Patrick Hart

Christ, Texas A&M, Sports, Politics.

Be lovers of freedom and anxious for the fray - The Federalist

[Warren Sharp @SharpFootball]

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[Ben Sasse @BenSasse]

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. But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do.

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.

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. During the past year, as we’d temporarily stepped back from public life and built new family rhythms, Melissa and I have grown even closer — and that on top of three decades of the best friend a man could ever have. Seven months ago, Corrie was commissioned into the Air Force and she’s off at instrument and multi-engine rounds of flight school. Last week, Alex kicked butt graduating from college a semester early even while teaching gen chem, organic, and physics (she’s a freak). This summer, 14-year-old Breck started learning to drive. (Okay, we’ve been driving off-book for six years — but now we’ve got paper to make it street-legal.) I couldn’t be more grateful to constantly get to bear-hug this motley crew of sinners and saints.

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.

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.” To be clear, optimism is great, and it’s absolutely necessary, but it’s insufficient. It’s not the kinda thing that holds up when you tell your daughters you’re not going to walk them down the aisle. Nor telling your mom and pops they’re gonna bury their son.

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.

Remembering Isaiah’s prophecies of what’s to come doesn’t dull the pain of current sufferings. But it does put it in eternity’s perspective:
“When we've been there 10,000 years…We've no less days to sing God's praise.”

I’ll have more to say. I’m not going down without a fight. One sub-part of God’s grace is found in the jawdropping advances science has made the past few years in immunotherapy and more. Death and dying aren’t the same — the process of dying is still something to be lived. We’re zealously embracing a lot of gallows humor in our house, and I’ve pledged to do my part to run through the irreverent tape.

But for now, as our family faces the reality of treatments, but more importantly as we celebrate Christmas, we wish you peace: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned….For to us a son is given” (Isaiah 9).

With great gratitude, and with gravelly-but-hopeful voices,
Ben — and the Sasses

[Old Row Sports @OldRowSports]

$25 student tickets for a CFP game

Texas A&M is doing it right!

[Meredith Seaver @MeredithSeaver]

The 2025 Bonfire features two logs donated by the Upper Guadalupe River Authority out of Kerrville, TX. Members of Student Bonfire volunteered clearing debris and with search and rescue efforts in Kerr County following the July 4th floods in Central Texas.

[TexAgs @TexAgs]

Taurean York on A&M's three penalties: "That's what's up. We are about to get golf carts back in the parking garage."

York explained that he asked Elko for golf carts to bring the players and their families to the parking garage after games. Elko told York that if they got four or fewer penalties and won, he would. York will be sure to follow up on that 🤣

[Three Year Letterman @3YearLetterman]

Trump needs to slap a tariff on college football games that don’t kick off on time

[SEC Mike @MichaelWBratton]

Lane Kiffin shares his thoughts on Ole Miss vs. Washington State:

"First-place SEC team versus first-place Pac-12 team."

"Cross country classic."

😂

[Barstool Texas A&M @BarstoolTexasAM]

This place is special.

[Carter Karels @CarterKarels]

Saw this #sickedit on TikTok. Taurean York’s play recognition vs. Auburn was on another level. Such a smart linebacker.

[College Sports Only @CSOonX]

USC & Michigan State play for the 1st time as conference opponents on Saturday night.

We demand a Trojan Horse rivalry trophy by kickoff.

[Kyle Mann @The_Kyle_Mann]

C.S. Lewis on doomscrolling on Twitter:

"And Nothing is very strong: strong enough to steal away a man’s best years not in sweet sins but in a dreary flickering of the mind over it knows not what and knows not why, in the gratification of curiosities so feeble that the man is only half aware of them, in drumming of fingers and kicking of heels, in whistling tunes that he does not like, or in the long, dim labyrinth of reveries that have not even lust or ambition to give them a relish, but which, once chance association has started them, the creature is too weak and fuddled to shake off."

[Texas A&M Football @AggieFootball]

Happy Fourth of July, #12thMan! 🇺🇸

[Black Rifle Coffee @blckriflecoffee]

We believe that D-Day, June 6th, should be a national holiday.

May we be blessed with the courage of the men that fought this day 81 years ago.

[Section 203 Raggies @OlsenSection203]

Hot take here: but Big fan here of “no cell service” during an athletic event.

Makes a fanbase REALLY lock in.

Same thing with RAIN GAMES.

Usually for roster cards we can count on @aggiediamonds to get us scorecards/printed rosters.

[Templar⚔️ @aTeXan575]

Nothing like Peanuts and ZZ Top 😂

[House of Highlights @HoHighlights]

Iconic.

[San Antonio Spurs @spurs]

Thank you, Coach Pop, for your brilliance on and off the court. We look forward to our next chapter together.

[Barstool Sports @barstoolsports]

Pop is moving on from coaching

LEGEND

[Josh Pate @JoshPateCFB]

Life is worth the living just because He lives

Happy Resurrection Sunday ✝️🤝