Rev Dr Peter Choi Interviewed by Laura Turner

This Saturday, January 24th, we will be holding the third part of a five-part conversation on the Story of Scripture with Rev. Dr. Peter Choi. This time, we’ll be focusing on “How the story bogs down: Knowing God as we walk through the flatlands of life.” Laura Turner sat down with Peter Choi to ask about what the series has been like and what we have to learn from and for our ordinary lives.

For more information and to RSVP, click here.

What were the past two classes like?
It can sound like a really big topic, to tackle the Bible in five sessions, but it’s been really nice to look at the Bible in bite-size chunks. The first part was on the Pentateuch and the second was on the Prophets. In many ways, the Pentateuch describes the world as God intended it to be, and the Prophets confront the world in its reality, as a place that is not as it’s supposed to be. These are connected narrative sections of the Bible, and these are different parts of that narrative.

Now we are looking at the Writings--wisdom literature and some of the shorter books. If the Prophets confront a world that is not as it is supposed to be, the Wisdom books counsel you about how to live well in that world. We have certain expectations going into the world and life throws curveballs at us, so we need to ask, how do we navigate that? That is the thread we’re chasing.

The class is subtitled “Knowing God as we walk through the flatlands of life.” Why is it important to talk about the flatlands of our spiritual lives?
I have heard two different metaphors for wisdom: It is either a bucket or a searchlight. The bucket approach is to accumulate knowledge, put it in a bucket, and possess wisdom, to hold onto it for yourself. The other way is that it’s a searchlight and shines a light on the path ahead of you.

This is a lived thing that you have to hold onto and revisit every single day. That’s what living in the humdrum of life calls for. It feels like it’s very repetitive, and the repetition can lull us into thinking our lives aren’t worth reflecting deeply about. But how we live when life is normal or ordinary is one of the most important questions we can ask. We will talk in this class about how faith and our relationship with God informs and orients our approach to all of life--the highs, the lows, and the biggest chunk of our lives in the middle.

What are some of the themes of the Wisdom books about how life functions?
One major theme is how you conduct yourself in your business. We think of Job as a person who was very righteous, and suffered, and kept his relationship with God intact. But there are parts of Job where you learn he was a really busy person--high-powered, wealthy, and influential. However, he took time to care for the poor, to pray for his children, to ask questions about how he lived on a daily basis. The Wisdom books teach us how to think about day-to-day decisions; how we conduct ourselves in relation to other people (economics, politics), how we listen to people, the kinds of expectations we carry into life for ourselves and others.

Here, we’re in the middle portions of Scripture, and these are often the neglected portions. The beginning is easy because it’s dramatic, and end is climactic, but the long middle portion can seem laborious. At the same time, it’s where a lot of the plot happens, which is what I’m coming to learn to appreciate about the Wisdom books--burrow deep and sit in God’s presence and listen.

What can we learn from being in the flatlands?
If we can get past our disgruntlement about being in a very ordinary or seemingly dull phase of life, ordinary times give you the opportunity to notice the small things in life. They give you an opportunity to listen to the people in your life, to notice things on your commute or your errands, when you’re not rushed. These ordinary times are a chance to slow down and observe and listen well.

In these times, we can also listen to God and have God speak to us on His own terms. The highs can feel very intense, and intensity can magnify or distort what God has to say to us. The low points bring focus to other pain points or discipline in our lives. Being in the flatlands gives us the chance to think about all the rest of our lives, and we get the vision that life is bigger than ourselves.

This is one of the gifts of listening in the flatlands. If we’re always busy narrating our own lives, there is no room for ideas that don’t come from us. Listening allows us to think about things or enter into conversation about things we would never have thought to bring up. If I let God pick what he wants to talk about, it means that we’re going to talk about things I hadn’t thought of.