that I would have developed my faith because I'm an anti institution, anti establishment. So I like the hippie way. I like rebelling. When I was in college, I was a far left super feminist.
You know, I interned for Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi. Like you don't get any left.
And I studied like law and criminal justice.
Really it was my personal journey.
So I don't like to be controlled. I don't like rule of law. And being a Buddhist at the time, there was no rule. There was no real standard of right or wrong. So I did everything under the sun. I could drink all in one. I could do all the drugs. I want sex, drugs and alcohol, they're really going to stop. As long as I don't hurt other people, I'm cool, right? So I did everything and I was just like, yeah, how close can I get to death? You know?
And I think when you live that kind of very extreme lifestyle where you're trying to push yourself all the time and you just are curious, want to try everything, after a while, it's like, what else is there for me to do? Because the high is becoming the norm and it's becoming low, right? Is there something else beyond that can give me peace that I didn't have love that I didn't have at home, comfort and safety?
I was looking for those things. And I didn't find it in drug, sex or alcohol.
And so even though I was pretty young, I felt like I was at the end of myself at that time. And when I stepped into a Christian church, they didn't like encourage really to. To read the Bible. It was very hippie.
It was like arts music, you know, in this little amphitheater and everyone was a young professional. And it just felt like you could wear whatever you want. You could just be you and you can come super messy and jacked up. And that's the way I came to the Lord. And I didn't know who Jesus was. I didn't know who Mary was. I was like, I'm looking for love. Who is going to give me love? And there's this God that they talk about that is a God of love. I was like, oh. And as I'm worshiping I'm singing, I'm like, all right, this is a new feeling. Because when I was in the Buddhist temple, I couldn't be anywhere near the monks. I had to sit below him, you know, and couldn't make eye contact because there's this like division of like the monks must remain pure and we shouldn't tempt them in any way. And I was like, you could shake your pastor's hand. Like you could give him, like he could just talk to you like a, like a dad or a cool dude. I was like, oh, this is so freeing.
Cuz I had no idea about the rules, about what the Bible said. I just wanted love and they said love. So I was like, sign me up. Literally, first time I went to a Christian church, I turned to my friend who brought me and I was like, I don't know who your God is, but I want to know.
And so he just led me through the sinner's prayer. I don't even know that mean. I didn't even know that was a sinner.
And I'm always like that, what's next? What's next person? I was like, what do we do now? He's like, you get baptized. I was like, sign me up. What about now? Bible foundation. Okay, what now? So that's how I pursued Christianity. But to be fair, for the first five or six years, I never read the Bible. I just went to church.
[00:13:37] Josh Galt: But you were getting what you needed there. See, this is fascinating for me because I have like sort of an opposite journey to where. To me growing up in the church, it was very much a legalistic thing. So I'm. We're very similar personality wise. Like, I don't want to be controlled. I don't want anybody telling me what to do. I'm going to push the limits and if I don't know where the limits are, I'm going to push further until you show me what the limit is. But I found sort of the opposite journey. So this is exactly why I want to have these conversations because I think it's going to be so revealing and I'm genuinely curious and seeking because I think it's not so much about who is right, it's about what is right, where is the truth. And so if we can have open conversations, it's like and truly be seeking. I think God will reveal himself. So it's, it's interesting that you went from a Buddhist framework which to me, and I'm, I don't know nearly as much as you do, but having lived in In Buddhist countries, I know a little bit. And to me it feels like, ah, wow. You treat everyone with respect and you respect all living things and all of that.
It's more of a philosophical viewpoint than it is a religion. And so you came out of sort of the religious side and you found the freedom in Christianity. So what, what would you say at the time? Maybe it's changed for you, maybe it's the same. But what would you say are the core principles then of Christianity, of the religion, in the way that it, that it guides your life and how you live your life on a daily basis back then and then now, if there's a difference or if it's all the same, then what it is now?
[00:15:15] Amy Chanthaphavong: Yeah, it's been a journey to get here, but I would say for the past 20 years, I've tried to live a supernatur life.
I go to church for community and I learn a lot about what the word says. But one on one, quiet time, silence and solitude. I am having a prayerful conversation with God where I'm asking him for visions, dreams, downloads, words. I'm journaling. I'm saying, God, I'm here in the UK now. What's next? How can I bring revival to this area? What does it look like in business? What does it look like in creativity? You know, my gifts, you know, my talents. How do you want to use me? You know, what do you want me to do today? And so I literally come to the Lord every day and say, this is my day, I submit it to you. How should I spend it?
And I'm grateful, you know, that I do have the freedom to seek the Lord.
Instead of saying, oh, I have to do this and fulfill these requirements and responsibilities, I have a bit more freedom to do that. But even when I was, you know, constrained by, like a role or, or job, I still made time to seek God. Because if there is a real God and he's talking to me and he has wisdom and knowledge and he knows what's going on, I want to know what he's doing so I could be a part of it. And there's no way I'm going to know if I keep talking and praying, but I don't sit to listen.
So today I would say, I'm just a servant of God. He could say, I want you to phone this person. I want you to journal and reflect on this. I want you to prepare for this vision. This is what's going on. And so I'm creating space to engage with Him, I guess, in the spiritual.
[00:17:11] Josh Galt: Realm and as far as a foundational, like tangible structure. So for someone else that's, I know we can use Christianity as an example, but for somebody else that's, that's in London or in Los Angeles and they're like, yeah, I'm a Christian, but I don't really feel like I know what that means, like as fully as I should or I don't, I don't know that I'm living that, you know, in the, the right way.
How, how would you say, like, oh, well, these are the things. So it's from the outside it's easy to say, well, the Ten Commandments, right? Like that everyone knows the Ten Commandments. But like, then you have discussions that get much deeper where it's like, well no, it's, you don't have to follow all this stuff in Deuteronomy and Leviticus, right. Because that's the Old Testament law. It's like you need to look at what Jesus said. So how would you say, like what guides the day to day sort of framework of your morality?
[00:18:16] Amy Chanthaphavong: Yeah, I would say the two commandments that Jesus emphasized in the New Testament and he said, love God with all your heart and love others.
The commonality of that is love.
I think unless we are compelled by love to pursue God, to know him, to hear from him, everything else was just turned into religion.
If there is no love, there is no God and there's no faith and there's no spirituality. There's just rule of law.
[00:18:53] Josh Galt: Interesting.
[00:18:55] Amy Chanthaphavong: So, so I would say one, find out what it means to be loved by God and to receive his love at all costs.
