An Incurable Diagnosis and a Decision: Give Up Now or Trust God

Tim Timmons has always lived a life of adventure, but it took an incurable cancer diagnosis to teach him what it really means to be awake.

At twenty-five, Tim and his wife, Hilary, were serving in youth ministry at a large Southern California church when unexplained symptoms sent him to the doctor. After a series of tests, the young couple received devastating news: Tim had an incurable cancer and was given five years to live.

That was more than twenty years ago.

Instead of defining the end of his story, the diagnosis became the beginning of a different one. Through songs marked by honesty, humor, and hope, Tim has spent the last two decades pointing people toward the everyday practice of following Jesus. Beyond music, he founded 10,000 Minutes, a nonprofit and podcast built around a simple idea: faith isn't meant to be confined to Sunday mornings but lived in the 10,000 minutes of the week that follow.

“The gift of cancer is perspective," Tim shares, “It’s really the open door to speak into people’s stories.” That perspective is at the heart of Waking Up Again. This is not a book about cancer. It is a book about waking up to the gift of today, discovering the presence of Jesus when life feels fragile, and learning that grief and gratitude can exist together.

 After their diagnosis upended every expectation, Tim and Hilary found themselves asking deeper questions than how to survive. They began discovering what it looks like to trust God in ordinary moments, embrace joy without denying sorrow, and practice the way of Jesus in everyday life. As Tim writes, his perspective shifted from let’s “not work for God but join him in what he is already doing.”

With humility, vulnerability, and surprising humor, Tim invites readers into that same journey. Through personal stories and practical reflection, Waking Up Again offers an invitation to move beyond simply "doing church" and into a life fully awake to God's presence.

Whether you're walking through suffering, wrestling with uncertainty, or simply wondering if there is more to following Jesus than checking religious boxes, Waking Up Again reminds readers that the deepest life is often found in the places we never would have chosen.

I Can Only Imagine 2

Tim's story also reached the big screen in I Can Only Imagine 2. Inspired by the true events surrounding his friendship with MercyMe's Bart Millard, the film follows Bart as he navigates the pressures of success while Tim's unwavering hope and perspective reshapes his understanding of faith, family, and gratitude. Based on the story behind the hit song "Even If," the film explores how God meets people in the middle of suffering and transforms it into hope.

Greatest desire

Tim has spent more than two decades helping people discover the everyday life found in Jesus. Whether through music, writing, speaking, or his own cancer journey, his greatest desire is simple: to help people wake up to the presence of God and practice following Jesus one ordinary day at a time.

Each day begins with a simple practice: drawing an ‘X’ on his wrist. The X would serve as a daily reminder to let his kingdom fall so that the only one standing was Jesus’. As this daily practice continued the writing of the X came to mean three things to Tim: Thankful that God gave him another day, Letting his kingdom fall so that God’s alone stood, and third, a reminder to engage whatever 10,000 minutes practice he is meant to lean into that week with Jesus.

Seeing Jesus and becoming more like Jesus is the heart cry throughout Waking Up Again. At the end of each thematic section Tim offers simple practices to take into the daily life of the reader. Practices that aid in building community like Jesus, ways to lean into trusting God, lessons learned only through suffering and the beauty it can usher in.