The Dr. Jeff Show Ep. 2 – Becket Cook

Episode 2: Summary & Transcript

Disclaimer: Please note that this is an automatically generated transcript. Although the transcription is largely accurate, it may be incomplete or inaccurate in some cases due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.

Episode Summary

Becket Cook shares how he lived a glamorous dream life in Hollywood as a successful, openly gay writer, actor, and production designer, yet grew increasingly disillusioned and empty despite his achievements and relationships. A deep existential crisis at Paris Fashion Week left him desperate to know the meaning of life, even though he still considered God off the table. Six months later, a surprise encounter with young Christians studying the Bible in a Los Angeles coffee shop led him to visit their evangelical church, where hearing the gospel and experiencing what he describes as a powerful encounter with the Holy Spirit radically transformed his identity, faith, and view of sexuality.

Embracing a biblical ethic of sexuality brought ongoing personal struggle and required costly self-denial, but he insists that knowing Christ, understanding his place in God’s redemptive story, and living as “royalty” in God’s kingdom far outweigh the loss, even as he faces hostility and blacklisting in Hollywood for his convictions.

Episode Transcript

Dr. Jeff Myers (00:02):
Hey, it’s Dr. Jeff Myers. Welcome to the Dr. Jeff Show. On every episode, I interview major thought leaders who demonstrate that worldview changes everything. On today’s program, we’re going to meet Beckett Cook, who was a gay man, found success in Hollywood as a writer, an actor, a production designer. He lived all over the world, Rome, Vienna, Tokyo, living the dream life.

But then he started to feel disillusioned and a chance and counter at a coffee shop changed everything, leading him to a spiritual transformation that changed his life, but also cost him in his career tremendously. In our days of the cancel culture, this message is desperately needed. Hey, Becket Cook. Welcome to the Dr. Jeff Show.

Becket Cook (00:50):
Thank you, Dr. Jeff. I’m happy to be here.

Dr. Jeff Myers (00:52):
It’s great to see you and it’s fun to have a conversation with you because you had a great career in Hollywood. Working in Hollywood, working as an actor, as a writer, as a production designer, you went all over the world, living in different countries, working with famous actors and actresses. And to many people, I think you had a dream life. Is that how you would describe it? I mean, you were living the dream, right?

Becket Cook (01:26):
I was living the dream in Hollywood. Yeah. I mean, I had a really fun life in LA. I moved here in 1993 and I immediately got into a really fun group of very ambitious, very smart friends all from the East Coast from Ivy League schools and they were all in the business. Everyone was a writer, director, actor, producer. And so we were all very much involved in Hollywood, very much involved.

We went to the movie premieres every week. Every Thursday night there was a movie premiere. That’s the thing, a Thursday night. I don’t know why it’s on Thursday nights. And there’s after parties and then we would go to the Oscars, the Emmys, the Golden Globes and to all the award shows and the after parties and the Vanity Fair parties and the HBO parties.

(02:22):
I just would always just find myself at these events because I was part of this crowd and just part of this Hollywood crowd. And a lot of my friends here in the ’90s were movie stars and actors and some pop singers. And so it was a wild time. The ’90s in LA was really fun. And it was weird because my friends, one day they would just be like, one of my friends was assisting Diane Keaton and then the next day he sold a screenplay and became Diane Keaton’s producing partner.

And then now he’s huge. He produced Filthy Rich, the Jeffrey Epstein movie documentary. So all of my friends, it was weird because Doug Lyman was a friend of mine and we were at a diner in LA, which is right near me called Swingers. And he was like, “Oh, I think I’m going to write a movie called Swingers.”

(03:33):
And we’re like, “What?” And then he wrote Swingers and directed it, and the rest of is history. Vince Vaughn and I forgot who the other actor was, but it was like a wild time. I would find myself at Prince’s house in his backyard watching him perform a concert for three hours for 50 people. So there were all kinds of, and I went to Fashion Week in New York and Paris a lot.

(04:03):
I was having a pretty good time and that’s what I kind of felt like life was all about, having amazing experiences and having relationships. I was gay and I was in many relationships with guys. And so those were kind of the two things and also making a mark on this world, like being successful in my career. So those were the three things that everyone in my group we all aspire to and that’s what we always kind of worked at.

