Top Christian TikToker, Read Choi: I Almost Got Canceled For Doing the Right Thing!

The videos that we make. They're great, and I'm sure there are a lot of fruits that come from it. But at the end of the day, an evangelist that just goes out into the world talking to a person one by one, I think is way more powerful. I have found that the best way to evangelize people is not by trying to prove to them the historical authenticity of the Gospels, or whatever archaeological evidence that's found that will prove or disprove X, Y, and Z, but rather you're listening to the Provoke and Inspire podcast. What's up everyone? This is Ben Pearce from Provoke and Inspire. And today I had the privilege of sitting down. Well, not literally, but through the power of the internet. I had a conversation with Reedj Choi. He is a creator with over ten million followers and billions of views. That's right. Billions of views across the various platforms, and this conversation was wild and amazing. Reid talks about his heart and strategy behind the content, how he became a content creator in the first place, and what it takes to reach people for Jesus through these mediums. He gets very personal about his painful relationship with his dad, a public controversy that could have ended his career, and why he'd rather be a case study for God's grace than perform for an audience. We get into some of the biggest barriers and obstacles keeping people from God today, and whether all of this Christian based online content is helping or hurting, I promise you're going to enjoy every minute of this conversation. Reid is an amazing guy and you're going to love it. I hope you enjoy my conversation with TikTok superstar Reid Choi. All right, Reid Choi, thank you so much for joining the Provoke and Inspire podcast. Man, you are looking really good. I like that hat is awesome. Thanks for thanks for having me, I appreciate it. Hey, so I thought, okay, what's an interesting way to start this conversation? And so I tried to put myself in the position of someone who's maybe at a coffee shop who just meets you, or sitting next to you on a plane. And I thought, when somebody turns to you and says, hey, what do you do? How do you answer that question? Uh, if it's a complete stranger, I'm not gonna lie, I do lie. I say that I work at McDonald's. Um, really? Yeah, I that's been my go to answer for the last three years now. If it's not a stranger or someone that I'm, like, actually getting to know, I'll be honest, but like explaining to a random stranger that you're a content creator and doing all this crazy stuff, it's, it's, I don't know, it just feels a little weird to me, you know? And so it's just easier for me to just, I, I work at McDonald's and then usually funny enough, they don't want to talk to me anymore. They don't want, they're not interested after that. What if they ask you a super specific follow up? Like, you know, like what part of I'm prepared, I'm prepared. Yeah. Because I had this conversation so many times, I had people ask me, you know, what exactly do you do? What part? I'm the line cook. How much do they pay? Fourteen point nine five. Yeah. So like, wow, you are ready bro. I like that. Okay. All right. Now let's just assume I'm not that stranger that you just told. You work at McDonald's too. What is it? Read that you you do enlighten our audience. Well, I'm a content creator and an actor. Um, I've been content creating for about five years, and I'm also very proud about my faith. Um, although not every video of mine is related to my faith, I definitely don't shy away from those topics. And I try to lead by allowing people the space of knowing that I'm a hypocrite. I'm a hypocritical Christian. I had a conversation with one of my friends at my cigar lounge and he was like, you know, you have this weird way of getting people to open up. I think it's because people know that I don't judge, because there's nothing that you have done that will surprise me, you know. And so I try to also show that space of non-judgment in my platforms now. You know, you kind of buried the lead here because, dude, you have more than ten million followers across various platforms, literally billions of views. So I get on some levels why you go with the McDonald's angle. But bro, that even in a world with so many content creators, that is not normal. So why do you think what you do resonates so strongly with people? A lot of it is just God. I have to be honest. Like, I mean, you know what they say about luck. Luck is like when opportunity meets preparation. I nerd out. I have an analytical mind. When I first started out, I had like notebooks stacked at Himalayas with notes of analytics and new things. I wanted to try and like calculations of like what numbers I should be hitting and when I'll be hitting them and all this type of stuff. And I did that and I posted every day, five times a day for about three years. And so I just put in the reps. I built myself to a point where going viral or understanding content has become part of my subconscious. And it's kind of like just muscle memory for me. One thing I've heard you talk a lot about is your past and the impact that that's had a challenging relationship with your dad, especially losing your