Bonus Content | Surviving Our Crucible: A Journey of Faith

Most of us live with fear lurking beneath the surface, controlling our choices without our awareness. For Danny Williams, it took his daughter's devastating cancer diagnosis – a prognosis with just 5-10% survival odds – to begin the brutal process of confronting this hidden controller. 

This raw, vulnerable conversation explores what he calls "the crucible" – a three-year period that ground away everything he thought defined him. His 12-year lawn care business collapsed, depression and dark thoughts threatened to consume him, and the future seemed impossibly dim. Yet somehow, from these ashes emerged something unexpected: freedom.

The turning point arrived through a seemingly simple memory of his young son frozen in fear at a swimming spot, unable to jump from a bridge despite his father's encouragement. "Do you trust me?" he had asked his son, "When do I tell you to do things that will hurt you?" In that moment of recollection, he realized those were exactly the questions God was asking him about his own fear-paralyzed life.

What follows is a remarkable story of transformation – not just of survival, but of renewal. His daughter, now seven years post-diagnosis without tumor growth for nearly six years, stands as a living miracle. Meanwhile, Danny finds himself called back to the very industry that once broke him, but with a fundamental difference: "The first time I called you into this, you did it on your own... what I want you to do, I want you to do it with me." For anyone navigating life's darkest valleys or feeling trapped by invisible fears, this conversation offers a powerful reminder that sometimes losing everything becomes the first step toward finding what truly matters.

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Growing up, we all had those moments in nature that stuck with us—whether it was a quiet walk in the woods or a grand adventure. On Natural Obsession, it’s our desire to bring those moments to life. As we talk to people from all walks of life we will learn how they fell in love with the outdoors, the different ways they enjoy it today, and explore how we can work together to ensure these spaces are around for years to come. It’s all about sharing memories from the outdoors and ensuring future generations can make their own.

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Episode Transcript

Danny (00:02):
seven years ago, what we call our crucible started.
My daughter was diagnosed witha cancer that they said she had
five to ten percent chance ofsurviving beyond like three
years or so.
This period of time, thiscrucible, was like this.
You know this grinding down ofeverything that I needed to be
rid of.
Coming out of that, I had thisencounter with Jesus.

Daniel (00:27):
Our podcast Natural Obsession is a heartfelt
exploration of the outdoors andthe stories that connect us to
it.
We sit down with adventurers,conservationists and other
interesting individuals whoshare what nature meant to them
growing up, how it's changed andwhy it's worth protecting.
By weaving together past andpresent, we hope to inspire
people to fall in love with ournatural spaces and take steps to

(00:48):
ensure they thrive forgenerations to come.

Danny (00:56):
God led me to that and there would be a whole lot to
unpack to get to that point.
But 15, I'm terrible timelines,I'm like the world's worst.
But somewhere around 15 plusyears ago I started a business
and it was a lawn landscapebusiness, primarily with, like,

(01:18):
maintaining existing lawns andlandscapes and all that kind of
stuff and people.
That's what got me startedthere People and wanting to,
just wanting to have somethingto do with my life, you know.
And so at that point in time,like I was deepening my
relationship with God and tryingto learn and listen and follow,

(01:41):
and when I started thatbusiness, like the thing that
prompted me to do it is, Iactually felt like that was that
was my means to um, to ministerto the world, like the people
that would work for I had some Ifelt like some really good
bosses and some not so good ones, and I wanted to give people a
really good place to work.
I wanted to, um, you know, uh,treat my clients really well,

(02:06):
and so I just thought that was.
It felt like that was the avenuethat I needed to take, and I
will say that I have had alwaysdealt with a lot of fear, like
in every aspect of my life andso I carried that into the
business and I tended to play atwhat I thought was safe, which
was like the work that I don'tthink I.
I tended to play at what Ithought was safe, which was like
the work that I don't I don'tthink I was really meant to

(02:29):
pursue.
It was like I was banging myhead against the wall, doing all
the things that weren't reallyfor me.
Um, it didn't give me acreative outlet and I know now,
uh, after some healing has come,that like God created me with a
lot of creativity, you know,and so you know, we, about six

(02:49):
years ago, six, well, sevenyears ago our what we call our
crucible started.
My, my daughter, was diagnosedwith a cancer that they said she
had five to 10% chance ofsurviving beyond like three
years or so.
She's seven years since thatpoint now and she hasn't had any

(03:10):
tumor growth in like probablyfive and a half or six years.

Daniel (03:13):
That's awesome.