Obviously God was not an option for me because I was gay and I just was like, “Obviously I’m not going to be a Christian because Christians are the enemy.” And so I was happy to not have God even anywhere on my radar. I mean, when I moved to LA, God was like not even, I’d never even spoke of him. My friends never spoke of God. It was just understood that God didn’t exist and it was all a fairy tale.

Dr. Jeff Myers (05:09):
Yeah. So God was irrelevant to everything that was happening in your life. The people you were around were not Christians. They did not talk about God and you were just going on with your life having these relationships and you tell this story in your book, which we’re going to talk about here in a few minutes because I really think people need to read that, but you had a chance encounter in a coffee shop that radically altered the trajectory of your life. Do I have that right?

Becket Cook (05:44):
Yes, that was September. Well, it was in September of 2009, but to get to that point six months before that time, I was at Paris Fashion Week and I had gone to a bunch of the runway shows and I had gone to a lot of the after parties that they have for the shows and I was at this one party and I had this kind of meltdown at the, not a meltdown, but just kind of this existential crisis at this party because I had done all these fun things. I had been everywhere, seen everything, been friends with everyone for many, many, many years.

And so the law of diminishing returns was already setting in and I was at this party and I just kind of like everyone was dancing and drinking champagne and I just felt completely overwhelmed with emptiness, like utter emptiness. I was like, “This cannot be my life anymore.”

(06:49):
“I can’t do this anymore. I’ve done this since high school, basically. I’ve been doing these kinds of things since high school and what’s going to sustain me for the rest of my life? I can’t go on. I need to know the meaning of life. I need to know some answers.” But again, I felt like it was impossible to even get to that place because God was off the table so I didn’t even know how to find the meaning of life really.

Dr. Jeff Myers (07:18):
I want to point out something too, that movies, music, things produced in Hollywood are always telling us about the meaning of life. “This is what it’s all about,” is sort of the plot line of every movie. And here you were in that situation and it was failing you.

Becket Cook (07:38):
Well, and not only that, but I mean, I was an avid theater goer in New York and London. So I would go to plays in New York and London whenever I was there and a lot. And I would go to these extremely heavy, serious plays by Tom Stoppard, Harold Pinter, Eugene O’Neill, Tony Kushner, Angels in America, which was a six hour play in two parts. I would go to these plays thinking, okay, these guys have some insight into the meaning of life. They’re super smart.

But again, it was just like I would go and it would feel like it would come so close to some sort of meaning and truth, but then it would evaporate. As soon as I left the theater, I would be frustrated because I was like, wait, I still don’t know the meaning of life and neither do they. And if they don’t know it, who does? These are the smartest guys in the world. So I was constantly frustrated by that.

Dr. Jeff Myers (08:42):
Well, let’s go back to that coffee shop. So you’re in this process of having this existential crisis, the life that you’ve lived, the glitz and the glamor, you’ve seen behind it, it’s failing you, you know that this is not going to be your future, but I imagine like anybody with a job, I don’t want to leave because this is what I know. Then you walk into this coffee shop and you see a group of college students or 20 somethings studying the Bible.

Becket Cook (09:12):
Yes, that was a shock. So that was six months after I got back from, it was six months after the Paris night. And so I was in LA and my best friend and I, my best friend was gay, he and I used to hang out all the time. We hung out almost every night and every weekend, but on the weekends we would go to brunch, we would go shopping, we would go and go have coffee and it was kind of this same ritual every weekend.

Dr. Jeff Myers (09:42):
Gay church.

Becket Cook (09:42):
Which was gay church. And so that day we were in this coffee shop in Silver Lake, which is kind of this really progressive part of town, kind of a hipstery part of town, I guess you would say, even though I don’t like that word. And we were just chatting and suddenly we look over and notice a table next to us and it’s young 20 somethings and there’s like five or six Bibles on the table in front of them and it was just like, what? Neither of us had ever seen a Bible in LA in public. And so it was a very shocking sight to see, especially in Silver Lake.

(10:31):
We were both kind of intrigued, but I think we were both too embarrassed to say we were intrigued, but my friend kind of urged me to talk to them and find out what they were doing if they were going to Guyana for like a trip to Jonestown Guiana on some trip. And so we didn’t know if they were in a cult or whatever. And so we turned around and I ended up in this conversation with them.