And then once you receive that, the Lord will show you how to love others. But first you have to be able to receive God's love because if you can't receive, you have nothing to give to other people.
[00:19:22] Josh Galt: So do you think that there's some objective way to define that though?
For example, in, in the us like we've seen over the last decade and a half, this idea of acceptance, which one could say is synonymous with love. And it's gone to an extreme, right, with, with many of the things that we see in our culture that we've been told we have to accept, even though some of them are, you know, we've talked about children, I don't think that that's a controversial topic, but like the transing of children and this sort of thing that's like, you have to accept it because you have to love them and for who that they identify as. Do you think that, that Christianity has Objective truth or is it? You need to find God's love, and through that you're going to see what the truth is.
[00:20:19] Amy Chanthaphavong: God defines love in the Bible. That's why I love it as a legal source.
I believe it's Philippians 4:13. But love is patient, love is kind. It is not self seeking. There's more to that. But there's so much in that little sentence, those verses, for you to ask the question, what does that really mean?
The Lord gives us a definition of love, and then he gives examples of love.
And the more you understand what that looks like, love looks like in principle and in action and through the way that Jesus interacted with people in the New Testament, then you'll be able to formulate what God's idea of love is and not something that is subjective to man or personal experience.
The love journey you'll have with God will be personal, but the Lord has a standard definition through words and the lives of people for us to understand what love really looks like. And it's going to be a messy journey and you're not going to get it overnight. It, I mean, it took me, I would say, like 15 years to understand that God loved me in my heart. I like Reddit. The verses were in my head and I acted probably like a religious, pious person for so long. But even today, I'm still love learning what love is. Love is submitting to my husband. Love is forgiving when someone offends me. And that happens every hour. And I am tested. My love is tested every hour, every minute. So I'm always learning. And it's a journey.
But if you're really curious and you really want to know, God will meet you.
[00:22:12] Josh Galt: So you said something there, that, that in today's Western society at least, is actually controversial, and that is that that God's love will help you to submit to your husband.
So what this is actually, this is a great, a great point to talk about because what does that mean to you? And, and in terms, I mean, of being good at one's religion or being bad at one's religion. Like, this is where I think it's important to have these types of, of definitions and understanding within the framework. So many accusations, right, would come at that in like, the, the very feminist way of looking at that would be like, no men and women are equal. Like, the idea that you should submit to a man is, you know, xyz. So how do you as a woman see that and say, okay, this is what my faith calls me to do, and here's why? Because you're very logical. So how can you explain that to someone that doesn't agree or doesn't believe in the same thing and say, or let's just say someone that is a Christian, they say that they're a Christian but they don't agree with that scripture necessarily. You say, well, maybe that was back then, but today it's a modern society, I don't have to submit to my husband. We're equal. How, how would you say to that person, well, this is how God design things or this is God's way of showing love. Etc.
[00:23:38] Amy Chanthaphavong: Great topic.
First of all, I don't do submission to my husband. Well, it's a battle.
The way I've been raised.
I come from a lineage of strong women who are ball busters. I mean, it's awesome. Yeah.
[00:24:01] Josh Galt: So, which is also interesting because of the cultural background. Like, I mean in general, at least in my experience, I probably get myself in trouble from, for saying this generalization, but in general, like Asian culture is more of a male dominated sort of culture where the women are more subservient and, and docile, et cetera. So it's interesting that you come from that type of place where strong willed women that are going to speak their mind and, and yet you're saying that God calls you to submit to your husband.
[00:24:36] Amy Chanthaphavong: Yeah. So Lao, I'm not sure why, but we're a matriarchal society so the women have quite a bit of power behind the scenes and in the household.
A lot of women kind of manage the finances of the household.
And yeah, my family, it's combination of Lao and Vietnamese and we are very strong minded, strong willed and opinionated.
And I saw how that destroyed marriages.
I saw men who were disempowered, who didn't feel respected by their wives.
And I feel like oftentimes when men feel disempowered and disrespected, they look for affirmation elsewhere and might be seeds for having multiple wives or mistresses or cheating.
It plays itself out in different ways. It's unhealthy when a woman is domineering and controlling and we have a lot of that. I think in the Western world now it might not be as blatant.
And men were created to be respected and women were created to be loved. And that is a beautiful dynamic in a marriage.
I, when I am loved and cherished by my husband, I automatically want to honor and respect him. That's what I was taught in Christianity by the church.
I bulked at that lesson, but I Saw the results in certain Christian families when they weren't just speaking it, but they lived it. I saw when a woman respected her husband, how he loved her. And so I saw the fruits of that dynamic and I was like, I want that, so I'm going to try it. So I mean, I waited. I didn't know. I didn't get married until I was 42 because I was such a strong willed, independent person and I didn't want to be dominated and controlled. But in the 10 years leading up to my marriage, I was so focused on learning how to be submissive, how to be a God fearing wife and woman. And so by the time I met my husband and got married, I had all this knowledge about how to submit myself to my husband and now I get to practice it and boy, is it messy.
[00:27:27] Josh Galt: Yeah, it's one thing in theory on paper, and it's another thing in day to day life. Right?
[00:27:32] Amy Chanthaphavong: Yeah. I mean my husband and I, we stand on the opposite spectrums of many things about lifestyle, social media, finances, and it's just like a war zone and we're just like debating, arguing research, logic and reports and. But at the end of the day, he makes a lot of sense to me and I know that I have chosen him and my as my husband and I've chosen him to be a leader and I always want him to feel that he is empowered to lead and he can lead. So I'll come back days later and I'll say, all right, I've thought about it and you have some validity. So we compromise.
[00:28:15] Josh Galt: And, and how do you think. So I'm, I'm assuming that he is a Christian as well.
[00:28:20] Amy Chanthaphavong: He's a new Christian. Yeah. When I met him, he was an atheist.
[00:28:25] Josh Galt: Really? So tell me a little bit about that journey. That's fascinating. So did you guys start dating when he was an atheist or, or you just were friends and then he, he got saved and, or I don't know if you would say that term like you, you can answer that.
[00:28:40] Amy Chanthaphavong: I, at the age of 27, that's when I realized I want to get married.
And then the Lord led me through this journey and he's like, wonderful, let me prepare you for marriage. I didn't realize that it wouldn't be until I'm 42, which is a long time to wait. Yeah, but I had that period to die to myself, so that was great.