Danny (03:14):
She has a lot of, you know, issues from the radiation
and all that kind of stuff, butshe's smart as a whip and you
know she's our miracle.
So we had, like we had that andsome other things happen that
caused a lot of things that Ihad built my identity on to be

(03:37):
stripped away and you're forcedto face things, you know.
So, coming out of that three,four year period where we
managed not to lose our daughter, thank God, but we did lose a
business that I had spent 12years building and I
internalized that, as you know,I was a failure and then I'd

(03:58):
also been, I dealt with, youknow, a whole, a whole host of
like inner things.
You know suicidality,depression, all those things for
a long time.
And so this period of time,this crucible, was like this you
know this grinding down ofeverything that I needed to,
that I needed to be rid of, andthen we started kind of healing

(04:19):
after that.
And so, um, man, you know thestories that there's so many,
there's so many instances andthings I get into there.
But coming out of that and thenhaving this encounter with and
I know this isn't the fog thistype of podcast, but like yeah
man, like.
I had this encounter with Jesus,like is, and and I'll tell that

(04:41):
story real quick, because I'lljust tell like.
So I had met a guy.
I'd known him before but I raninto him.
It was a fortuitous thing andlong story short, we had a
conversation and I asked him ifhe would be willing to mentor or
disciple me, because I'd neverhad that.
This was just a few years ago.
Um, and so he agreed and on ourvery first meeting, you know,

(05:03):
we started.
We started, uh, trying to justdo some listening prayer to see,
like, oh, what does God have to, you know, to speak to you?
And I thought that was a littleweird, um, I wasn't comfortable
with it.
And but I was like, well, shoot, you know, I'm here, I'm doing
a do you know like I'm gonna dothis and uh, so really, what it
was?
it was just like at first, justtrying to hear and discern.

(05:25):
Like is this, you know, is thisfrom the Lord?
Like we were doing thesepractices and it started to
become like apparent to me thathe was giving me something Right
.
And so then he ended up.
I won't go into all the detailsof how we got there, but he
said I feel like God's gotsomething he wants to, you know,
show you today, and let's justmaybe ask him what that is.

(05:49):
Again, like this is weird.
What the crap am I going to you?
know, and so I'm sitting theretrying to like just think of,
like, what do I say?
Or like, well, no, I'm going toreally try to listen.
But then it's like, and all Icould, I kept hearing a word,
but it didn't make any sense tome and so I kept just
discounting it and I was likefive minutes into silence,
getting really frustrated, andfinally I just blurted out the

(06:10):
word that had been justhammering me in my brain as fear
.
And as soon as I said that Iwas like, oh my gosh, like I've
been.
Like.
Fear has ruled my life as faras I can remember, in all these
different ways, and I think mostpeople that knew me wouldn't
have wouldn't have maybe thoughtthat I didn't.

Daniel (06:30):
You know, I remember when you started your lawn care
business.
You know I didn't see the fear.

Danny (06:35):
Yeah.
You know I thoughtentrepreneurial going for it you
know, yeah, man, but I wasalways trying to just put safety
nets everywhere.
I was afraid to take risk, youknow, even though starting a
business is a risk, it didn't.
I was afraid to take risk, youknow.
Even though starting a businessis a risk, it felt like a
mitigated risk to me, but anyway, you know.
So I'm sitting here and I'mlike what do I do with that?
I was like all I keep hearingis fear, but I don't even know
what that means.
And then it was like, no, I doknow what that means.

(06:58):
It's like, yeah, no, my wholelife I've been just filled with
fear.
And it was like he was showingme, like all these different
areas where you know, fear hadreally just screwed everything
up, and even in my relationshipwith God, like like I'd been a
believer my whole life, right,but it was always like I think
the mindset was like try harder,do better, you know, and so you

(07:19):
just can't be right Right Onyour own.

Daniel (07:22):
Right.

