What if the moment you finally forgave someone was the same moment they were gone forever?
That’s the question at the center of my conversation with Daniel Chase, a 10-plus-year meth addiction survivor, kitchen and bath remodeling business owner, and author of the new book Finally He Flew. Daniel spent years living a double life, a Bible quizzer and gang member at once, a successful plumber running crews across three states while still using. He was arrested 16 times. His father checked into rehab 11 times before he took his own life at 43. And through all of it, Daniel kept surviving without ever really healing.
The Forgiveness That Came Too Late and Right on Time
While working the steps at the Salvation Army, Daniel found himself at the altar forgiving the man who had hurt his daughter, a person he had spent years hoping to never see again. Hours later, his sister told him the man had died by suicide, at nearly the same moment Daniel had been praying for him. “Did I pray for this?” Daniel remembers thinking. It could have shattered his faith. Instead, it became proof that the forgiveness had come exactly when it needed to.
True Surrender Doesn’t Look Like Relief
A week later, at a men’s retreat, a sermon on PTSD cracked something open that Daniel had been holding for decades: his father, a friend’s suicide, family tragedy after family tragedy. He described it like sitting in a subway car in the dark, every memory hitting the window and rolling off, until it didn’t anymore. He ended up on his knees, soaked in tears, finally willing to say he didn’t have this figured out on his own.
Building Something New From What Almost Broke Him
Daniel didn’t just get sober. He wrote his entire book in six months during his final stay at the Salvation Army, then turned it into a 12-step curriculum that blends the traditional steps, dialectical behavioral therapy, and faith. It’s already running in four inpatient programs. His reasoning is simple: addiction is almost always a symptom, not the root problem, and recovery has to treat the mental health underneath it or it won’t hold.
“Somebody needed to hear this today: you’re only as sick as your secrets, and there’s still time to finally fly.”
Daniel’s story is proof that healing rarely looks like a straight line, and that the hardest, most human moments, forgiveness, surrender, asking for help, are often where the real turning point lives.
Action Items
- Identify one secret you’re still carrying and tell one safe person this week.
- If you’ve resisted medication out of pride, consider whether that resistance is protecting you or just protecting your ego.
- Build a simple daily anchor, even something as small as a prayer, a walk, or five quiet minutes, before the day takes over.
- Notice if you’re using intensity (busyness, achievement, adrenaline) to avoid sitting with old wounds.
- Look into DBT skills like radical acceptance and the STOP skill if your mind doesn’t shut off.
- Consider where forgiveness might be unfinished business in your own life, not for the other person’s sake, but for yours.
- If you lead or support others in recovery, ask whether mental health is being addressed as seriously as the addiction itself.
Resources Mentioned
- Finally He Flew by Daniel Chase: https://finallyheflew.com/
- Celebrate Recovery (faith-based 12-step program)
- Life Recovery Bible / Celebrate Recovery workbook
- DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy) skills: radical acceptance, TIP skills, STOP skills, chain analysis
- The Salvation Army recovery program
👊 Need help applying this information to your own life?
Here are 3 ways to get started:
🎁 Free Guide: 30 Tips for Your First 30 Days – With a printable PDF checklist
Grab your copy here: https://www.soberlifeschool.com
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https://www.makesobrietystick.com
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