My friend just kind of hung back and listened, but I basically was like, “Are you guys Christians? What’s the deal?” And it’s like a Christian’s fantasy come true when that happens. And they’re like, “Yes, we’re evangelical Christians. We go to this evangelical church in Hollywood on sunset.” And I was like, “Well, tell me about your faith.” Because I grew up Catholic in Dallas, Texas. I grew up and I was raised in Catholic schools and blah, blah, blah, but I don’t even really remember like, “What is your faith?”

(11:35):
“What do you believe?” And they told me their beliefs, I think they told me the gospel, I can’t remember exactly what they said, but then we talked for a while, we talked for like an hour, maybe two hours. It was a long time and then I get to the $64,000 question and I said, “Well, what does your church believe about homosexuality?” And they said, “Well, we believe it’s a sin.”

And I wasn’t shocked at that answer, but I just was shocked at my response because normally I would have just been like, “You guys are insane and I’m leaving now.” But because of that night in Paris six months before, I was kind of open to hearing something different. I was like, “Maybe God does exist, that’s a very small possibility. And if he does exist, maybe homosexual behavior is a sin and I don’t know it.”

(12:36):
“And what if I’ve built my whole life on this false foundation?” And so I just kind of accepted that and I was like, “Okay.” And then they invited me to their church the following Sunday and I said, “Well, I don’t know if I’m going to go, just give me the address and I’ll think about it.” And I didn’t know if I was going to go because doing that is like, it would be betraying my people, the gay community because it’s like going to an evangelical church is a cardinal sin so to speak for the gay community.

And so I knew that if anyone found out that I was going to this church, it would just be like they would make fun of me or kind of be weird to me. Yeah. So I kind of really, I thought about it for the whole week, didn’t know what I was going to do and then the following Sunday I woke up and I was like, “I guess I’m going to do this.”

(13:40):
“I don’t know, what do I have to lose?” And so I got in my car and it just kind of felt like my car just self, it was like a Tesla. It was like a self-drove to the church. This was before Teslas were around, but I just found myself at this high school auditorium where the church meets in Hollywood and I walked in and I didn’t know what to expect because I had never been to an evangelical church in my life. So I was used to stained glass windows and smoke and bells and whistles. And so I got there and it was just a plain auditorium and I was like, “Wow, this is so kind of nice. It’s so spare and there’s not all this kind of stuff.”

And so I walked in, heard the Christian worship music, immediately kind of was like, “Oh gosh, Christian music, I forgot that existed.” And because I had just seen like a year or two or three before, I had seen an episode of True Blood, which was on HBO, which was a show I watched and there was one episode where they totally mocked Christian worship music and so I had this in my head and I was like, “Oh no, this is like that Christian worship music thing.” But then I actually liked it and I went to my, I sat down, I found a seat near the front, sat by myself and then the pastor came out and he started preaching on Romans chapter seven.

(15:17):
He was going through the book of Romans for like two years, expository preaching. And so when he started preaching, just stuff started to happen in my mind and in my heart and I didn’t know why. I just was like, “What is he saying?” Because everything he’s saying is true and I don’t know why. And I was literally on the edge of my seat leaning forward and I didn’t want him to stop speaking because everything he was saying was resonating as true, and it was the first time I had heard and understood the gospel fully.

Dr. Jeff Myers (15:59):
Yeah. What was it that he was saying? Probably most people who are watching this or listening to this cannot remember the last time they were sitting on the edge of their seat in a church. So this must have been really something.

Becket Cook (16:17):
Tim Chadick is his name. He’s a very gifted anointed preacher, preacher man. And so he was just preaching, he was preaching the gospel. And so what it was doing was it was turning everything I had understood religion to be on its head because I thought religion was a, growing up, even though I kind of vaguely understood, I knew the creeds, I knew the Nicene creed and the apostles creed, et cetera.

But as growing up Catholic, you just kind of believe that you just do as well as you can, you try to do good and maybe you get to get into heaven if you’re just as good as you can be. And that’s the opposite of the gospel. And so when I was hearing the gospel, he was just preaching like, “There’s nothing you can do. Jesus did it all for you. He lived the perfect life that you couldn’t live.”

(17:16):
“He died the death that you deserve and if you trust in him and you put your faith in him, you are justified and you’re born again and you have eternal life.” And I’m like, “Wait, so I don’t have to do anything except trust in what Jesus did.” And so that blew my mind.