And I made a long list of what I wanted. Husband. The first 10 were like a man of God, spiritual, baptized in the Holy Spirit, all this Stuff. And when I met my husband a year and a half ago, he was none of that. I mean, I. I was a bridesmaid at my girlfriend's wedding, and he was a groomsman.
And she never mentioned this really hot British guy because he wasn't a Christian. We were all. But he was that one groomsman that wasn't. So she's just like, I'm not going to share anything about him. And so I showed up to, like, family and friends dinner, and he sat directly in front of me and he had some knowledge about me and he was just speaking and there was so much chemistry and banter between us. But then he was like, yeah, I'm like, divorce and never going to get married again. I already have a kid. Never going to have a child again. And I was like, yeah, he's probably not a Christian. Yeah, I'm just going to walk away from this. So I did. I literally walked away from the conversation. I was just like, great looking guy, wonderful guy. But I. That's not what I'm looking for in a husband. And, you know, over the days and the courses of the wedding, he really pursued me. There's a lot of flirting. And I ended up falling in love with him.
And we carried on this, like, remote video zoom dating for like, two weeks. And I thought, you know, he's from England. I want to move back to San Diego. And there's nothing here. But we fell in love. And the Lord was like, hey, you made this guy an idol and put him above me.
[00:30:44] Josh Galt: Wow.
[00:30:44] Amy Chanthaphavong: So what about that? And I was like, oh, I have made him an idol.
Okay, Lord, I repent. I'm so sorry. He's not a believer. I'm willing to walk away from this relationship if this is not the guy you have for me.
And in my spirit, I felt the Lord gave me instructions and he said, tell this guy that you're a radical Christian and you live this supernatural life and you want to get married in six months.
Ask him if he's up for the journey.
[00:31:17] Josh Galt: Wow.
[00:31:18] Amy Chanthaphavong: I was, oh, my gosh, this guy has no clue. He's totally. I think I'm crazy and just like, break up with me. And so I shared that with my husband. And he was just like, look, I've fallen in love with you. Obviously, I know you're a Christian. Obviously, I know you want to get married and have kids. And he was like, I think you're worth it. So I'm up for the journey.
[00:31:42] Josh Galt: That's fascinating.
It's funny too, because I can. I can Kind of relate to that. My, you would probably have an interesting conversation with my wife. She's super cool, but she's, like I said, she's very Catholic and I am very not religious in the religious sense.
And so it was a similar thing for her of like, she's been, you know, waiting and praying for God to, to bring her somebody. And like, I had never wanted to get married at all. And then we met and we just had such an amazing friendship and amazing chemistry. And I mean, yeah, the first person I can be around 24, seven, you know, for weeks at a time and never get bored of them or tired of them or frustrated or whatever. And it was like, okay, but wait a second, hold on. It was, it was a similar sort of thing of like, we don't, we don't have the same belief system on all this. How are we going to work this out? And so we made a, we made like a spreadsheet with all of the different, you know, items that are deal breakers or that are really important. And we color coded it and we figured out, okay, there's like two main things. One of them is religion that we're going to have to work through.
But going from, from atheism to. You said he's a new believer. So what was like the transition process? Because having a relationship, like, how did, how did you convince someone? Because atheism, I never got to the point of atheism. I'm a big Ayn Rand fan, but I never agreed with her atheism. I got to like agnostic theism, which is basically, I hope there's a God, I hope that it's a benevolent deity, but I don't really see it in terms of humanity. Right.
And I've since come back from that edge. But atheism to me always seemed like, well, you have to have as much faith for atheism as you do in any other religion. Like, it's, it's almost blind faith to believe that, you know, everything just exploded from nothing. So how was a little bit of that process with you guys together and him coming to share your faith?
[00:33:40] Amy Chanthaphavong: Yeah, to be fair, I think in his mind he was probably more like atheist agnostic, but in his practice, he acted like an atheist.
Yeah, I think anywhere I go, I'm probably just unapologetically me, and I'm not afraid to offend anyone. And I will go on talking about my personal relationship with God for days. And if someone doesn't like it, they can just leave my presence. I totally don't mind.
So I kind of took that approach with him. I held nothing back. If I was having gnarly conversations with the Lord, journaling, getting revelations, having serendipitous moments, I'm just sharing all of it. I'm not hiding it. I don't care if he. I didn't care if he wanted to leave. And so that was probably a huge shock and awe thing for him. Like, is she for reals? Is this for reals? And he is curious, and he's super smart, so he's like, all right, I want to learn. So what is the foundation of Christianity? What does the Bible say? Let's read it. And he's always trying to prove it wrong as well. And I would say he's still in the process of learning and understanding.
But in pursuing that knowledge, I often would pray with him, and I would pray for him. And who doesn't love to receive compassion, love and hope and faith? Yeah. So I think he really appreciated that. And certain supernatural things started happening.
We rented this, like, Airbnb home on the coast to go surfing, and there are some weird activities in the house that were unexplainable, like, very dark satanic dreams. And then later on night, the lights were flashing the whole night for hours.
[00:35:40] Josh Galt: Well.
[00:35:41] Amy Chanthaphavong: And people could write that off as a coincidence. I don't.
And so I was just like, I don't know what's going on, but we're just going to clear the air right now. And I start going into prayer mode, and. And he kind of gets a bit creeped out because he's like, what is this? Because he had a really scary dream that the night before, and my girlfriend came to the house to visit, and she's just like, you know, if you're not saved, these demons can come inside of you.
I mean, like, okay, I don't want to be anywhere near this stuff. So I think out of fear, he just said the sinner's prayer and accepted Christ. But over time, he started getting prophetic words from people, and there are just way too many coincidences to. To explain away synchronicity.
[00:36:32] Josh Galt: Yeah, I. I think one thing you said is really important, and I think that's something that is missing, which is you're just unapologetically you, and you don't care who is listening. You're gonna talk about your faith. And that is something, I think, in the modern world, that is.
That has gone away.
At least maybe not with every religion, because some of them are more politically acceptable than others. But I think with Christianity in the west, in Europe and in the US that's something that, like, people just don't do. And so that's one of the things that, that I have seen in my journey is people who, behind closed doors or people who, at church, you know, or with their families or whatever, they're like the most pious Christian, like, everything's Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. But then they go out in public and suddenly, like, where's Jesus? Like, like, you know, they have this different Persona. So how do you do that? As, as someone who is not Amish? Like, you live in the modern world, you're, you know, an uptown person.