Danny (07:23):
And so, you know, at this point he was like, well, you
know, let's, let's ask the Lordwhat he thinks about your fear.
And I was like, okay, and so wedo this.
And I'm sitting there and Idon't, I can't like, well, I say
this is like pre three yearsago, like I believed that, like,
well, I don't see, you know,images, I can't conjure up an

(07:45):
image in my head, or I don't seethings like in picture form,
but when I did this like, it waslike very vivid and it took me
back to this.
It had been previously thatyear.
My son was seven at the timeand we were at Beaver Fort on
that old bridge.
There's an old bridge that goesacross like a section by the
swimming area and it's about sixor seven feet off the water,

(08:06):
and so he saw all these kidsjumping off of it and he was
like man, can we jump off ofthat?
I was like, yeah, dude, let's go.
And so I climb up there andscoot all the way out to the
middle.
And he does too, and I jump off.
It was about six feet deep, youknow.
So I come up and I'm like, allright, come on, man.
And for I'm not evenexaggerating for 45 minutes my

(08:28):
son was just like frozen, and soI'm trying to help him out.
I'm like, hey, it's going to befun, it's fine, you don't have
anything to worry about.
What are you fearful of?
And he would be like, well,what if it's too deep and I
don't come back up?
Or what if it?
You know it was what, if, what,if, what, if?
And finally and this is likeI'm seeing, this is like I'm
reliving this in this moment,with my eyes closed outside of

(08:50):
Doc's you know, the coffee shopover there in in that moment I'm
like, oh wow.
I was feeling what I felt at thetime and I was like frustrated
at him a little bit, but I wasalso mostly.
I was just like I felt a lot ofcompassion, because I've been
fearful my whole life and sojumping off of, you know,
heights was a big thing for me.

(09:10):
So I understood his fear.
But what it came down to is Iwas like, dude, do you not trust
me?
Like, when do I tell you to dothings that are going to hurt
you?
Wow, yeah, you know.
And uh, so at this point I likebasically start convulsing.
I'm like sobbing, you know,like ugly crying, uh and uh, and

(09:34):
I was overwhelmed.
And then there was a lot thatfollowed that, but, like,
probably this was in a periodwhere I'd gone through the
crucible, lost my business, wentto work for another friend
whose business ended up shuttingdown and ended up jumping to a
couple of places and none.
It was miserable the whole time.
Um, I had literally just gottenfired from the first place I'd
ever been.
I'd never been fired in my lifeand I felt pretty low.

(09:56):
But I was trying to figure out,like what am I doing?
You know, the business that Istarted in my early twenties was
meant to be my retirement plan.
That was the only.
I didn't have any other thingin my sights.
That was it.
And so, uh, I'll just say thatduring that period, like one of
the things that I'd prayed afterthis, and after he started,
just like it was like a wholenew world, like he gave me a new

(10:18):
heart.
The things that I'd struggledwith I wasn't.
It was a different like lifethat I was entering into and
that's really exciting until,like you know, it doesn't stay
like that forever.
Like you know, like um, it'sgotta be.
Yeah, yeah, the new wear is off.
But but here's the thing therewas, there was something about
it that was like I could neverunsee, unfeel, unbelieve, like

(10:41):
so.
There was something thathappened and as I was going back
out into the wilderness, let'ssay spiritually speaking, and
trying to just discern andfigure things out, I was trying
to do one thing and I keptgetting these taps to go this
other direction.

(11:01):
I won't use names or anything,but I was in a position I doing,
I was in a position I probablyhad no business being in.
Your wife actually pulled meinto that and I'm thankful to
this day because I feel like Godused her to pull me into that.
But I was trying to.
I was trying to sell a serviceto this guy and it was digital
marketing stuff.
Right, he, he starts asking asa builder, as a custom home

(11:21):
builder, and he started askingme about, you know, my a project
, to see if I had any vision forit.
And I was like I'm done withthat.
I didn't ever want to do any.
I'd been hurt so bad by it.
I was like I don't want to haveanything to do with that and uh
, but finally I was like, allright, I'll go.

(11:42):
And and I so, as soon as I sawthe space, I was like instantly
like oh, I can see it, blankpalette.
Yeah, it's a blank palette andI can see it.
I can see what I would do there.
And so I explained it to himand he asked me if I could
provide a design for him, uh, towhich I was like I don't think
so.
And and, uh, maybe you shouldcall somebody that does that

(12:05):
kind of thing and tell them whatI told you.
But he wanted me to do it andso, reluctantly, I did.
And um, over the next likemonth or two, like things
started.
I won't go into all that, butit was just like it was very
clear that God was showing melike hey, the first time I
called you into this, you did iton your own.

(12:28):
And that was brutal, you know,and uh, and he was like I was
just sensing that it was likewhat I want you to do, I want
you to do it with me, and it'sgoing to be different, because
I'll give you everything thatyou need and everyone that you
need If you just trust me andfollow me.
And so you know, there's allthe details that that play out

(12:54):
in that, but that was it.
That was like he was calling meback into it and he's like
let's do it together and youdon't have to.
You know, it was like we'regoing to do fun stuff.
I could just tell Thank you.