Former Sen. Ben Sasse Confronts Stage 4 Cancer with Christian Faith

Former U.S. Senator Ben Sasse announced Tuesday that he has been diagnosed with metastasized stage-four pancreatic cancer. The 53-year-old former lawmaker and university president described the diagnosis as terminal and emphasized that his Christian faith is central to how he views his condition and the future. Alex Brandon/AP “Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die,” Sasse stated on Tuesday. “Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too - we all do.” Sasse paid tribute to his support system, writing, “I’m blessed with amazing siblings and half-a-dozen buddies that are genuinely brothers. As one of them put it, ‘Sure, you’re on the clock, but we’re all on the clock.’ Death is a wicked thief, and the bastard pursues us all.” Acknowledging the emotional toll on his family, Sasse shared, “Still, I’ve got less time than I’d prefer. This is hard for someone wired to work and build, but harder still as a husband and a dad. I can’t begin to describe how great my people are.” He recounted recent milestones from his children’s lives, including Corrie’s commissioning into the Air Force, Alex graduating college early while teaching multiple science courses, and Breck learning to drive. The diagnosis, shared just days before Christmas, prompted Sasse to reflect on the season’s deeper meaning. “There’s not a good time to tell your peeps you’re now marching to the beat of a faster drummer - but the season of advent isn’t the worst. As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come.” He wrote: “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 mean is ‘optimism.’” He said optimism is useful but “insufficient” when confronting death directly: “It’s not the kinda thing that holds up when you tell your daughters you’re not going to walk them down the aisle.” Rather than clinging to sentimentality, Sasse described a faith that meets suffering head-on. “A well-lived life demands more reality - stiffer stuff. That’s why, during advent, even while still walking in darkness, we shout our hope - often properly with a gravelly voice soldiering through tears.” “Such is the calling of the pilgrim. 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 observed. Drawing from Isaiah’s prophecies, Sasse noted how Scripture reframes even the most challenging realities. “Remembering Isaiah’s prophecies of what’s to come doesn’t dull the pain of current sufferings,” he wrote. “But...

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