How do you. And how would you help other people? Like, how would you suggest to other Christians? Like, look, you can live a modern life. You can be a business person, you can be a strong, confident leader.
And you can also believe in your faith you're not going to get canceled for that. Or have you been canceled and you just don't care?
[00:38:07] Amy Chanthaphavong: Good point.
I don't know that I have any advice to give.
Just that by the grace of God, he's led me through 20 years of dying to myself, dying to ego.
My faith, walk by choice, has led me to having absolutely nothing.
So when you get to a place of having nothing, what can someone take from you?
Cancel me. So what?
[00:38:41] Josh Galt: Right?
[00:38:43] Amy Chanthaphavong: And I think a lot of times we're afraid to be ourselves or afraid to offend sometimes because you have a lot at risk. People have jobs, people have careers, reputations, they have business relationships that might come unhinged because of a strong opinion or faith. I'm. I mean, look at Trump.
He has very strong opinions and he's getting canceled all the time. And you do lose, you will get cancelled.
How you get to the point where I don't care.
I'm not sure it's.
It's personal for everyone, but it's the most powerful thing to say. You can't take anything from me. I've already lost it before.
[00:39:37] Josh Galt: Well, isn't that the most.
Sorry, go ahead.
[00:39:41] Amy Chanthaphavong: I was just saying if I have to lose it again, than I do.
[00:39:46] Josh Galt: And that's the thing, though, that, like, and you mentioned Trump, and it's been a fascinating journey to watch politically in the US how so many people have come out of the Trump closet, so to speak, you know, in the last few months that we're scared of getting canceled, especially people that, that are more in, you know, celebrities or sports figures or whatever, where it's like, for the last eight years, you could not say that you like the guy or that you liked his Policies even because you, you would get canceled, and then that suddenly changed. So on the spiritual aspect, I mean, I know I've, I've been a hypocrite myself at times of not saying things because it simply wasn't worth it to have a conversation about being pro life, for example, or, or disagreeing with a certain policy that was in vogue in society for personal moral beliefs. And I think that that's at the core of sort of what I, why I want to, to go deeper and, and see how other people are able to live their faith authentically. Because it's like, what else do we have? Exactly. Like you're saying, if I lose everything, okay, I mean, we're here as spiritual beings having this human experience, but if we say we believe in God, if we say that we're created by God for a purpose, isn't that bigger than whatever my current temporary job is or whatever this current temporary friendship is? Like, if you're going to cancel me because I'm being authentic, I should let you go away. Right. And yet that's so hard for people to do. It's, it's hard for all of us.
[00:41:28] Amy Chanthaphavong: Yeah, I think a lot of us will say we believe in God or a higher being, but really we have submitted ourselves to fear.
So we speak of God, we speak of faith and religion, but actually we behave as if we're being controlled by fear.
Because if I am a follower of Christ, he said that I will be persecuted, and he said that for his sake I will lose everything. So if I speak out my faith and I get fired or my, my business tanks, it will, it could happen. It might happen, but the Lord will provide. And you won't know that unless you step out and do it. And most people are not willing to lose something or lose everything to test the Lord in that manner.
[00:42:18] Josh Galt: But isn't that, that kind of goes to the crux of the, the issue or the question because not having faith, a lack of faith like that, then you're just basically saying, I'm only giving lip service to this God. I'm only giving lip service to this religion that I say is the most important thing in my life because it determines my eternal life and existence. But I'm not willing to take the risk economically or with a friendship or whatever it is.
Like, that's the big challenge. That, that's, I mean, and it's not something you could necessarily answer in five minutes, but like, that's what, that's the challenge of faith. And I think it's, you know, Maybe more in the west with Christianity and Catholicism, like the Christ based faiths, than it would be necessarily with, you know, Islam or Hinduism or something like that. But like, how do you deal with that on, on a daily basis to where you're like, okay, well, I'm gonna live? Like, how do you find purpose and say, okay, I'm gonna do this, this is my career, this is my business, but I'm also gonna hold it really loosely. I mean, that's a, that's a difficult place to get to.
[00:43:35] Amy Chanthaphavong: Yeah. Can you rephrase that question again?
[00:43:37] Josh Galt: So how have you in your life? Because it seems like you have, and maybe, obviously it's probably something you still struggle with, as we all do. But how have you said, okay, I know what my purpose is as Amy, I'm living in the uk, I have my business or my job, my, my purpose, but also my faith is more important. And so if they take this all away from me, no problem. How have you gotten to that place in, in having that security in your life? Is it through certain scriptures that you, that you cling to, that you repeat? Is it just God has shown you he's always going to take care of you because you've lost it before and, and he's blessed you again, like, like job or something?
Does that make sense?
[00:44:19] Amy Chanthaphavong: Yeah, I think I was at that age, Maybe I was 29, and I was working in tech in San Francisco. I had a very cushy life and I kept getting prophetic words from people. Well, because I had for 10 years, ask God, what is my purpose? What do you want me to do? You know, what's your calling for my life? And he did not tell me. I didn't hear anything for like 10 years. All he said was, I love you, I love you. Which I didn't realize that's actually what I needed versus to be loved.
But when I was 29, for about six months to a year, I kept getting prophetic words to quit, leave, and go.
And I didn't realize at that time, but it meant quit your job, leave San Francisco and go to Laos.
[00:45:16] Josh Galt: Wow.
[00:45:18] Amy Chanthaphavong: And so, you know, maybe by half a year after hearing those words, I had to take a leap of faith to quit my job. And he. I did not get any details of what would happen tomorrow.
So I put in my resignation for no reason.
I had, you know, rent, mortgage, I had student loans to pay for. I mean, I had bills galore.
And I just quit my job by faith.
And once I sent my resignation letter, I sat in my apartment in Knob Hill. And I was like, okay, what now?
And you know, I was messaging people. My girlfriend was just like, hey, I'm coming to San Francisco for tea. Let's meet up.
And then we talked and she's like, you should do this Indiegogo fundraiser and do storytelling in Laos and just go there. And I'm like, okay.
I was like, maybe this is a clue what's next? And then, you know, would reach out to advisors and mentors. And so for the next six months, I went home, I sold everything, packed up my stuff in a U haul, went home to my parents house at the age of 29 to go live there and to work on this Indiegogo campaign.
And I think it raised $13,000. I brought a film crew to tell stories in Laos.
