Mistie Webb

Florida | Instagram: @mistielynn._ | @UFJSchool | Reporter for @WCJB20 |

[Florida Panthers @FlaPanthers]

Brady Tkachuk is a Florida Panther.

[Robert Bradfield @RobertBReports]

BREAKING: Family of 6 die in house fire in Dixie County, relatives confirm https://t.co/GzccsH9ta0

[AmericanPapaBear™ @AmericaPapaBear]

“To the Americans who are upset about what happened to Maduro in Venezuela, Your opinion does not matter.”

People in Venezuela are celebrating and that is all that matters!

I still haven’t seen one person who is Venezuelan or lives in Venezuela, who is upset that Maduro is out.

[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

[Mistie Webb @mistiewebb00]

Florida farmers are sounding the alarm. Alachua’s Steven Davis says delays in the H-2A program mean his legal workers may not arrive in time and the missed window could wipe out his entire crop worth millions of dollars, pointing to government shutdowns.

More on @WCJB20 tonight

[Debra Lea @thedebralea]

Instead of sharing the horrific, vile, & heart-stopping video of Charlie Kirk being shot, I urge you to share images of his beautiful family whose worst nightmare has come true.

Every kid deserves a dad.
Every wife deserves a husband.
Every American needs Charlie Kirk.

[kira 👾 @kirawontmiss]

Charlie Kirk is a father and a husband. He is a human. I don’t care if you politically disagree with him nothing justifies this sick act.

[B/R Open Ice @BR_OpenIce]

Brad Marchand is signing a 6-year contract extension worth $32M total to stay with the Panthers, per @FriedgeHNIC

[JACOB SEDESSE @JACOBSEDESSE]

couldn’t fit these in my most recent insta post because they’re vertical but @mistiewebb00 did her thing

[InAllKindsOfWeather.com @AllKindsWeather]

WOW.

The Florida Board of Governors has VETOED the hiring of new UF President Santa Ono.

It's the first time EVER that the Board of Governors has vetoed an incoming President of UF.

[Mistie Webb @mistiewebb00]

@theselouboutins We were so funny idc

[Mistie Webb @mistiewebb00]

@JACOBSEDESSE 🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍

[Mistie Webb @mistiewebb00]

Burnt out. Unhappy. Constantly anxious. Tired. Overwhelmed. Stressed. I’ve crashed out maybe twice per week at this point in my life… but trying to find contentment in the now… :/

[Mistie Webb @mistiewebb00]

Sorry just casual mid life crisis at the ripe age of almost 22

[Ocala Police @ocalapd]

CUTEST RESCUE EVER! 🐱🚓 #OcalaPD Sgt. Young saved a kitten stuck under a car engine with help from a mail carrier and his car jack! The kitten is safe! ❤️

Video credit: Ocala Downtown Diner

[Mistie Webb @mistiewebb00]

Me bcuz the last 3 times I deposited money into my hard rock account I lost it all because my bets refuse to hit…

[Mistie Webb @mistiewebb00]

Ethereal. And JUST LIKE THAT the Florida Gators made some history! First natty title since 2007 and boy am I in awe. So blessed to be able to call myself a UF alumni and now be able to cover such an exciting time for many. GO GATORS FOREVER 💙🧡💙🧡 @WCJB20

[Mistie Webb @mistiewebb00]

The nerves are HITTING for gator fans here at the O’Connell center but of course… this will always ease the nerves. @WCJB20

[OLD ROW GATORS 🐊 @OldRowGators]

This is one of the best pictures I’ve ever seen in my life 🥹

[Mistie Webb @mistiewebb00]

@JACOBSEDESSE The animatronics in epic are insane.