Dr. Tim Drinkwine

“Worship is not just a response. It is a weapon in the battle… Worship shifts our focus from what’s wrong to WHO reigns.” - @JohnPrivett

“History is not spiraling. It is being steered (by God).” - @JohnPrivett

It is not how you start. It is how you finish. We all must remember: we are NEVER out of it. Keep pushing. Keep moving. Keep going. No. Matter. What.

GIANT road W ⚓️⚓️⚓️

Thomas Watson (1657), on morning screen habits: “He that loses his heart in the morning in the world, will hardly find it again all the day after.”

When I was a classroom teacher, I used to have a sign in my classroom that covered the clock that read… “The Time is Now!” ⏰ “Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow, not some more convenient season. It is today that our best work can be done.“ -W.E.B. Du Bois

Google Troy Aikman. Scroll down to his Wikipedia. Click on it. Scroll down to “Early Life.” Click on that. Read about an accolade in High School and be as surprised as I was. You’re welcome. #TroyAikman

Good stuff to begin your year… *Hope in a Time of Cynicism* nytimes.com/2026/01/01/bri… Well done, Lauren Jackson, of the @nytimes

@aria_gerson Headed down on Tuesday. Looking forward to it. #AnchorDown 🟡⚫️

Are you a Vandy fan? Did you travel to Tampa from out of town for the ReliaQuest Bowl? I want to hear from you. Email: agerson@gannett.com

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

God. You are so so good. Your unmerited favor is overwhelming. I am so thankful for you and your grace.

@BradWilcoxIFS @UVA @_HamptonU @drantbradley I follow you for content like this. Thoughts?

1. Striking new @UVA @_HamptonU study finds: ✔️ Dads matter more for boys' school behavior, girls' emotional wellbeing ✔️ No racial gap in school performance for black & white kids in intact, father-present homes ✔️ Share of kids in father-present homes has stabilized in VA

THE VANDY BOYS ARE 2025 SEC BASEBALL TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONS!!!

YOUR VANDERBILT COMMODORES ARE SEC CHAMPIONS

⚾️ 2025 SEC BASEBALL TOURNAMENT CHAMPS ⚓️ @VandyBoys #SECBSB x #SECTourney

“Perceive and rejoice that life is abundant, that beauty and goodness are amply available…” -Paul Hodges

He is Risen.#Glory

The tomb is EMPTY!! CHRIST IS KING!!!

He is Risen.

He is Lord, He is Lord. He has risen from the dead and He is Lord. Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess… That Jesus Christ is Lord.