Didn't know what, what I was doing was just going by faith. But every step of the way, I had provision. I had people who gave their time for free. I had some money coming in. I didn't have all of it. I just had bits and pieces and I had to learn to live faith. And I was like, this is a supernatural life I've been asking for, and it is so scary. And you're like, broke all the time. I mean, not literally.
I lived a very comfortable life. I just didn't know where the next meal was coming from.
[00:47:15] Josh Galt: Right.
[00:47:15] Amy Chanthaphavong: And of course I had family and friends, but like, you're not going to go asking for stuff like that. Because it's my choice to quit my job and go on this journey, so.
[00:47:24] Josh Galt: Exactly. And they probably all thought you were kind of crazy for doing it, right?
[00:47:28] Amy Chanthaphavong: Pretty much. My parents were like, you should be getting married and having kids. What are. This is career suicide. And it was. But that's what crazy does. I was already crazy. So when I met the Lord, he's just like, oh, this is the way you operate.
[00:47:44] Josh Galt: But that's a great testimony like that of walking by faith. It's like the Indiana Jones thing, right? Where it's like you got to just step into the abyss and then the bridge appears. That's the essence of faith. And yet that's like the most difficult thing, I think, for, for people, especially in your position that have a good career, that have all the potential in the world, their life in front of them, to say no. I. I really think that God's calling me to live by faith and do something else. And you have no support from anybody. And that's a. That's an incredible testimony.
[00:48:20] Amy Chanthaphavong: Yeah. And I went to Laos, I did this filming, and for A month while I was there, someone offered me a job as a chief strategy officer of a media company, which I had no real background for, but I just said yes.
And in order to work and live in Laos, I took a huge pay cut and I had to drain my savings, cash out so many things just so I can go live and work there, but not for money, not to build a career, but to go on this journey of faith. And the things that I was exposed to were priceless. But, yeah, so that was one of many practices where God's like, I'm inviting you to live by faith. Do you trust me? Do you trust that I love you? Do you trust that my word is true? There's no way to believe that until you do it.
[00:49:18] Josh Galt: See, that's, that's the challenge is, is doing that and hearing that correctly.
That's. There's something that I've seen recently. It doesn't have anything to do with Christianity, but there's a similar conversation that's been going on on Twitter, especially with investors like Mark Andreessen and other people, about ayahuasca and how a lot of people are going to the jungle, they're doing ayahuasca, they're doing plant medicine, and suddenly they come back and, and the joke is, you know, they quit their high paying tech job and they go become a circus stripper. But the reality is that people are, are deciding to go and do something different than their career, which is supposed to be all important in Western society. Right.
How would you tell somebody that's like on the verge of doing that exact thing like you were? They're like, you know, I really just feel like whether they have a good career or not, but they're like, I just feel like my calling is to live by faith. And I think that God's going to take care of me somehow because I think that's the most important thing. And I think I have some gifts that, that God has given me that I'm supposed to use in a different way that maybe doesn't look like this career or this job path that I thought I was going to have, like, tangibly. How, how would you tell somebody like, you know what, that's, that's exactly what you should do with your faith. But these are the things to watch out for, the voices in your head or listening to other people or. I mean, how did you navigate that on your own other than you're just strong willed and you have strong faith?
[00:50:48] Amy Chanthaphavong: Yeah. I currently go to Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry. Um, it's A Christian supernatural kind of school. Um, but they teach that there are three voices you can hear. One is God, one is a devil, and one is yours.
[00:51:05] Josh Galt: Okay.
[00:51:06] Amy Chanthaphavong: You want to make sure you hear God's voice.
[00:51:07] Josh Galt: Yeah, for sure. How do you differentiate?
[00:51:10] Amy Chanthaphavong: That's really hard. It's trial and error, and you don't know, and it's messy. And you learn by fumbling.
You learn by getting it wrong. I get it wrong often, but I also get it right. And right is usually in hindsight.
But from my practice, it is so important to be in a community of people who live by faith or who have a relationship with God, so there's accountability, you know, so I have like maybe five people in my inner circle and then like eight people in the outer rim, where if I have an unction, if I have a vision or word from God, I'm hearing something in the Bible, the Lord's saying to me, it's jumping out. Oh, mass text them. I'm like, here's what I'm thinking. Should I do it? How should I do it? When should I do it? And I'm getting like, you know, 10 people giving me feedback, and then I'm praying. I'm asking the Lord.
There's a lot of wisdom in being cautious, in taking your time to make sure that you hear and having wise advisors around you who listen to the voice of the Lord.
And then you just got to go out and do and try.
And you.
[00:52:32] Josh Galt: Yeah, exactly. What happens if. If you fail? Because that's something that maybe your husband is. Even had an argument with you about this. But it's like, I've. I've seen this in my family, like with my mom, for example. She has so much faith. But sometimes for me, being logical and being more skeptical, it's like, well, if something good happens, then you say, God bless you. But if something bad happens, you say, well, God's just letting me be tested and like, now I just gotta have more faith.
Like that type of questioning.
How. How do you deal with that? You know, have you dealt with that in your marriage? Maybe. Because I. I imagine that, that maybe that's a question that comes up and he's like, like, logically, we could have seen that this was going to fail, but you thought you had faith, and now it failed. And now you're trying to say that God's teaching you something. Like, those are the types of things that I think can maybe make it more difficult to step out in faith. It's just that dealing with those realities. Right?
[00:53:29] Amy Chanthaphavong: Yeah.
So another Thing that I learned from Bethel is that God speaks to us through our personality. And there are four main groups. One is by being a knower, so you intuitively know things. Some people are feelers. Other people are visionaries. They have dreams and visions. Um, and the third, fourth is I think through hearing. I don't know, did I get up that all. Knowing, seeing, hearing, and feeling. Those are the four ways that God can speak to you. I'm a knower, and oftentimes knowers just had this intuition. Like, I know I'm supposed to do this. I. It's, it's, it's this way, it's this time.
The problem with knowers is that I'll get an unction or intuition, and I run with it and left God five miles behind without any other clarification of direction. And I get there and I'm like, why hasn't it worked out? And God's like, you forgot to ask me about the details.
But that's happened before. Where? More recently, when I was in business school, the Lord impressed upon my heart and my best friend to start to create a thing together.
I interpret that as a fashion line. And I was like, well, if I'm going to do fashion, I want to do luxury handbags. I spent the next two years on this endeavor. And like, four days before we launched, we got hit with the cease and desist letter.
[00:55:09] Josh Galt: No way.