(17:41):
It was a revelation to me, literally. After the sermon, he said that there’s people on the side of the church in the prayer ministry. If you want prayer for anything, you can get prayed for. So I went over to the side after the sermon and I walked up to this guy, a stranger, and I said, “Hey, I don’t know what I believe, but I’m here.” And he prayed for me and that felt really intense and powerful and I was like, “Why does this random straight dude love me so much?” Because it was such a loving prayer.

And I got back to my seat and there were still 25 minutes more of worship music going on and the lights were kind of dimmed. I sat down, everyone else was standing and worshiping and singing. I sat down because I was just so kind of freaked out by the sermon, by the prayer, by the music.

(18:35):
I was just like, “What is happening right now?” And as soon as I sat down, the Holy Spirit just flooded me and in that moment, God revealed himself to me and he was like, this was all in my mind, God said, “I’m God. Jesus is my son. Heaven’s real. Hell is real. The Bible’s true. Welcome to my kingdom.” And I just started bawling hysterically for the next 25 minutes crying harder than I had ever cried, which makes sense because I was born again. So I was crying like an infant, a new infant.

(19:14):
I was just heaving. I was wretching crying because I encountered the holiness of God and it’s like Isaiah in the temple in Isaiah six when he sees the holiness of God and he just comes undone and I just, that’s how I felt. I just was like, whoa, God is so holy. And being in his presence like that just, it was like Paul on the road to Damascus.

(19:45):
And then it happened the second time. I came home after the service, got in bed to take a nap and God, it was like Moses in the cleft of the rock when God passes by with his glory. God did that to me in my bedroom. He was like, “Let me show you some more of my glories and glory.” And he just was like, again, the Holy Spirit just kind of overwhelmed me and I jumped out of bed and I was crying again. I was crying and crying and I was like, “God, you have my whole life. I’m yours. I’m done with everything.”

And I knew in that moment I knew that being gay was no longer my identity. I knew that it was not who I was. I knew homosexual behavior was a sin. I knew that it was no longer a part of my future, but I didn’t care because I had just met Jesus and I was like, “I’m going to go with that guy because those guys are lame in comparison,” and everything else just paled in comparison. And I was just like, “I’m following Jesus because this is the most amazing thing that’s ever happened to me.”

(20:53):
And that was 11 years ago and I still feel the same way today. I feel like I’m just like every day I wake up and I’m like, “I can’t believe I’m in the kingdom of God. This is insane. And I can’t believe I know the meaning of life.” Finally, I know it.

Dr. Jeff Myers (21:07):
Right. You found it.

Becket Cook (21:10):
I found it.

Dr. Jeff Myers (21:14):
I’m sure some of our friends who are watching are maybe even in a gay lifestyle or experiencing same sex attraction. Some of them have had a radical conversion experience, but they still wrestle, they still struggle or maybe they’re in a relationship with somebody they really love and they realize if I commit my life completely to Christ, I have to give that up. Could you speak to that for a little bit? Because this is so profound, but I think it’s also very, very personal for people.

Becket Cook (21:49):
Yeah. I mean, I didn’t suddenly become heterosexual when I got saved. I still have vestiges of same sex attraction, but before I was saved, sexuality dominated my thought life. And after I got saved, God had so much grace on me. It really just plummeted to just, it doesn’t dominate my thought life, though Satan’s listening right now and he’s like, “Oh, really?” And so I rebuke Satan, but I still have same sex attraction, but I’m willing to deny myself and take on my cross and follow Jesus because obviously he’s worth it.

And even though sometimes the struggle is real, sometimes the struggle is harder than other times. There’ll be a long period of time, like months and months will go by and I won’t have even thought of anything sexual, but then suddenly there’ll be this kind of two week period or one week period where it’s just like, I feel just almost like attacked.

(23:03):
And so it is still a struggle, but it’s like we all, I mean, Paul had a thorn in his flesh and he prayed that it would be taken away and God said, “No, my grace is sufficient for you and my power is made perfect in your weakness.” And I feel the same way. I’m just like, “Okay, I’m probably going to struggle with this for the rest of my life, which is fine because his grace is sufficient.” And again, I’m happy to deny that part of myself because here’s the thing, this life is like a vapor, it’s a mist. It’s really short.

(23:49):
And eternity is a really long time and I don’t want to be like Esau and sell my birthright for a single meal. And so I’m willing to, and the thing is, Jesus was single and celibate. Paul was single Paul was single and Paul had a very difficult life. He was shipwrecked, he was beaten, he was jailed, he was whatever, all kinds of terrible things happened to him, but he didn’t care.

