Death Sentence Is Not the End For Ben

Letter to Romans: Ben Sasse, a 53-yr-old ex-US Senator with a Stage 4 cancer knows he’s to die soon. Yet at this Christmas time, he delivered on X one of the greatest eternal messages of hope & wisdom. As suggested by Fox News, it is inspiring as well as sobering beyond words…

“This is a tough note to write, but … I’ll cut to the chase. Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am going to die…Advanced pancreatic cancer is nasty stuff, it’ a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too – we all do … I’ve [just] got less time than I’d prefer … As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come … Not an abstract hope in fanciful human goodness; not hope in vague hallmark-sappy spirituality, not a bootstrapped hope in our own strength (what foolishness is the evaporating muscle I once prided myself in). Nope – often we lazily say ‘hope’ when what we man is ‘optimism.’ To be clear, optimism is great, and it’s absolutely necessary, but it’s insufficient. It’s not the kinda thing that holds up when you tell your daughters you’re not going to walk them down the aisle. Nor telling your mom and pops they’re gonna bury their son …Those who know ourselves to need a Physician should dang well look forward to enduring beauty and eventual fulfillment. That is, we hope in a real Deliverer – a rescuing God, born at a real time, in a real place. But the eternal city – with foundations and without cancer – is not yet …”

Sasse also recounted his wife Melissa’s own recent epilepsy diagnosis & memory loss issues “that have been hard, but we’re facing them together.” As the couple will surely “fight” their afflictions as one … [and with] … “God’s grace found in the jaw dropping advances science has made … in immunotherapy … But for now … as we celebrate Christmas, we wish you peace. ‘The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness alight has dawned … For to us a son is given.’”

Davd Soul