[00:55:10] Amy Chanthaphavong: From a brand that has existed for five years within our category. They had a trademark in the UK and in the eu, we had a trademark in the year we were not going to win this battle.
[00:55:23] Josh Galt: Wow.
[00:55:24] Amy Chanthaphavong: And that was 60 grand down the drain.
[00:55:29] Josh Galt: Yeah.
[00:55:31] Amy Chanthaphavong: And I went in through depression, questioning God. Did I hear him right?
I struggled with it for eight months of feeling like, I don't hear right.
I don't want to do this anymore.
And then at the end of those eight months, God was like, I want you to pick it up again.
I'm like, no, you can't possibly be saying that.
So, yeah, that's where I'm at today.
And I still haven't picked it up.
[00:56:06] Josh Galt: And is that because you're not sure? Is that something that you're like, this. This is too scary of a step of faith. Is it?
[00:56:15] Amy Chanthaphavong: It hurt financially.
And now that I'm married, I have another person to consider.
[00:56:22] Josh Galt: Sure.
[00:56:23] Amy Chanthaphavong: And my husband's an entrepreneur, a very successful one in software. And so he has a track record of having a lot of wisdom. So he questions a lot of things that I want to do or that I hear kind of like what you said, right, when you have a partner who has seen you go through the highs and the lows and you were so sure what happened, I'm like, I.
[00:56:46] Josh Galt: Don'T know, how does community play a role in that as well? Though you had mentioned that, that, that was sort of what had helped to sustain you. And I can say from personal experience and what I have seen that a lot of times, people who struggle the most in their faith, despite making claims that they are the most pious religious person and most connected to God, they lack community. So they lack accountability and they lack support. And then it becomes more of an ego thing of like, well, I'm just superior to them in my relationship with God. So you would say community is, is something important.
[00:57:23] Amy Chanthaphavong: Yeah, it's detrimental.
Jesus never did ministry alone.
He had 12 disciples and everyone kind of bickered and fought, but it was also kind of iron sharpens iron.
And I think I've come across people who've, who've said, oh, no, I can't be in the church. I can't be at small group. I can't be around these groups of believers because they just don't get it. The Lord's saying something different.
God also speaks through other people. And sometimes you just don't want to hear what people have to say.
And you, I. We are so subjective and delusional sometimes. And if we don't have people seeing us in and out every day, seeing the mistakes we make over and over again, there is no accountability. You wouldn't let that person operate in a corporation.
[00:58:25] Josh Galt: Yeah.
[00:58:26] Amy Chanthaphavong: Imagine someone working alone in a silo. Know that, right? With who, for what purpose? You have to work with other people. There has to be accountability.
So it's the same in faith.
[00:58:38] Josh Galt: And what does that look like specifically? Like in your faith, in your, your church group or, or however you would describe it?
Like, are there certain things that you do together? Are there rituals that, that happen? I mean, by ritual I mean like you have, you sing worship songs, you pray, you, you have, you know, a sermon. Obviously, each, each religion has their different rituals, but those are sort of things that hold groups together because you have these shared things in common that you, or these, these shared activities that you, you take part in together. So what does that look like for you? And, and how important do you think those things are? Or is it more like, can we get past those types of rituals and say, you know what, we just need to have shared belief in God and, and shared understanding and then challenge each other, like you said, with iron sharpens Iron to be accountable.
[00:59:35] Amy Chanthaphavong: Two words to build community, Food and hospitality.
[00:59:41] Josh Galt: Okay.
[00:59:42] Amy Chanthaphavong: Also, Jesus did, right? Wine and bread.
[00:59:45] Josh Galt: Yeah.
That's what holds a lot of cultures together too. So that, that does make sense.
[00:59:52] Amy Chanthaphavong: I feel like I've been really blessed in that growing up in allow culture, allow community.
We gather all the time around food.
And so I grew up in community and I knew and I saw what it takes to stay in community.
And that's generosity.
That's having an open door policy. Anytime you want to come to my house, just come. Don't call, don't make an appointment, no need for a calendar invite, just knock, you're hungry, come over.
And so I took the community that I've learned from my Lao culture into Christianity. And so when I would go to a church group, yes, there was a Bible study and there was church on Sundays. But I'm like, if we don't have good food, nothing's going to happen right here.
Because if you provide good food, you have some alcohol, people start chatting. And that's where bonds are formed, is over food and drink.
And so I loved hosting parties, pizza parties where we make our own pizzas, picnics, we do wine tasting together, we do trips, we do international trips. And you organically start to build community yourself. And it doesn't have to be formulated by anyone else. It's just your desire to have intimacy with other people through being open and generous.
[01:01:31] Josh Galt: And how much of that. This goes back to my, my original thing about the baptism and then the party after. Right. In the, in Catholic cultures, how much of that is, is focused around conversation of faith or conversations about God or, or theological discussions versus simply building community. And, and then it's like, well, bless you, brother. Like, you know, have a good week or, or till next time I see you.
[01:01:58] Amy Chanthaphavong: I think when it came to like my Christian friends of faith, we tried to, we didn't really try to balance it. It's just we would gather around an activity and naturally, because we're each trying to have a real relationship with God, we'll just say, oh, this week was rough, I was praying to the Lord, blah, blah, this happened. And it just happens organically because God is at the center of your universe. So when individuals who put God in the center of the world come together, they're just automatically going to talk to about him over craft beer and wine and cheese, you know. But there are other times where I'm in community with other people who are not faith based. And it still builds bonds, even if we're not talking about God. You have soul connections, and love is universal language. So whether I'm with my family having shots of Hennessy and papaya salad, or, you know, having a picnic with my Christian friends, love is being formed in various ways.
[01:03:04] Josh Galt: That's, that's really insightful. There's. There's an old saying in the US like an old farmer tells a pastor, like, he doesn't want to go to church because he says, I'd rather sit on my tractor and think about God than sit in the church and think about my farm.
And it's. That's kind of like what you're saying. It's like, let's gather together and live our lives, but keep God at the center. And that, I think, is the key point that gets missed so much even by people who attend church regularly. Like, I. I have seen this personally growing up. It's like God is nowhere to be seen a lot of times during the week, but then, man, Sunday morning, you have to dress correctly, you have to be there on time. You have to go through all the rituals and stuff. So. And yet that is those rituals are what have held religions together for hundreds or thousands of years in some cases. So what do you see as the future of.
