Update from Tim
Sunday, December 7, 2025
In much of the Christian tradition, the season of Advent serves as our time of marking a new year. It is a time of preparation and anticipation awaiting the incarnation of Emanuel, God with us.
It’s also a time when we consider the end of time as we know it, when our familiar world concludes and creation is reborn.
This Advent season and its deeper meaning are vividly illustrated this season in the form of a personal health crisis.
On December 5th, after experiencing some numbness in my left arm, I presented myself at the Edward’s Elmhurst Urgent Care in my hometown of Lombard, Illinois.
Subsequently I was sent to Elmhurst Hospital for a closer examination.
At the Emergency Room intake desk, my entire left side became numb. My phone and wallet dropped from my hand onto the carpet and the ER staff sprung into action.
In a few hours the numbness subsided and I found myself being evacuated to Naperville’s Edward’s Hospital in one of those fancy transport ambulances staffed with four highly trained EMT’s. Naperville has a specialized neurocritical care unit.
Thus began a journey of high tech diagnostic exams, visits by loving family and friends, and an overwhelming outpouring of expert nursing, technician and physician care.
Basically they determined that I had a small bleed on the surface of my brain.
As anyone who has been hospitalized knows, all semblance of prideful modesty goes out the window as you don that embarrassing but practical hospital gown. The various tubes and sensors mean that you have to ask for permission to go to the bathroom.
Hourly evaluations to make sure that your brain is still functioning means little sleep.
And so the waiting begins. When can I eat? When is the procedure? When is the doctor coming by? When will this end?
Advent. Anticipation. Lessons in gratitude and patience.
Outside my hospital window I enjoyed a brief sunrise before
December clouds obscured it.
It was a hopeful sign. For hope is also an important part of Advent. Hope that God is with us. Hope that we have a future beyond this thin mortal veil.
Monumental thanks to my loving spouse Julie, our amazing kids and grandchildren, the dedicated health care professionals who continue to tend to my every need, for insurance that will hopefully pay for all of this, for faithful friends who keep showing up to pray read scripture and offer cheer, including my dear friend Kevin who drove all the way from St. Louis to be with me.
Thanks to all of my clients who are hanging with me during this Advent downtime until I can get back on my feet and continue to help tell their stories.
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