All he cared about was, this is the thing, this is the difference between kind of this kind of perspective is Paul’s focus in life was getting the gospel out to people. That’s all he cared about was running around the Mediterranean, getting the gospel to people. But in our culture now, it’s so hyper individualistic that we’re just so focused, kind of navel gazing. We’re just so focused on ourselves all the time and we’re like, “What about me and what about my happiness?”

(25:01):
“What about my needs? What about I want the perfect house and the perfect job and this relationship and this and this.” It’s like, no, that’s not what the kingdom of God is about. That’s not what we’re here for.

Dr. Jeff Myers (25:18):
Your book Change of Affection, because I was thinking that now I see why that theme, change of affection is exactly what you’re describing.

Becket Cook (25:32):
Yes. Yeah. I just had a radical change of affection. And again, it’s just like I think the real antidote to this struggle is really looking at the big picture because when you have a myopic view of things, it really does become hyper burdensome to struggle with same sex attraction.

But if you look at the big picture, the big scope of from Abraham to now like, oh my gosh, I’m part of God’s whole story of redemption, like how did that happen? And I get to be a part of his kingdom and I get to be, I’m a co-heir with Christ. I’m an heir to God. I’m royalty, literally royalty and I have eternal life.

(26:28):
What else could you want? I mean, I know we worship an invisible God, so it’s difficult to, it’s difficult sometimes, but it’s real and everything the word of God says is true. And so every time I read the word of God, I’m so comforted by it. When I read the epistles or something in the New Testament, Paul’s letters are, I’m so sorry, this dinging is happening. I thought I turned it off.

But so when I read Paul’s epistles or Peter’s epistles or whatever, anything in the, I just am so blown away by the truth, the veracity of it. And I’m like, wow, yes. Paul says in, I think it’s Romans chapter 10 or 1 Corinthians 10, I can’t remember, but he says, he’s talking to the, I think it’s Corinthians. He’s talking to the church in Corinth and he’s like, “You are all kings.”

(27:33):
I’m like, “That’s true. I’m a king. I’m royalty. This is crazy.” And so I think that when you have that perspective and especially when you’re constantly in the word of God and reminded of that perspective, everything else kind of falls away by the wayside. You’re just kind of like, “Okay, this stuff, this little stuff that’s dragging me down in this world is nothing compared to the truth of who I really am.”

Dr. Jeff Myers (28:02):
Yeah. So you’re undergoing this radical spiritual conversion change of affection from yourself to God and it is affecting everything including your sexuality. I’m kind of sitting here thinking, “Okay, if I were one of your friends in Hollywood at that time, what am I observing in you and how am I supposed to process that?” You’re still in the entertainment industry.

Becket Cook (28:34):
Yeah. I mean, after I got saved, I told all of my friends, I had to sit them down one at a time and tell them, “I have the craziest thing to tell you and you’re not going to believe this.” And one of my friends came, she was in town from New York and she was like, “Tell me what’s new in your life. What’s happening?” And we were super close. We wrote a screenplay together. We did a ton of stuff together and I was like, “I have the craziest thing to tell you.” And she’s like, “What are you getting? Are you dating someone or did you?”

And I’m like, “Well, no.” she said, “Are you moving?” And I’m like, “No.” And she’s like, “Did you find a new man?” I’m like, “Well, kind of. His name is Jesus.” She’s like, “What?” And I was like, “Yeah, I’m a Christian now.” And she was just stunned by it and all my friends were really stunned and didn’t really know how to process it really.

(29:38):
They’re in shock, I think, and some of them still are. But the kind of general sentiment was like, “I’m happy you found your path. I’m happy for you.” But of course, when I got to the part about homosexuality being a sin and that not being my identity anymore, that really triggered several friends of mine and they were outraged by that. I was like, I don’t know what to tell you. I just met Jesus and I don’t know what to tell you, but this is my new life. And so that was a very interesting period.

And then I was a production designer right after I got saved when I was working on the set of these major fashion shoots, I just would tell everyone who would listen to me. I was like, “Oh my gosh, you guys, Jesus is real. This is crazy.” There were so many times where this happened, but I was on an UGG shoot, UGG Boots, and we were shooting in Malibu and I’d worked with these people, the group of people from UGG a couple times before that.