Of Christianity or your faith? Do you see it spreading to more of this, this type of community building thing where it's not so much about a place where you go, but it's more about, look, the goal of life is we have to put God in the center and then, like, let's build community around that as opposed to God's in this building over here that we have to go to at least once a week. But outside of that, like, he's sort of this ethereal, mysterious being that we sort of give some credence to, but really we're just trying to live our lives and get ahead. Like, what do you think is. How do you think that that will play out in the future? And how should it play out, in your opinion?
[01:04:41] Amy Chanthaphavong: Yeah.
My husband and I are currently praying into this vision right now.
So I've lived in the UK for four years now, and I've made some observations about the land, the culture, the economy, the people, the business.
And people here are quite isolated.
Community is very hard to come by. And having authentic, transparent, intimate relationships are rare.
There's a lot of politeness and, dare I say, silent judgment.
And judgment, even if not spoken, can be felt.
[01:05:28] Josh Galt: Sure.
[01:05:29] Amy Chanthaphavong: And it creates a chasm of distance between people.
[01:05:33] Josh Galt: Yeah.
[01:05:33] Amy Chanthaphavong: And it's hard to be vulnerable when you might be judged. So there are A lot of people suffering from suicidal thoughts, mental breakdowns, mental health issues here, because I think they don't have community.
And my husband being, you know, a founder and CEO, he has people who struggle with mental health sometimes and he's feeling like a pastor when he's a CEO.
[01:06:04] Josh Galt: Wow, that's cool.
[01:06:05] Amy Chanthaphavong: And he's like, yeah. And he's like, none of these people will probably come to church as the way church is expressed now in a building with a certain culture and music and the way they talk and speak, speak and act. He finds it all bizarre, which, it's new to him. I don't blame him. And he's like, yeah, I don't think anyone from work is going to come and be down with this.
And so we would love in our personality experience to create something that is community based but centered around business, creativity. If we were to go into a port, not poor, a dying economy, a dilapidated town, and say, what does it look like to revive community, to revive business here? Because in England, high streets used to be where all the amazing mom and pop and independent shops are, but when huge chains came in, a lot of these independent stores started dying out on the high streets, started kind of dying. And we are in this town right now where so many shops are closed and boarded up and they just never recovered from COVID Yeah. And yeah, the economy in this area is a bit devastating. So we're like, how do we revive this? What does it look like?
So I think it has to be community based because people are looking for a place to belong, a place to be understood, accepted, heard and affirmed.
[01:07:46] Josh Galt: And how do you connect that type of affirmation, acceptance with a standard of morality that maybe is, is less subjective, at least in my understanding of Christianity. Like, there's love is at the core of it, and yet there's also an objectivity to the moral framework that people should live by. And that sort of has been the, the choke point in Western society. It seems like in our lifetimes of, well, no, I should be free to do whatever I want. You know, it's, it's all about freedom. That's in America. In the uk, it's like freedom is everything. And so how do you, in building that community, how, how can you help people to develop a framework or develop.
I'm not a framework, but I guess that's the way I see it. So what, what is your view of that? Because I would see it as like, okay, if you're gonna build a community that is Christ based, I mean, there has to be Some objective morality standards there. Right. We're not just. I'm not going to accept you. I'll accept you, but I'm not going to tell you that. Oh yeah, it's totally cool to, you know, abort a baby at nine months because that's just. That's not what I believe that God would accept. So I can still love you and be your friend and we can do this and have this community. But like, there are certain objective standards. That's my view. How do you see that?
[01:09:11] Amy Chanthaphavong: Yeah, I think we're still working out kind of what the framework would be, but I could, if I could just intuitively imagine it would have to be centered around a vision. What is that vision?
Are we building an incubator where people can come and open small businesses and we're mentoring entrepreneurs?
And if so, then we will have to have lived that lifestyle so that when people see the fruits of it in our lives, there's a natural curiosity and inclination to want to know because we have that fruit.
But we can create a framework and, you know, shove it down someone's throat when they don't want it or it's not desirable outcome for them.
So we have to live at first, be an example and create certain Morales around our vision and objective. You know, if we do something in food, we might not touch on abortion.
[01:10:13] Josh Galt: Sure.
[01:10:14] Amy Chanthaphavong: But if someone wants to have a conversation about that on a Saturday coffee gathering, totally open forum. But we can only, I think, touch on the parts of the word that pertains to what we're doing.
Because I think when you have a purpose or intention, especially in business or creativity, everything just kind of is centered around that. But there's room for other conversations as well. And I think if someone's curious about my views on something, I'd want them to ask me, but I would never push it on them.
[01:10:50] Josh Galt: Sure.
[01:10:50] Amy Chanthaphavong: But when it comes to business, we're going to do it God's way.
[01:10:55] Josh Galt: Wow, that's a, that's a really good point because that's something that I've seen and it's changed over the last 20 years. But like entertainment. Business. Business and entertainment. Like from a church perspective, like, think about like the. I don't know if you saw like Christian movies back in, you know, when you were still in California, like when we were in college, they were, they were just hilarious in how bad they were. It was terrible script writing, terrible acting, like the, the filming was bad, all of it. Now I think that there's, there's been more development, like in terms of conservative media. I haven't seen any, any specific Christian films, but like Daily Wire has their own film side of things. And I think Mel Gibson and Eduardo Verastagi, the guy from Mexico, like, they're, they're doing films that aren't necessarily Christian, but they have like those values and they're putting it out there in the Hollywood style. So do you think, do you see that changing, like from where you guys are involved in that on the business side and maybe the entertainment side as well? Do you see that changing in a really positive way to where it's like, we don't have to be preachy, let's just live our values and let's like do quality stuff. That was always my issue is like, it's embarrassing, like it's bad quality. Jesus would not approve of that movie because it's bad quality.
[01:12:17] Amy Chanthaphavong: Yes, I agree. I remember those days.
Yes. I think, Okay. I think what we see in the consulting world right now, I won't name the big names, but it's, it's not working.
And people are looking for something else because being profit driven or driven by shareholders is not working for the world.
And what I have been working on for the past few years is coaching people, small businesses and companies, and discovering their purpose, which is just discovering their DNA.
And when you discover your purpose, it's wonderful. You might have this beautiful statement, then you have to bring everything else in alignment with that purpose to achieve this.
[01:13:17] Josh Galt: New goal, that authenticity.
[01:13:20] Amy Chanthaphavong: Yeah. And so with that purpose, if you're already operating in excellence, you bring everything else into alignment. So now you're operating with purpose in excellence.
