Tim Timmons: Cancer Battle Lends Him A New Perspective

In an exclusive interview with Mstars/ Hallels, Tim Timmons explained that his battle with cancer has given him a 'new perspective,' which has enriched his life in many ways and helped bring him closer to God.

Timmons was diagnosed with a rare form of slow-burning and incurable cancer 12 years ago, which is always waring out his heart.  It is a constant struggle and his doctors have recently found three new tumors.

His cancer-related experiences inspired Timmons to write the title track on his most recent album, 'Cast My Cares.'  "12 years ago I found out that I have incurable cancer and I still walk with it today," he said.  "And, we can all agree that cancer is stupid, but the learning is, what if God is still at work in and through my cancer?  What if He's still God and I'm not.  So, the idea of casting my cares on a God that's bigger than I am has just been the overarching theme in my life since the whole journey with cancer."

Timmons said he has found that a lot of people have wanted to make cancer his story.  "What I'm learning is, cancer is not my story.  The perspective through cancer is my story," he said.  "The gift of any kind of struggle and pain is perspective."

The diagnosis really changed his life completely and gave him a new passion to live for God.  "Its been a game-changer in that, I think stupid things, I say stupid things, I look at stupid things, but at some point every day I'm reminded of why I'm on this planet," Timmons said.  "The gift of perspective is the awareness of this moment.  I want to be in the presence of God.  This gift is saying, 'Okay, you've got today, this is what you've got, so are you going to try to follow Jesus today or are you just going to try and do your own thing today.'  It's kind of weird, the gift."

This new perspective has completely changed the way that Timmons views the world and has tested his faith as well as the faith of his family.  "I told my wife a couple years ago, I said, 'Honey, if you don't want to have kids because of my stuff; because they gave me five years to live at the beginning, 12 years ago.  So I said, 'If you don't want to have kids I get it, I totally get it,'" he said.  "And she said, 'Tim, we're going to live as though you're going to be healed.'  So, that's how we live, we live as though Jesus is going to heal me. And if He doesn't, He's still God and He's still good."

Timmons said that, rather than focusing on things that have happened in the past, he tries to focus on the present.  "I think original stories are great, but I don't think original stories matter," he said.  "I think it's more of a matter of, the one time doesn't mean as much, it's more about, am I following Jesus this week?  Am I following Jesus today?  I think that's actually pretty important.  We tend to have stories and we tend to tell out stories that were 20 years ago when the presence of God is not 20 years ago.  The presence of God isn't even ten minutes from now.  The presence of God is right here in this moment as we're on this interview.  I think that's more the question, am I following Jesus today?  And the answer is yes."

Timmons has taken his new perspective and applied it to his life on a daily basis.  It is both humbling and accompanied by a renewed sense of purpose.  "I've got nothing, I walk with Jesus and He's got stuff for me to do every day whether it's playing for the thousands of people or talking to a neighbor or just loving a neighbor that he is leading me to, that's the perspective," he said.