(31:00):
But we were on this week-long shoot in Malibu and one of the agency persons, this woman who’s hilarious, she was like, “Oh, we’ve got to get this shot before the sun goes down. The light is perfect. Let’s get this shot. It would be such a sin not to get this.” And she looked at me and she’s like, “Oh, Becket knows all about sin. Don’t you Becket?” Wow. She was making fun of me for being a Christian.

(31:27):
And I said, “Yes, I do know about sin.” And everyone on the set turned and looked at me. The entire crew, everyone looked at me. I said, “Right now all of you people are dead in your trespasses, but I’m alive in Christ.” And I said, “What are the wages of sin?” I said, “Death.” And I said, “All of you are dead in your trespasses, but I’m alive in Christ.” And then I explained the gospel to them and they were just like, I mean, the look on their faces was priceless. I wish I had a photo of it, but after I finished my whole school.

Dr. Jeff Myers (32:03):
That would’ve been the shot to capture right there.

Becket Cook (32:05):
I know, exactly. After I finished my whole sermon basically to them, the head person, a woman from UGG, she was like, “I think I’m going to go get a coffee now.” And it was hilarious. And then they still hired me many, many times after that and they loved working with me. But I was so fearless for the Lord because I had gotten saved later in life and it was just like, “Oh my, this is the most amazing thing.”

And so I couldn’t hide my light under a basket. I just was like, “You guys, this is crazy. The gospel’s real. Jesus is real.” And so that happened for many, many years. I just was super vocal on the set. And I thought anytime I was like, “I’m going to get fired. I’m just going to get fired from these jobs.” And I never did until my book came out a year ago, a year after.

Dr. Jeff Myers (32:59):
Right. So let’s talk about that because your book, Change of Affection, came out and all of a sudden people who had before thought, “Oh, Beck is just a little odd, but we like his work.” Now all of a sudden the whole tune changes and this is very different from say Elliot Page, formerly Ellen Page who transitioned in Hollywood. And even Hillary Rodem Clinton said, “Congratulations on how brave you are.” The reaction you got for embracing a biblical ethic of sexuality was totally different.

Becket Cook (33:39):
Yeah. Elliot Page gets praised and I get blacklisted at Hollywood. So yeah, when the book came out, it was kind of like the line in the sand really, because I was represented by this big agency, they’re the biggest in the world and they’re in London, LA, Paris, and New York. And so when my book came out, it was kind of like, yeah, Beckett was a Jesus freak before and it was kind of okay for him to evangelize on the set, but this is different. This is like something out in the world that’s in print and it’s like real.

And so three weeks after my book came out, I get this kind of strange email from my agent and he was like, “Hey, Becket, so things have shifted at the agency and so-and-so left the agency and we’re blah, blah, blah, and we know you’re focused on your book right now, so we think it’s best to part professional ways.” And that was it. That was the email. I was like, “What?” They’d been my agent for over 10 years, like 10 or 15 years. And I was like, “Wow.” And it was just like that over.

(35:03):
But I knew it was coming, because I went to seminary for four years. I got my master’s in theology at Biola University at Talbot. And while I was in seminary, I knew that God was pulling me out of the production world into a different kind of, more of a full-time ministry sort of world. And so I knew that at some point it was going to happen, but it was just surprising that it happened that way and that it wasn’t my decision, it was theirs. And so that was weird.

Dr. Jeff Myers (35:43):
But you’ve seen that happen to other people, right? I mean, you’ve told some stories about other people who you worked with in a similar situation who because they were Christians got blacklisted from their work.

Becket Cook (36:01):
Yeah. I was working on the set of a shoot, and one of the biggest designers in the world was there. It was his clothing company and he found out that the male model was a Christian before he was, when he was flying in, a model was flying in, he found out that he was a Christian and he fired him. He was like, “Oh, I just can’t. Fire him right now. We’ll get somebody else.”

And that’s kind of the, I mean, it’s pretty hostile in Hollywood. There’s a hostility towards Christians, but guess what? Jesus said they’re going to hate you because they hated me first. And so it’s not surprising and it’s just kind of par for the course. If you’re going to follow Christ, the world’s going to hate you. They’re just going to hate you.

