I have had
the opportunity to meet with Dr. Bacote, a highly esteemed faculty member here
at Wheaton college, for the past year and a half or so. I first met Dr. Bacote
at my brother's wedding, in which he was the officiant. My brother too had a
mentor relationship with Dr. Bacote, and found that meeting with him was very
beneficial. My brother told me when I first came to Wheaton to take advantage
of the faculty and staff, like Dr. Bacote, that are willing to reach out to
students and care for them.
My talks
with Dr. Bacote have rarely been fun, they have rarely been something I look
forward to. The reason I do not necessarily "enjoy" these talks is
because Dr. Bacote has a knack for exposing my deepest and darkest feelings.
They way he lovingly pokes at me to be vulnerable is not always a pleasant
experience. Sometimes we start off a meeting with small talk: sports, movies,
what the week will look like for me academically, etc, but usually we dive
right in to the heart of Luke Harrison Peters; a frightening, yet liberating
experience.
Dr. Bacote
has taught me many things through my relationship with him. He has taught me
that true friendship and love requires trust and vulnerability, things that do
not come easily, but things that are incredibly important to any relationship.
Our talks have helped me to deal with the sin, the muck, and the problems of my
life while leading me to lean upon Jesus through it all. I know that when I
meet with Dr. Bacote, the absolute hardest questions I have ever encountered
will be thrown at me without hesitation - AND that I will be expected to answer
them right then and there (Dr. Bacote does not accept BS answers (pardon the
use of BS)).
Dr. Bacote
genuinely cares about me. He loves me and that is why our talks are so
challenging. He cares about me enough to not let me off the hook, to not let me
go into my shell and deal with things my way. I am very thankful for my times
with him.
Grant Costakis commented on February 23, 2017 at 6:22 PM
ReplyDeleteLuke,
Thank you for both a wonderful first post and your comment on my own post. While I generally do favor Chipotle, my mentor (Ross Demerchant) generally favors Qdoba.
Luke, when I first meant you last year on T6, I quickly realized how enjoyable and fun it is to talk with you, due to your incredibly unique and witty sense of humor.
It is awesome that you were able to further develop your own mentee relationship with Dr. Bacote, who your brother had developed such a close relationship with the man who invested so much into your brother's life.
I am also incredibly amazed at the Lord's unique guidance in your life, as he has created the opportunity for you to interact with someone who can discuss the underlying struggles in your life, that a casual friend might not be able to pick up on or discuss the matters with you.
Luke, as you are an incredibly charismatically entertaining character with whom it is a pleasure to interact with often in a satirical manner, I am glad that you can have a mentorship meeting in which you can be open with personal matters that, while possibly awkward to address, are critically important to address.
I look forward to seeing your future posts in your mentee relationship with Dr. Bacote, and I would encourage you to try meeting at the fine establishment of Qdoba, which boasts the queso option that is lacking at Chipotle.
Luke,
ReplyDeleteThank you for this great post. I believe that everyone needs a "Dr. Bacote" in their life. We all need someone older and wiser to get into the deep and tough things in life. I am glad that Dr. Bacote can read through the answers that are not full of truth.
I believe this relationship will make you better man. It will help you in many aspects in life including relationships and in the business would.
Your relationship with Dr. Bacote makes me happy :) and @Grant Chipotle is better but Qdoba does have good queso.
Luke,
ReplyDeleteThank you for this post and for being such a great friend to me. I loved your honesty in your post in the fact that you usually don't enjoy having your meetings with Dr. Bacote. This shows how honest you are and I really appreciate it. I love how you realize that even though the conversations can be tough, you are learning more about yourself and becoming more like Christ in the process. Im glad God has crossed our paths in life and am excited to see how you continually grow into a better man and follower of Jesus Christ.
Luke,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the post. I think your story of how you met Dr. Bacote is very interesting and its cool that you could carry on the connection with this man and your family. I find it very cool that you have a faculty member here at school who is willing to take time out of what is a busy life to meet with you. I also think it is very important that you can be very open with a professor and that they can give you great input on your struggles and triumphs.