grandparents. Yeah. Could you talk a little bit about these trials and how that has softened your heart and impacted the way you create? Well, I grew up in an abusive household, but because I wasn't able to get like the love that I should have gotten from my parents, I had my grandparents. And I think it was thanks to my grandparents that I had a semblance of a normal, somewhat normal upbringing, um, and am, well, socially acclimated because I was able to get what I needed from my grandparents. And then I lost them in twenty twenty one in about a span of two months, they both passed, and at the same time I was helping out this homeless lady and raised around twenty thousand dollars for her and got canceled because people thought I was stealing money, and I thought I was doing even worse things to the homeless lady. But not only this homeless lady, but lying that I was doing worse things to other women and it felt like I was getting attacked on all sides. I had faith, but, um, I wouldn't say that I was necessarily on fire for God. Much of my life was just about me chasing fame, money, women, etc.. Right? And then, like Carl Jung says, most people don't find God because they do not look low enough. God forced me into a low. I felt like my career was in shambles because of all the rumor mill, and my soul was just being tattered and I was like, praying to God. Like, you know, how much more do you need from me? Like, what more can you take from me? And then in one of the moments in my life where I feel like I truly spoke to me, I was God said, how much more do I have to take away from you before you realize I was the only thing that you had to begin with? As soon as I heard that even though nothing substantially changed in my life in terms of circumstance, my outlook, my approach to it changed completely. And I realized that the Holy Spirit was giving me just enough to move on to the next day and the next day and the next day. And so even though people were technically crucifying me online and slandering my name and X, Y, and Z, that doesn't mean that I can then give up on this homeless lady and not do the right thing. And then later on, I learned that it was through that experience. I uniquely can empathize with our Savior, um, because he was crucified for doing the wrong, doing the right thing. Um, and I can somewhat empathize even though I wasn't pure of sin. Um, to be, you know, lied about and slandered even though I was doing the right thing. Um, I'm able to have a, a unique relationship that not a lot of other believers get to experience because I somewhat know what it's like, you know? Um, so thanks to God for God to that. And after that was, that was about a, a year, a year and three months of my life of just honestly, just like pure suffering. Um, and then once I got out of it, I remember telling myself back then, I was like, I never want to help anybody ever again. Because that was the hardest thing I ever had done. Getting a woman out of homelessness into permanent housing and getting her fed. And and although I don't agree with the attitude completely, but there is an aspect in there where you do have to love yourself and take care of yourself and make sure that you're fighting not just for others, but you're fighting for yourself as well. And for my own mental sanity, like I took like two months just to learn what it's like to even begin to love yourself. That was very healing for me. Uh, and then that's when I started slowly surrendering different parts of my life to the Lord. What you described to me is this interesting thing that takes place in the life of a follower of Jesus, where I think in, in the West, in sort of our evangelical West, we think of being saved as just this box. You check, you raise your hand, boom, you're saved. And then you kind of go about your day. And the thing I've discovered is that, yeah, salvation might work like that in the sense that you confess your sins and the Holy Spirit comes inside of you. But then there's this life of surrender that takes place and that God can continue to take you deeper. And there's more layers of pride that have to go and more layers of surrender that needs to take place. And I think that's kind of what you're describing, right? It's like, yeah, that might not not have been necessarily when you were saved per se, but it may have been a defining moment in terms of saying, okay, I'm even in doing the right thing. I'm not achieving the accolades that maybe I was hoping for. Fine, I give up, I need you. Jesus. Wasn't that. Wouldn't you describe this as a defining moment of surrender? Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's there's no doubt. And even to this day, I have to remind myself. It's like you have nothing to do with it. It's all God. Don't take any pride of any of the spiritual growth that it is. By his mercy and his grace, you're even allowed this spiritual growth not because you're growing. It's because he's watering you. You know, it's that's not a distinction without a difference. And I think what was interesting about what you said is that circumstantially, things didn't change necessarily. You're still dealing with difficulties. You were still pursuing certain things. But it's almost like the foundation now was different. Yeah. Right. That you were almost pursuing these things not because you needed approval, not because you needed fame, not because you needed these things. You. The way I describe it is you were able to pursue these things from a place of wholeness, not for wholeness. Well, that's how you know that was the Holy Spirit. You know what I mean? Because only the Holy Spirit can provide the peace that only the Holy Spirit can provide the peace and the storm. And there was no sense of peace in my life, no evidence for me to have that type of peace in my life except a supernatural encounter with God. So yeah, I agree wholeheartedly. Yeah. And it's funny because I often think about the fruits of the spirit, and we often think of those through human lenses. And well, I'll be patient when the situation is easy for me to be patient, right? Or I'll have peace when the situation is easy for me to be peaceful. And what you seem to be communicating is bro. From the outside looking in, everyone would say, you have all rights to be freaking out. What makes it supernatural is that you're peaceful despite the circumstances, right? Which again, is testimony to the supernatural presence of God in your life. Yes. And I think that's fundamentally why God chose to use hypocrites like me, because if he chose to use perfect people, then the distinction of whether they're doing this good because they're a perfect person, or whether it's because God helping them, that debate is not there with me. It's I'm such a hypocrite. It definitely has to be someone up above that is working through me. That is allowing his wonders to work through this, what he calls the medium of this flesh. You know, talk to me about how this impacts your posture towards non-believers, because I can feel this duality in your work. I can feel a strength and a conviction. But as you said, it doesn't feel judgmental or self-righteous. Like describe where that comes from. Well, so my father was a pastor, so I grew up in the church and I also grew up in an abusive household, so I church hurt. I'm very familiar with. And when I meet a non-believer, oftentimes at least half the times they're non-believers because of some type of church trauma. Um, and so I empathize with them and I also want to meet them at where they are, which is why I like to make videos about, you know, tough questions that are asked for my viewers that are non-believers. Like, you know, if God is so good, why is there evil? Why do kids get cancer? Why does X, Y, and Z happen? And I and I present maybe not the most correct answer, but the answer that I have found that I that's given me peace to them and try to meet them where they are at with my answer as well as I think that's what Jesus would have done. You know, I mean, I go back to John eight, you know, uh, with, uh, the woman caught in adultery, I choose not to condemn you go and sin no more. Um, I, I think that's what we're called to do. You know, it's not our place to judge. In James four, it says there's one lawmaker and judge that has the power to save and destroy. So who are you to judge your neighbor? You know, um, leave that to him. Just show them the Jesus that you know. You know, but to be able to show people that Jesus, you have to know that Jesus. Right? Yeah. So if it's a nominal thing or if it's a political thing, or if it's something you just were dragged along to as a kid, that's where that self-righteousness can grow, right? Because you don't actually have a revelation of your own sinfulness. Yeah. And I also want to specify that this doesn't mean that you have to be a pushover. Yes. Jesus chose not to condemn that woman of adultery, but at the same time, he was chasing people down with a whip at his temple. There is a time and a place to be soft, but also hard or strong, you know? Um, and that's a distinction that I think should be made as well. Um, and, but again, I think what I feel in your work is that the foundation of it is a humility that has come through trial and through a recognition of your own sinfulness. So when you are strong and you don't always do it perfectly, and neither do I, right? Nobody does. But when you do, it's you can feel the place that it's coming from and it's not coming from a bro. I have it all together. Why don't you. It's. I know this is destroying you. These lies are terrible. Please. You're like trying to rescue someone from a devastating situation, not point out flaws from the shore, like, oh, look, I have it all figured out. Why don't you? It also comes from a place of fear, you know? You know, they say the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Because of the hell that I went through. I can understand what it looks like when God maybe pulls back his mercy just a little bit, so that he can humble you to a point where you rely on him. And once you go through that once, you never have to learn that lesson again. That heart comes from a place of empathy and reverence to the Lord and empathy to the sinner. Like I'm trying to save you from a lot of heartache and pain right now. It's I'm telling you, it's a lot easier if you just swallow these hard truths now, then. I mean, God forbid, at the end of your life, you, you know, you learn, um, that you made the wrong turn. But