Brian Kim

Jeremiah 29:11 | The Determined Realist | Baylor 13' | Syracuse Law 19' | Petit a petit l'oiseau fait son nid | 🇰🇷🇺🇸| Follow 📸: @bubriankim

[Reuters @Reuters]

Syracuse hires former player Gerry McNamara as coach https://t.co/vJrQ2w0JHr https://t.co/vJrQ2w0JHr

[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

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

Please reply if you see this within 5 minutes of posting, but not later than that.

This is a test to determine how long it takes for users to receive notifications of 𝕏 posts on their actual device.

[Brian Kim @BUBrianKim]

@CafeGM_ @spacecoin

[Brian Kim @BUBrianKim]

@elonmusk I don’t think it’s as bad as 🇰🇷😇

[Brian Kim @BUBrianKim]

@ElTimidoTorero @RandomSprint @PaulSkallas It’s translated literally. The meaning is different in my opinion.

[Brian Kim @BUBrianKim]

It wasn't a thing just in the United States!

[CNBC @CNBC]

Twitter is down https://t.co/UaOIM0lLSE

[Brian Kim @BUBrianKim]

🇬🇧🛫🇰🇷

[Amanda Milling @amandamilling]

Landed in #Seoul for my first visit to South Korea 🇰🇷

Particular honour to attend upcoming inauguration of President Yoon as PM’s special representative 🇬🇧 🇰🇷

@UKinKorea

[Brian Kim @BUBrianKim]

🇺🇸🛫🇰🇷

[Douglas Emhoff Archived @SecondGent46]

We’re ready for take off and honored to be representing the United States at the inauguration of President-elect Yoon. See you soon, South Korea 🇰🇷

[sam @sam_d_1995]

would you look at that, another study showing that building more housing (even market rate housing!) lowers rents

exclusionary zoning is the cause of displacement and rent increases. more housing is the cure

[The Academy @TheAcademy]

It's official! #Oscars

[The New York Times @nytimes]

Yuh-Jung Youn became the first Korean woman in #Oscars history to win best supporting actress. Youn triumphed as the grandmother in Lee Isaac Chung’s "Minari." https://t.co/s87WcxlZ5b

[Vice President Kamala Harris Archived @VP46Archive]

To @BaylorMBB and all your fans: congrats on winning the #NCAATournament, and on a phenomenal year! To @ZagMBB: congrats on a great season as well.

[ESPN @espn]

For the first time in school history, @BaylorMBB is a No. 1 seed 🐻

[Baylor University @Baylor]

🛣️ I-35 UPDATE: The project has hit the halfway point!

Saturday night, TxDOT will shift southbound traffic to the newly completed mainlanes. Lots of changes during this time -- read up on the details below.

Details→ https://t.co/X0lpGBCf2J
Updates→ @TxDOTWaco #My35

[Archive: Lloyd J. Austin III @SecDefAustin]

Enjoyed my first call with my South Korean counterpart, Minister Suh Wook. The U.S.-ROK Alliance is among our most combined and capable military alliances, a linchpin to regional security. I look forward to working with him to make it even stronger. @ROK_MND

[ESPN College Football @ESPNCFB]

Nothing but Ws for the Big 12 this bowl season 🔥💪

[Ben Siegel @bensiegel]

Inbox: @SenThomTillis tests positive for COVID-19: "I will be following the recommendations of my doctor and will be self-isolating at home for 10 days and notifying those I’ve been in close contact with. Thankfully, I have no symptoms and I feel well."

[chris evans @notcapnamerica]

Nancy Pelosi has just been contacted by the White House on the protocols of continuity of government, according to MSNBC.

[Joe Biden @JoeBiden]

On behalf of Jill and our entire family, I want to wish the Korean-American community a happy Chuseok. May your celebrations be filled with laughter, joy, and plenty of good food. 행복한 한가위 보내세요!