Former U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse is confronting what he has called a “death sentence” with striking candor, reflecting on faith, mortality and the reshaping of priorities after being diagnosed with metastatic Stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
In a nearly hour-long interview published Wednesday on Sola Media’s YouTube channel, Sasse spoke openly about the gravity of his condition. “Once we got diagnosed, we knew that the probability of a relatively near-term death is pretty high,” he said during a conversation with Michael Horton and former Justice Department official Dan Bryant.
Sasse revealed in December that he had received the diagnosis, describing pancreatic cancer at that stage as terminal. In the new interview, he emphasized that from the outset, he and his wife, Melissa, experienced an unexpected sense of peace.
“To live is Christ, to die is gain,” Sasse said, quoting the Apostle Paul. “We felt amazingly blessed that Melissa, my wife, and I immediately were at peace about all this.”
Still, that peace has existed alongside a sense of responsibility — particularly as parents. While two of their children are adults, their 14-year-old son remains at home. “You felt like you had an obligation to try to fight a little bit,” Sasse said, describing the tension between acceptance and perseverance.
The former Nebraska senator, who served from 2015 until early 2023 before becoming president of the University of Florida, said his faith has framed his understanding of suffering and mortality. Before entering politics, Sasse had ties to Christian academic and media circles, including serving as director of White Horse Inn and executive editor of Modern Reformation at Sola Media.
In the interview, he spoke about reassessing his life in light of eternity. “The foolishness of our works are pretty apparent to you when you try to really look at the accounting of a life,” he said. “Jesus did everything on the cross to fulfill the whole law. I fulfilled none of it. He fulfilled all of it.”
Sasse described enduring severe pain from tumors that have grown in and around his spinal column. That suffering, he said, has clarified what matters and stripped away attachments to achievements and self-reliance.
“It definitely shattered idols really fast,” he explained. “Lots of dumb stuff that I cared too much about, and I was too self-reliant about, seemed really pointless.”
He also expressed regret over not placing greater emphasis on spiritual disciplines earlier in life, particularly observing the Sabbath. “Man, I wish I’d taken the Lord’s Day more seriously more in my life, because it’s a really good antidote to all those idolatries,” he said, adding that “God smashing idols for us is a blessing.”
After leaving the Senate, Sasse became president of the University of Florida, stepping down in 2024 following his wife’s epilepsy diagnosis. Now, as he faces his own life-threatening illness, Sasse’s reflections center less on public service and more on eternal questions — faith, family and what remains when everything else falls away.