let's, let's, let's, let's go through what you have to go through now so you don't have to go through what you have to go through forever, for sure. And I think intuitively we recognize that the people who love us most are those who are willing to tell us the truth. Oh, right. We know that in our own relationships, we know the difference between a superficial friend that's like, oh, well, his life's going off the rails piece, as opposed to someone who's like, if this cost me our friendship, so be it. But you cannot go on like this. Yeah, absolutely. I heard you say that one of the ways, you know, you hit the mark with your content is when it produces divided fruit. Yeah. I don't know if you remember that exact phrase, but can you elaborate on that more? Yeah. So I was talking about my Christian videos specifically. And it's when I, again, I encounter questions, difficult questions like, if God is so good, why is there, you know, why do kids get cancer? And then in that specific one, if I make a video where everybody agrees, that tells me that I didn't make strong enough of a stance I was placating, or I diluted my stance down so that you can't possibly disagree with it. And so with a question as black and white that requires as black and white of an answer as those difficult, pointed questions that were asked, that requires just as much a black and white answer. And so I need not just people to agree with me, but I also need people to disagree with me so that I know whether I'm right or wrong. At least I made a stance. Yeah, my dad often says that one thing Jesus was never was ignored, right? People worshipped him. People hated him. But people did not just walk by Jesus. Yeah, I like that, right? Yeah. And I think that's a different way of saying what you're saying. Right? Which is that we don't try to be provocative for provocations sake, but if we're being ignored, we're probably not saying anything. Right? Yes, yes. Especially if we're going, you know, we're not of this world. And if we're going against this world. Um, yeah, you're definitely going to be provocative. Yeah. So what do you think are the biggest lies or the baggage or barriers or misconceptions that the people you're trying to reach have about God, about church, Christianity? What are you sensing in your generation that are the biggest obstacles you're running into? Uh, funny enough, they're kind of antithetical. The first one is like, God hates LGBTQ or transgender gods. God hates, uh, or eternally damns them. Whereas like a special, um, dislike, uh, of the LGBTQ. And also the second one is that, uh, I mean, it's the tale as old as time. You know, I'm a good person and then play the comparing game or, you know, they look back in their life, they haven't, you know, committed murder or X, Y, and Z stuff, but I'm good enough to go to heaven. So those are definitely the two biggest ones. But the first one I love seeing John eight, the woman caught in adultery, you know, they say by the law of Moses, we have every right to stone this woman. What say you, Rabbi? Right? Something. Jesus writes something on the ground and says, you know, he is without sin. Cast the first stone and then write something on the ground. Again. The Pharisees walk away, and Jesus says to the woman, say, I do not condemn you. Go and sin no more. Uh, and a lot of people think that the moral of that story is that, you know, we're all sinners, so who are we to judge one another? Which is true. But one thing a lot of people missed out on is that the one person that had every right to cast that first stone, had every right to condemn that woman of her sin, chose not to. And I don't think that sin is only for adultery that Jesus chose not to condemn. I think Jesus chose not to condemn every sin that it is by his grace that he's chosen to forgive in all of them, and that is washed over the LGBTQ adultery X, Y, and Z. Um, that's, that's how I relate that. And then, I mean, all, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So it's like, yeah, yeah. And I think, I think it's that the accusation wants to separate the profound love of Jesus from the accusation. And the fact of the matter is, you cannot understand Jesus injunction to go sin no more without first looking through the lens of his extraordinary mercy. They have to go together. And so often on the streets, someone's like, they don't want to talk about that. They don't want to talk about the grace of Jesus. They just want to talk about the accusation. And the fact is, Jesus does call us to sin no more because it is destroying us all. Sin, not just a certain kind of sin, but it has to be understood through the radical grace of Jesus, because then it completely transforms it now. You know, I got I got three kids and now it's like the difference between me pleading with my kids out of my desperate love for them to not run on the road, because if they do it, it'll kill them. That is what I'm pleading to them to not do. Now that's through the lens of something you intuitively understand, or at least most people should, despite hard relationships with their father, should understand. Of course, I got the backs of my kids. Of course I care about my kids. So now that injunction or that that prohibition is viewed through