"I am gonna die."
We all are.
Just before Christmas, former Sen. Ben Sasse announced that he has an advanced case of cancer and he's going to die soon.
At one point, people talked about Sasse as a potential Republican presidential candidate. I always thought that was a little crazy, but I did think he should be the civics teacher for the United States. His love of America is rooted in an understanding of the gift that our country provides to the world.
Just as I started to sit down to write this column, I got a prayer request about a dying infant who doesn't have a fully developed brain. Sometimes death happens that quickly. Sometimes it's a few decades in. But we all face it, and even though we all face it, it still hurts. It's still painful. It still is something we're not fully prepared for.
There are so many pressures in our lives. There are so many struggles, there are so many opportunities for depression. That's not quite the right word, and yet it is the reality of a lot of lives.
I write a lot about abortion because I know there are so many pressures in our culture. In our daily lives, we need to combat problems -- including, in no small part, the unexpected pregnancy, the child we are not prepared for.
Likewise, with assisted suicide, which my home state of New York is in the process of legalizing. How many of us feel like we are a burden because of whatever challenges we bring to the table? And then if we have an adverse diagnosis? If we have advanced cancer? We don't want to be a burden on others, especially the ones we love the most. At the same time, we are called to live each day to the fullest, with faith that each day, each hour, each minute, each second, has meaning.
Christmas is often celebrated way too quickly in places like New York City. You see Christmas trees on the street the day after Christmas. Please hang on to Christmas.
God himself became one of us to save us.
The birth of our Lord is a testimony to how much he loves us, and even if you're not Christian, it's an invitation to understand that human life is precious and rooted in something beyond ourselves.
We are creations and this changes everything.
Please pray for Sasse and his family, and look up some of his speeches on the Senate floor, because his capacity for gratitude is something we need to reconnect with. That's why I was open to him being president -- because that platform is like none other. Sasse has a love for the United States of America that could transform the way we live our civic lives. And that is the gift he has given to us.
I pray for miracles for Sasse, and I pray for miracles for us -- that the time he has spent here will bear so much fruit for us, because the world needs renewal. This nation is a gift, and we're cynically losing that appreciation. Let's not. God bless the Sasse family and the America they love.
(Kathryn Jean Lopez is senior fellow at the National Review Institute, editor-at-large of National Review magazine and author of the new book "A Year With the Mystics: Visionary Wisdom for Daily Living." She is also chair of Cardinal Dolan's pro-life commission in New York, and is on the board of the University of Mary. She can be contacted at klopez@nationalreview.com.)