Man is a mortal being with a set number of days to his allotment on earth. Former Nebraska Senator and University of Florida President Ben Sasse has had to face down that finite number with a terrible diagnosis.

In December, Sasse announced that his doctors had discovered stage 4 pancreatic cancer that had metastasized, and he only had 90 days left to live. Sasse, a husband and father to three children — his youngest, a son, is 14 — elected to pursue an aggressive new treatment to use whatever time he has left to invest in his family and friends.

Friends-

This is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I’ll cut to the chase: Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die.

Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence.…

— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) December 23, 2025

Peter Robinson, the host of the Hoover Institute’s “Uncommon Knowledge” podcast, recently sat down with Sasse to discuss a wide range of issues filtered through the perspective of a dying man. The underlying theme of the discussion was about redeeming the time. We all are going to die, but how we use our time — particularly as the clock runs out — should be loving and redemptive.

As Sasse told Robinson:

“Redeem the time” in my theology means it is a great blessing to be able to live a life of gratitude to God by doing stuff that tries to benefit your neighbor. It is a blessing to get to be co-creators, but we don’t build any storehouses that last. The things that matter and endure are human souls and things way bigger than any of my projects. Nothing we build is going to last, but that doesn’t mean nothing matters. The chance to love your neighbor and serve is a blessing. And that’s what the Puritans meant by “redeem the time.”

Sasse, a Yale University graduate with a PhD in U.S. history, emphasized the importance of understanding our history. As the U.S. approaches its 250th birthday, we are in grave danger of falling for the lie that our country isn’t a miracle of political philosophy and God’s grace.

The Constitution is the most important political document ever written. It says that government is not the author or the source of our rights. We have our rights from God via nature, pre-governmentally, and government is just a shared project. It’s a secular project to secure those rights and pass them on to the next generation.

Sasse also reflected on his time in the Senate. Congress needs to be reinvigorated, he says, as it’s motivated to do nothing and call it progress. As Sasse put it when he was a fresh senator, “Congress is incredibly weak and dysfunctional,” and yet it seems to have the loudest, angriest voices. Talk about sound and fury signifying nothing.

His solution is to elect different people in the mold of George Washington — i.e., people who don’t want to be in Washington, DC, forever. Perhaps since Washington was a unique character in that regard, setting term limits might be a chastening factor on our congressmen and women. Particularly since many are there for the plaudits and the clicks, and not to conduct the actual business of governing or making their country better.

Finally, Sasse pointed out that death is evil, but it is not the victor.

The Bible is so rich, and we spend so little time reading it together. Jesus weeps there, and He knows that he’s going to raise Lazarus five minutes later. So it’s an amazing story because He is acknowledging that death is terrible and yet death doesn’t win. The Christian phrase in Christian literature for years has been to call death the last enemy. “Jesus wept” — two words. “Last enemy” — two words. Pretty great. Death is a wicked thief. It’s an enemy, but it’s pretty great that it’s the last enemy. All the stuff that I regret for having been an inadequate husband and son and father and friend and worker, truth teller — all the stuff that I’ve been weak on, I’ll be freed from all of that. Death is the last enemy.

Ultimately, his message is to invest in what truly matters. Let God use you to love your family, your neighbors, and your friends well. Don’t make politics your entire identity, and certainly don’t waste life on unfettered ambition.

What an inspirational figure Ben Sasse is. Prayers for his family and for him as he faces a tough fight with the emperor of all maladies — cancer.