And I think that will be the future where we're not just about bottom line anymore and we're stepping into the world of very little knowledge of spiritual intelligence.
And what is artificial intelligence coming is here and scratching the surface. Surface on emotional intelligence.
We have a lot of history with iq, but all those other areas, so much room for discovery and learning. Because what we've done in the past with just IQ has not worked.
Data alone does not solve problems. Yeah.
[01:14:25] Josh Galt: Because we are more than merely intellect. Right. Like you have the emotional side, you have the spiritual side as well. That's something that I think I've noticed a trend and maybe that's why I'm, I'm more interested in this whole topic now. Over the last few years, it's like there has been a sort of hate to use the word awakening, but I mean that's, that's the best description of it. Not for any specific faith. I. That I have seen. But it's just like people waking up to be like, you know what? We are spiritual beings. Like we have neglected that for a very long time and we need to get back to discovering our connection with the divine.
And yes, like all of these other things, like the modern, you know, technology and the life that we live.
Even the poorest, well, not the poorest, but most of the, the people in the lower middle class live better than kings 300 years ago. And yet we've lost that spiritual connection that, that used to be of the utmost importance to everyone.
[01:15:33] Amy Chanthaphavong: Yeah.
I've coined this term which I wasn't the first.
Spiritual intel, self intelligence.
It's sq. But it can also mean spiritual intelligence as well.
It's two sides of the same coin.
If you learn about yourself, you learn about your spirit because we are spiritual beings, as you said.
So discovering yourself is discovering the spiritual realm.
But it's very hard for us to sit with ourselves.
[01:16:13] Josh Galt: And then it's, it's really important. That's sort of the framework that you were alluding to before of knowing the. How to differentiate between your own voice, between God's voice and between the voice of the devil who's trying to deceive you. That sort of. Do you have, do you have anything specific in terms of suggestions? If somebody's like, wow, that sounds really interesting. That like I'm seeking that. Where would I go to like to start learning that I just start reading the Bible or like what, what would sort of be the recommendation there?
[01:16:42] Amy Chanthaphavong: Yeah, here's where I do a plug.
[01:16:44] Josh Galt: Go for it.
[01:16:45] Amy Chanthaphavong: Yeah, I write on substack under the hand of Sharing Amy and I write about self intelligence and spiritual intelligence and emotional intelligence.
But I don't dive into religion right away. It's just understanding ourselves and how we interact with others and in the context of business and leadership and stuff.
So there's that. I also have a website, sharingamy.com where I talk about helping people find their purpose and then you know, once discovering it, how to launch into your purpose.
But yeah, I mean those are all topics you can also just Google. Right?
[01:17:31] Josh Galt: Well, but it's, it's something like, like then you get into this world. It's just like there's so many options. I don't know where to start. But if, you know, if what you're saying resonates like.
So we'll, we'll. I'll share when I, when I publish this, I'll share the, the link to Sharing Amy and your substack and stuff as well.
One, one final question. I really appreciate your time. It's been like, fascinating. We can. I would love to have a followup in, in a few months, maybe about that specific topic more than, more than coming at it from the religion side, but like, to learn of like the, this, this spiritual intelligence idea because that, that resonates with me. And so I'm, I'm curious to learn a lot more. But for somebody that's like, that feels like they're struggling with their faith, it's like, you know, I, like, I go to church and I try and have faith, like I try and believe in God, but it's just like things don't work out. So am I. I'm just hearing myself or I'm hearing the wrong voice. I'm being deceived. Well, what would be one thing, one action that you would say, like, start here and do this for the next 30 days and you're going to start to, to see yourself get on the right path to, to true spiritual development and connection with God?
[01:18:50] Amy Chanthaphavong: Yeah, I would say silence and solitude create space and time, whether if it's 30 minutes, an hour, two hours, a whole day, a whole weekend to just sit with God.
And I would say the first thing to do in that time of silence and solitude is to repent.
[01:19:21] Josh Galt: For something.
[01:19:22] Amy Chanthaphavong: Specific or whatever comes to your mind. It is so easy to find things to repent about. I sin every other second.
You can repent for not being a great son, not being a great daughter, for being a subpar husband or wife. Repent for not being a good mother or father, for not being a good friend, for not keeping those you love accountable, for not keeping yourself accountable.
Very, very small things. We all know the things we're not doing where we don't show up for ourselves or others. So just start by repenting and asking God for forgiveness. And when you go through the list, it might take you, you know, six or eight hours and just say, God, will you fill my heart with love and show me how real you are?
[01:20:25] Josh Galt: Wow.
[01:20:26] Amy Chanthaphavong: And feel it. Sit and feel it. And don't move until you feel something.
[01:20:34] Josh Galt: That's the power of silence, which is something. Well, silence and introspection, which is probably the, the least common thing in our world today because we are so distracted with. And that's why it's a trend of like, it's kind of crass. But guys are calling it raw dogging flights where it's like they don't do. They don't have any screens, they're not reading, they're not watching movies, they're not listening to music. They're just sitting on the flight with their own bots. And like, people are posting like, oh, I broke my record four and a half hours today. And it's, it's become this trend over, I don't know, like, the last year. That's, that's kind of funny. But it's also tragic because it shows just how disconnected we are with silence, which, I mean, that's, that is a really powerful thought of focusing on taking time to be silent, to be with your thoughts, to, to repent for things, because then you're going to be looking for, how could I be better? What have I done wrong? And then take that to, to God. That's a, that's a really great admonition for people.
[01:21:37] Amy Chanthaphavong: Yeah. I think one of the hardest things is to sit with our feelings, because we are terrified of feeling.
[01:21:47] Josh Galt: Wow.
[01:21:48] Amy Chanthaphavong: Yeah.
[01:21:49] Josh Galt: It's a good word. Well, thank you, Amy. I, I really appreciate the conversation. It was fascinating. Looking forward to, to reading your, your blog and, and talking more.
I'm. I had no idea. Honestly. Then it's kind of cool because I, I just saw, like, I've seen some of your posts over the years, and so I, I knew that you were. You have a faith, a Christian faith, but I didn't really understand, like, who you are and where you're going. So it's fascinating to hear that and I think that there's a lot of really, really good takeaways that we can get from that. So I appreciate your time.
[01:22:26] Amy Chanthaphavong: Thank you for giving me the space to share. So, yeah, thank you, like, and subscribe.