the lens of a loving father. Right. And so how much of this would you say is that people just don't they have not yet met the love of the father. And so because of that, the laws are never going to make sense in the absence of a loving law giver. Yeah. I mean, it's all of it, to be honest. Um, you don't have that transformation without first understanding the mercy, the undeserved mercy that you've been granted, that in the Christian life cycle, the first thing that has to happen is your heart has to break for the punishment that should have been yours, casted on to the unblemished perfect lamb. That's the catalyst for the change of going and sinning. No more. That being said, you know I'm still, I still sin. I'm still a sinner. Um, but by the grace of God, I'm moving forward. I'm stumbling, uh, forward. And there's going to be a renewal of that heartbreak because I mean, that's naturally what's going, what's going to happen. Yeah. I was talking to a, this brilliant professor from Boston University. His name is Peter Kraft. He's like an apologist and he's very he's in his eighties now, but he's still so sharp. And, you know, he just had this very simple way to him. But his basic premise was, until people have a revelation of their sin, which is the greatest mercy, as you said, is to actually have it reveal to you the actual state of your condition until you have that revelation. Not that it really makes sense. You can't argue someone into it. You can't use comedy content. You can't use good music. You can't. They need a Holy Spirit empowered revelation of their sinfulness. And until they have that, all of it is just periphery, right? It's just not the center of the bull's eye. I have found that the best way to evangelize people is not by trying to prove to them the historical authenticity of the Gospels or, or whatever archaeological evidence that's found that will prove or disprove X, Y, and Z. But rather, I mean, it's really just showing Christ by example and letting people know that you'll be there. God has used me to lead a number of the members of the LGBTQ community just by being there. Um, smoking cigars with them. You know, making them laugh. But also, I'm always asking them, hey, how's life, you know? And praying with them. Can I pray for you? You know, stuff like that. And then they realize maybe there's something different. And then God planted that seed. And, um, whether he's going to use you to water it or he's going to use someone else to water it, then you trust God, you know? Yeah. I think about Jesus the way he reaches Zacchaeus, right? The hated betrayer of his people. Little weasel in the tree. And he's like, hey, I'm coming to your house, to your party, and you get no other information. But the next thing you hear is Zacchaeus being like, I'm giving half of all I have away and anyone else I've robbed, I will give them double. And then Jesus says, salvation has come to this house. Yeah. And I'm like, we have such clear examples of how this thing is supposed to work. It's just we complicate it so much when Jesus just loved people. Yeah. And no, he didn't apologize about the truth. As you said, there's times when we have to just call it as it is. And he sometimes whipped people or got people out of the temple. But, man, there's so much to be learned in that one example. Mhm. No doubt. I feel like a lot of Christian influencers have emerged in online spaces. And as a fellow creator in this space, a lot of people are celebrating like, oh, Wes Huff just went on Steven Bartletts diary of a CEO. Like, you know, and here's a guy who's like, God has gifted brilliantly and brilliantly rather, I can't even say the word so clearly. I'm not as brilliant as him in the whole archaeological evidence manuscript, evidence for the historicity of Jesus, all those things. Obviously, we should celebrate that, but I sometimes feel like Christians kind of see that as job done, right. Our faith is now rationally credible because a guy went on a prominent podcast is in making an intelligent case for it. How much? Where are the limits of what can be accomplished online? You know, when someone just sharing that to their atheist buddy and being like, see, you know, where is that doing good and where is that not enough? And in fact, limited in many ways. Westhoff is a friend of mine and he's a brilliant apologist. I think he's really good at equipping other Christians with answers to questions that will be encountered from non-believers and specifically non-believers that have their own different faith, right? Non-Believers in the Christian faith. But they're of practicing of another faith. And to be able to defend one's one's own faith. I think that's important. But I think you're right in touching the limited fact is that that's just meeting someone intellectually. And to be able to truly meet someone, you have to meet them at their heart or meet them where they're at. The videos that we make, they're great. And I'm sure there are a lot of fruits that come from it, whether it's like, you know, Christians being able to feel a bit of a revival from watching one of our videos or something like that. But at the end of the day, an evangelist that just goes out into the world talking to a person one by one, I think