by Allan Miller, Executive Director

Sometimes the deepest struggles are the ones we do not fully recognize until their weight begins to affect everything around us.

As you read Shane’s story below, you may find yourself — or someone you love — reflected somewhere in his journey. My prayer is that his testimony would encourage those who feel lost, weary, or stuck to take a step toward the healing and hope that Christ offers.

When Shane Daniels began The Good Fight as an online participant in 2024, he described himself as being “in a season of wilderness and despair” in his marriage.

Though he had followed Christ since junior high, served faithfully in church, and spent years growing in theology and Scripture knowledge, Shane says he had become blind to the deeper pride, passivity, wounds, and sin issues that were quietly affecting both his heart and his relationships.

“It seemed so sudden when the season of wilderness hit us,” Shane shared, “but now that I can look back with clarity and discernment, it was a death by a thousand cuts sort of thing.”

As counseling conversations with his pastor began exposing some of those realities, Shane realized there was far more happening beneath the surface than he had understood.

“I knew I needed help, I knew I needed healing,” he explained. “I had plenty of background in theology, serving in church, men’s groups, etc., but I was totally unaware of the damage my sin had done to my heart throughout my life and the baggage that I brought from it to my marriage.”

One of the things God used most powerfully to soften Shane’s heart to pursue healing was watching the transformation in his wife, Hannah, after she completed The Hem of His Garment through Healing Hearts the year before.

“The fact that she was taking action toward healing and was willing to go through the discomfort of revisiting wounds from her past in order to begin healing, deeply impacted me,” Shane said.

“I also saw a deepening love for God’s Word in her as well as a deepening dependence on God.”

That growing dependence on Christ caught his attention and ultimately led him to begin The Good Fight himself.

At first, Shane admits he approached the study expecting something dramatic and immediate.

“I had this expectation that I was going to go through the study and then have this big miraculous healing and all of my problems were going to go away,” he shared.

“What God surprised me with, though, was that the process was more methodical, intentional, and I had to ACTIVELY participate with God in the study.”

That realization became a turning point.

Rather than experiencing superficial behavior modification or temporary emotional relief, Shane says the study began exposing the deeper root issues of sin, pride, brokenness, and misplaced affections of the heart.

One of the themes that emerged regularly throughout Shane’s testimony was the difference between simply knowing truth intellectually and truly embracing it at the heart level.

“I knew it in my head, but I did not really know it well enough in my heart for it to truly transform me and my thinking.”

In fact, one of the most impactful moments of the study came during a lesson focused on the suffering of Christ.

“As a lifelong churchgoer and longtime follower of Jesus, I had taken for granted what Jesus actually had to go through for me to pay for my sin,” Shane shared.

As he slowly worked through Scripture, reflected honestly on his own sin, and walked through the study with a Healing Hearts Certified Biblical Counselor, the Gospel became deeply personal again.

“Going through that unit and poring over the details of what my sin really cost the Son of God, softened my heart to Him again,” Shane explained.

“It made me truly realize that Jesus does understand anything and everything I have ever gone through.”

What Shane did not expect was that God would eventually use his own healing journey to open a door for ministry to other men.

After completing The Good Fight, Shane’s Healing Hearts counselor recommended him for leadership training — an invitation Shane had not been anticipating.

“It wasn’t on my radar. I certainly was not expecting a recommendation for leadership training. But I took it in faith as a divine appointment that I should not pass up.”

After graduating from leadership training in December 2025, Shane began serving men in his local church as a Healing Hearts counselor for The Good Fight — helping other men experience the same kind of Gospel-centered healing and discipleship that had once helped him.

That heart-level transformation is one of the reasons Shane says The Good Fight felt very different from other men’s groups or counseling experiences he had participated in previously.

“Going through The Good Fight was uniquely different because it was solely focused on ministering to me,” he said.

“The Good Fight allowed me the space and margin to open up about my sin and brokenness in ways that I wouldn’t have been able to completely in men’s groups, simply due to constraints with time and other people.”

“And The Good Fight got to the heart of where I needed healing.”

Shane also emphasized the importance of having a Healing Hearts Certified Biblical Counselor personally walking alongside him throughout the process.

“Having a counselor held me accountable to stay faithful to the study and to keep me engaged in it,” he shared.

“He also posed deep questions to reflect on — heart-searching type questions that force you to be honest with God and yourself.”

“Walking alongside other men in The Good Fight with their struggles has been nothing short of edifying,” Shane shared.

“To see a man clinging to Christ as his only hope and joy when literally everything else around him is falling apart encourages me to want to cling to Christ even more.”

As we talked with Shane, one particular statement stood out to me. He said many men avoid opening up because they have “bought the lie that vulnerability and transparency are signs of weakness.”

Yet true healing begins when men honestly bring their brokenness before God.

When asked what he would say to a man who feels hesitant about beginning a study like this, Shane pointed back to the question Jesus asked the invalid at the pool of Bethesda in John 5:6:

“Do you want to be healed?”

How about you, dear reader? Do you want to be healed?

Or is there someone you have been praying for who needs the healing touch Jesus offers?

Let Shane’s story encourage you that there is hope and healing available through God’s Word — and there are trained men and women ready to walk with you through that journey in one of Healing Hearts’ studies.

❤️‍🩹 Pray for men, like Shane, to experience true heart transformation through Christ — not merely outward behavior change, but genuine freedom, healing, and renewed joy in the Gospel.

📣 Pray for effective opportunities to spread awareness about our Men’s Studies and discipleship ministry, including our upcoming exhibit opportunity at the Answers for Pastors & Ministry Leaders Conference this fall.

⚖️ Pray for wisdom, discernment, and provision as we continue seeking the right Men’s Ministry Director to help shepherd and grow this important branch of Healing Hearts.

Please also pray for our preparation for the next outreach opportunities in 2026, that these events would open doors to connect with biblical counselors, pastors, and churches seeking to equip their people with gospel-centered care:

Thank you for praying, giving, and standing with us.

Stories like Shane’s are possible because faithful supporters make it possible for hurting men and women to receive intentional, Gospel-centered discipleship through Healing Hearts Certified Biblical Counselors.

Your partnership helps create opportunities for real heart transformation, restored relationships, and lives increasingly anchored in Christ.

With Gratitude,

Allan Miller
Executive Director