Men,
ReplyDeleteThank you for making my post the most viewed and commented on. Your friendships mean the world to me and your kind words continue to lift my spirits every day.
God bless.
Luke,
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on the achievement, you are the Chicago Cubs of this blog. Ohhhhh sorry, know that one still stings from that game seven classic! Blew a 3-1 series lead!
You're right Grant. I'm not the Chicago Cubs of this blog. It did not take me 108 years for me to win my first championship. Sorry about that by the way.. that your favorite organization was a laughing stock for the last hundred years until suddenly the stars align and they play the Cleveland Indians in the World Series, a team they should have shut out in 4 games if you look at all of the money and useless energy the Cubs spent on building that championship team. Instead they almost got upset by a rag tag Cleveland team. You are so right when you say that I am not the Cubs of this blog. I prefer the Lakers and Celtics of old, the Yankees, the Patriots of this blog. Thanks for making that clear for me and everyone else.
ReplyDeleteI just want to affirm how calm and loving your words are, Luke. Truly amazing.
DeleteLuke bud this hilarious, but do you read? I said that you are the Cubs of this blog. It was a complement! And then I made fun of the Indians losing to the Cubs. So... I am going to let this slide because I know that you pain from the Indians defeat, combined with the Browns being the worst franchise in any professional sport, and the Cavs set for impending failure against the Celtics. The best part is that you did not even bring up the Cavs of last year in your discussion of great teams, so you already doubted the best version of the Cavs that you will ever see. Luke, despite all of this, you are a great blogger, better than myself. As we are both producing quality posts at an unprecedented rate, it is fair to say that I am the Peyton Manning of this blog, and you are the Tom Brady of it. Now I have compared you to Tom Brady and the Cubs, and I stand by it, because you are a great man, Luke Peters.
ReplyDeleteGrant and Luke,
ReplyDeleteThe comparisons being made are quite ridiculous. I would let Grant call himself the 2016 Minnesota Vikings. He came out of the gates way ahead of everyone else 5-0 looking to hoist the Lombardi Trophy and then things went downhill from there. Luke could be the Detroit Lions. 9-7 and finishing 2nd in the NFC north. Good stuff, but not yet a Tom Brady and the Patriots level of blogging. In my opinion Zack Kvam is the Tom Brady of this blog. He's straight to the point in all of his posts. Doing what it takes to get the job done every time. The ultimate competitor.
Luke,
Great Post. The humility to be vulnerable with your mentor is admirable. Not always fun which you clearly express in your post. I'm sure it's interesting to have the same mentor as your brother had. I wonder if there is any pressure to be like your older brother in that sense in your mentor relationship?
Yours Truly
Luke,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing. I appreciate that you are so open about your meetings with Dr. Bacote. It is really interesting to see that he had a relationship with your brother and now is getting to know you. Your post reminded me of how special Wheaton's faculty is and can be in my life. I can relate with your experience on how you are not always excited to meet with Dr. Bacote since he usually talks about serious and vulnerable issues. I also have those kinds of people in my life. However, as I spend more time with them, I realize how important it is to talk about my struggles and real issues, which I'm sure you are realizing too as you spend more time with Dr. Bacote. I wish the best for your next two mentor meetings with him!
Best,
Harry
Luke,
ReplyDeleteI'm thrilled to see how close you and Grant have gotten - what a truly #blessed experience for all of us to be part of this chain of comments on your post - I pray for a friendship like that one day!
As for your mentor, praise to you for choosing someone at Wheaton. Talk about maximizing your resources and getting the most bang for your buck! I love that Dr. Bacote, a staff member, is who you choose to go to. As for your conversations with him, hallelujah that he can peer so intently into your heart, am I right, bro? Talk about vulnerability.
Go Cubs Go -
Kevin