is way more powerful than me that like, has my Christian videos probably got like a couple hundred million views. I, I, I would if I had to bet, I would bet that the evangelist is going out into the world and actually encountering people. He's probably doing better. Yeah. Well, that's very humble of you to say. And I, I will just encourage you to say that I think God is using what you're making in a very profound way. And as you said, there is a seed sowing component to it. There is a disciple making component to it where you're encouraging other followers of Jesus. But I would also say that one of the best descriptions of apologetics I've ever heard is that apologetics are not the cross. They're the shears that remove the bushes that obscure the cross. So it's a complicated way to basically say for many people in the world, they have all sorts of barriers and lies and misconceptions about God, about Jesus. And what I'd like to say is that sometimes apologetics just creates a huh moment, just that little moment of like, oh, I didn't think of it that way. Or I used to think there were no good answers to that question. I think about your video about how people are judging God for not doing more in the world. And you really powerfully talk about you kind of flip the tables and say, what about you? What are you doing? Yeah. And that one went massively viral. And I think that's a profound example of I'm sure there are non-believers, plenty who probably scoffed at it and went, ah, whatever. But there were many, I'm sure, who went, huh? I didn't think of it that way. I didn't think about God's POV in this. What is he thinking about me and the responsibility he's given me to alleviate suffering? So I do think that there is a role in it. I just think we have to see it and set it within the broader body of Christ. Yeah. And realize that we all just have a role to play, right? To be honest, like apologetics works for me because it really scratches that intellectual itch. But, you know, there's people that I, I think it just doesn't work for people that aren't that intellectually curious about, you know, whether the translations are, you know, preserved over time or X, Y, and Z. And they just kind of want to know like the meat of the story, right? Right. Um, but absolutely apologetics has its place and I'm happy that it's there. I like the analogy that you made with the shoes. Um, I think I'm gonna steal that from you. I don't know if I'll quote you, but dude, I didn't quote whoever I stole that from. So as far as I'm concerned, let the stealing chain continue. We will just, uh, I don't know, to be honest. I don't even know where that came from, but I definitely did not make it up. I will definitely not give myself credit. So please steal away. Uh, bro, like, I really appreciate your heart and I, I do want to encourage you that God is using you. Before we started this, I prayed that the days ahead would just make the days in the past look small. Not because they're not great, but because I believe God looks at a heart that sees himself accurately the desires intimacy with him, and he's going to use that heart. And so that's what I'm praying for. Um, how can we be praying for you? What's your dreams? What's next? What's on your heart? Uh, God has been really blessing me in the movie industry. If God can continue to bless me and, uh, make sure that I'm. I make the moves that he wants me to, uh, because it is also a very, uh, safely demonic industry. I think I can call it, um, and there's every pitfall, uh, known to man and I'm trying to bring Christ into circles where he normally isn't. And at the end of the day, every pinnacle I hit, I hope that I will give all glory to Christ because it is not definitely and never will be. Through my own strength or my own that I got there. But because God dragged me by. You know by my feet that I got there. Yeah. And I think that while I'm sure there were very many hard things about the things you've gone through, and you know, I don't wish these challenges on anyone, it is very evident that God has used them to shape you. I think of Paul, and of course, none of us have the list that Paul has. None of us had the shipwrecks and the beatings and the snake bites. Maybe you've been bitten by a snake, I don't know. You're wearing a cowboy hat. Anything's possible. Um, but they shaped him, right? And some things can only be learned through experience. And I feel the softness that your trials have shaped in you. And I want to commend that. I don't wish more trials upon you in the future. Undoubtedly, they'll come up, but like James says, let us have everything that that trial should produce if we're gonna go through it, man. Let it produce whatever the heck it's going to produce. Let's not waste it. And I sense that you have not wasted it. And so I really, uh. Yeah, I don't know you super well, but I'm proud of you for that, bro. Keep keep up the good work, I appreciate it. Yeah. This has been fun. I hope we can do this again. I'll be tracking what you're doing from afar. I'll be liking your videos as I have for for years now. And, uh, yeah, thanks again for for being willing to do this. Let's do it again. Keep each other updated.

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