Kendall Magaña

Son | Husband | Father | Pastor

[Sean Brock @MBACoachBrock]

Great “Word of the Week” from @KEMagana speaking to @MBAFootball today. Football is not a God, it is a gift and it does not define you! Embrace and enjoy playing the game tomorrow night with your best friends. #Team128

[Equity Sports @EquitySports]

Congratulations @PatrickTaylorJr on signing an extension with the @49ers 🔥

[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

[Murray State Baseball @RacersBaseball]

Thank you, Omaha. Thank you, America. 🫶

What a run, what a season.

#GoRacers🏇

[SportsCenter @SportsCenter]

FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER, MURRAY STATE IS GOING TO THE MEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIES‼️🤯

[Murray State Baseball @RacersBaseball]

THE RACERS ARE SUPER REGIONAL BOUND ‼️

#GoRacers 🏇

[NFL @NFL]

Is your state a 2025 football factory?

[Los Angeles Dodgers @Dodgers]

Today, we celebrate the life, the legacy and the legend. Jackie Robinson, an impact that will live on forever. Thank you, Jackie. #Jackie42

[ESPN @espn]

“It goes way beyond the baseball field."

Hunter Greene honors Jackie Robinson's impact and continues his message for the next generation 💙

#JackieRobinsonDay

[Kalshi Football @KalshiFB]

When College Gameday came to Memphis in 2019 👀

[Kendall Magaña @KEMagana]

“To grow in grace… flows from using the gospel of grace on the root of our sin — mistrust in God’s goodness and inordinate love of other things.” - Tim Keller

[Gospel in Life @gospelinlife]

Don’t ask whether Christianity is relevant, even though it is.

Don’t ask whether Christianity is an adventure, even though it certainly is.

Don’t ask if Christianity is exciting and life-changing, even though it certainly is.

Ask if it’s true. – @timkellernyc

[Scotty Smith @ScottyWardSmith]

To say, “Jesus is enough” isn’t a cliché to deny our raw feelings, psyche ourselves up, or (for sure) not in an attempt to fix struggling friends. At its best, “Jesus is enough” is spoken by those with 1st hand experience of it, life-wounds, kind hearts, and deep empathy.

[Justin Taylor @between2worlds]

A wonderful quote from Tertullian:

https://t.co/SEtXuMYz4c

[Kendall Magaña @KEMagana]

“It wasn’t me it was the Lord, I always told him I trust you, I don’t know where to go or what to do but I expect you to lead me. And he always did.” - Harriet Tubman

[Kendall Magaña @KEMagana]

Is the transfer portal open to Cowboys fans?… Asking for a friend.

[Cameron Magruder @ScooterMagruder]

Had a nightmare last night the Cowboys lost to the Packers

[Matt Smethurst @MattSmethurst]

“The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deut. 33:27).

Take a deep breath and rest in him today.

[Green Bay Packers @packers]

"You gotta be ready for your opportunity."

@PatrickTaylorJr was preparing for the holiday season in New England.

However, injuries at the RB position brought him & his experience with the #Packers' offense back to Green Bay. 📰 https://t.co/HKaLktDiGW