Dr. Jeff Myers (37:03):
Yeah. That’s a tough place to leave the interview. That’s the bad news and that’s the good news. But I’d love for you to speak to this rising generation. At Summit Ministries, students come through these two week long programs. It’s transformational, but then they go into a world that is similar to the world you were describing and they experience some of the hostility that you’ve described. Could you just coach them for a minute on how they should live in a world like that?

Becket Cook (37:47):
I was trying to find 1 Peter, because I’m sorry to interrupt, but Peter in the epistle, he says, “Do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you.” And so yeah, anyway, I just wanted to point that out, sorry, point that scripture out as well. But in terms of what, can you repeat the question? I’m sorry. I was focused on that for a second.

Dr. Jeff Myers (38:14):
No, that’s great. That’s a perfect part of it. I’m just thinking of this rising generation leaving, they go from Summit Ministries, they go back to college or someplace where they might experience that kind of hostility and I wondered if you’d just coach them for a minute on how do you act? How do you live in a world like that when people are mistreating you?

Becket Cook (38:35):
Well, like I kind of said before, obviously yes, the world is coming at us and the lies of the world are so dominant and even they’re infiltrating the church obviously so much and Christians are believing the lies of the world and that’s why it’s so important to have the sword of the spirit, to use the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, the Bible, and to constantly be immersed in the word of God and in prayer and other things.

But the word of God is so important because I’ll give you just an example of on my way to seminary one day, it’s like an hour commute each way. And so I decided to listen to all the epistles on the drive there to and from seminary. And so by the time I got back to LA, I was driving up Fairfax Avenue and I was so just drenched in the word of God and the renewal of my mind that was so, so strong that when I just, I saw this billboard for a random movie, like a Melissa McCarthy movie and I just was like, “Ugh, I don’t want anything to do with that.”

(40:02):
And that’s really the key because everything is lying to you like Netflix, HBO, all these social media, everything is just the undercurrent of it all is a secular humanist worldview and it’s all basically a lie. And so the only way to combat that lie is with the truth, the word of God and to constantly be in the word of God, to be reminded of the truth, to be reminded of who you are in Christ, to be reminded of what sin is.

And I tell people, I mean, if you just read the book of Revelation or even Hebrews, the book of Hebrews, I promise you, you’ll just be like, boom, you’ll just snap back into reality and be like, “Oh my gosh, I forgot about all this stuff.” And this is so crucial and important. And it’s not just those two books in the Bible, but Revelation especially when you read Revelation, you’re like, “Whoa, like this is serious and God is holy and this is real.”

Dr. Jeff Myers (41:15):
It brings you back to real reality.

Becket Cook (41:17):
Yeah. And it keeps you from falling into the lies of the world and it keeps you going, and it’s so important.

Dr. Jeff Myers (41:27):
Becket, before we go, you have a YouTube show now, the Becket Cook Show.

Becket Cook (41:33):
I know, surprise! The name happened to be available, so I decided to use that.

Dr. Jeff Myers (41:40):
So people can check that out if they want to see more of what you do and my wife Stephanie told me, “Oh yeah, he talks to different people who are believers in Hollywood, people you wouldn’t expect necessarily,” and things like that. So a lot of cool content on there. And then the book Change of Affection. Yeah.

Becket Cook (41:56):
A Change of Affection.

Dr. Jeff Myers (41:57):
A Change of Affection. A change of affection.

Becket Cook (42:00):
Yes.

Dr. Jeff Myers (42:00):
Becket, thanks so much for your time. I really appreciate your coming on the Dr. Jeff Show.

Becket Cook (42:04):
Thank you, Dr. Jeff. It was fun.

Ryan Dobson (42:09):
Hi, everyone. I’m Ryan Dobson from the Rebel Parenting Podcast. When my parents, Jim and Shirley Dobson sent me to the Summit Ministries Worldview Conference when I was 17, we had no idea the impact it would have on my life. It changed me so much in two short weeks, I’ve returned every summer for 34 years. This summer, your student can attend an in-person conference. That’s right, in person.

Summit Ministry’s Worldview Conference challenges students ages 16 to 24 to think deeper about their convictions and their faith by engaging with today’s top worldview thinkers and apologists. Can you imagine in person with other students learning about the Christian worldview? If not, they can attend Summit’s virtual experience and it’s amazing. Change your students’ life forever by partnering with Summit Ministries Worldview Conference today. Find out more by clicking the link in the show notes.