A Dying Senator’s 4 Regrets Will Make You Rethink Life

Sasse is only 54. May God be merciful to him and bring him out of his protestant heresy into the True Faith before he faces the Judgement.

From Aleteia

By Theresa Civantos Barber

Recently diagnosed with terminal cancer, former senator Ben Sasse shared some things he wishes he'd done differently.

"Live  as though you were dying" — it’s a common catchphrase. But what’s the reality behind it?

Former senator Ben Sasse has found out since his diagnosis with terminal cancer at the end of 2025. Rather than keep the news private, Sasse felt “called” to share his experiences and reflections.

“I did not decide to die in public,” he recently told Ross Douthat of The New York Times. “I obviously ended up with a calling to die.”

While he’s here, Sasse has a message to share — things he wishes he would have done differently, things he should have prioritized. His message is an important one for all of us looking to live a more meaningful life.

His message is going viral, as he shares it not only on his podcast — called “Not Dead Yet,” from a Monty Python sketch — but also most recently in this interview with Douthat.

Douthat spoke with Sasse on his podcast, “Interesting Times,” in an episode published April 9 called “Ben Sasse on How to Live While Dying” (also summarized in the Times’ accompanying article). 

While the hour-long interview covers a wide range of topics, one part in particular is being widely shared in social media clips — and for good reason. That’s the part where Douthat asks Sasse what advice he might give his younger self. 

His response? Not what you might expect.

Keeping holy the Sabbath

The number one thing Sasse would have done differently? He told Douthat:

Number one: Honor the Sabbath and keep it holy. Man, I wish I'd treated the Lord's Day differently over the course of my life. We've been at the Sunday worship every morning forever. But man, am I tempted by 12:45 or 1:30 in the afternoon to get back to work, or to an addictive level of work about the NFL.

Prioritizing Sundays as “the Lord’s day” is something many people don’t even think about. 

But how would our lives change if we set apart this day? If we made it feel special and sacred? 

Sasse thinks it’s worth finding out.

Time with family

He listed three other things he would have done differently — and all of them boiled down to more time with loved ones. He said:  

1Make family dinners a priority

Dinnertime is precious. Man, lock up your devices and keep them away from the table and prioritize that time. 

2Put a limit on work travel

There is a limit to how many trips a month are really worth it. I lived a road warrior life for a long time, and I kind of had a rule of thumb that seven nights a month at a hotel was the ceiling, but boy, there's a difference between seven and nine, and there's a difference between seven and five, and I took way, way, way, way too many trips ...

3Live near family

You know, family compounds. Like, man, have more cousins and figure out how to live thick with them. There are so many times when we optimize around things that are not nearly as important as more family thickness. Boy, I wish we lived down the block from my folks. 

God first, then family. Everything else after that. 

His message feels “back to basics,” but it takes on a new gravity when we hear it from a man who knows how little time he has left.

Our prayers are with Sasse and his loved ones as he navigates his diagnosis and the excruciating treatments — and we are grateful he’s sharing his wisdom with the rest of us.