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Episode 360- Confronting Systemic Racism to Bring Healing and Restoration with Latasha Morrison

How do we bring forth a heart of redemption in the broken systems of this world? What is our responsibility as believers when it comes to healing the racial divide and systemic injustices?

Latasha Morrison is passionate about helping Christians be at the forefront of racial healing. As an author, speaker, and founder of Be the Bridge, an equipping organization that helps individuals and groups in taking steps towards racial reconciliation, Lastasha has taught people what it means to confront the ways in which we as a culture and as a people have harmed others because of their race. Her work has brought both awareness and actionable ways for people to reach across racial lines and heal together. Her latest book, Brown Faces, White Spaces: Confronting Systemic Racism to Bring Healing and Restoration, looks at the ways in which our systems hold deeply entrenched beliefs that need to be rooted out so that there can be justice and fairness for all.

In this conversation, Aubrey talks with Latasha about why it is so important to have a heart of reconciliation as believers, the way racism within systems continues to impact people to this day, and how our hope must remain in God and not people.

If you've ever wondered if we can truly experience racial healing and reconciliation, this episode will encourage you that it is possible and that we each have a role and responsibility to step into this conversation with compassion, empathy, and a heart bent towards healing the racial division that exists.

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Episode 359- Reconnecting and Recovering the Lost Art of Being Human with Carlos Whittaker

How do we hear God's voice in a world full of noise? What impact do our screens have on our mental health?

Carlos Whittaker has made a career out of connecting with people through a device. An author, podcaster, and a leader of a social media community known as the Instafamilia, Carlos has used the power of connection for doing incredible things. And yet, he found himself in a place where the constant connectivity to his phone left him disconnected to what matters most.

Carlos decided to embark on an incredible journey in which he would go screen free for 7 weeks and spend time with those who lived without the same incessant attachment as those in the modern world. Carlos lived with and learned from Amish Farmers and Monks and began to see the freedom that was on the other side of disconnecting in order to reconnect. He wrote about his journey in his book called Reconnected: How 7 Screen Free Weeks With Monks and Amish Farmers Helped Me Recover the Lost Art of Being Human.

In this episode, Davey and Carlos talk about the impact our screens are having on our mental health, why silence and solitude are so important for our spiritual connection to God, and how to hear God's voice in our pain.

If you've noticed that you are more connected than ever and yet are left feeling completely disconnected from the parts of yourself and your relationships that make you human, this episode will invite you to discover how to stay present and connected to the very moments that make up your life.

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Episode 358- Looking Back As We Look Ahead with Davey Blackburn and the Nothing is Wasted Team

Why is it important to look back as we look forward? How can we reflect on the past while looking ahead towards hope?

In this special episode, Davey talks with members of the Nothing is Wasted team about the incredible things that happened at the ministry in 2024 and the exciting things that are ahead in 2025.

Hear all about how a coach can help you move forward after grief or trauma, why community is so important in our healing, ways we can help ministry leaders walk alongside those they serve and all the ways you can partner with us as we help you find a pathway through your pain. Get a sneak peek at what Nothing is Wasted will be offering in 2025 and learn more about the incredible resources we released this past year. You'll also get to hear some of our favorite 2024 podcast episodes and get to know our team a bit better!

Whatever you are facing, taking a moment to reflect will help you as you make a plan to move ahead as you see the ways in which God has shown up on your journey.

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Episode 357- The Life-Changing Power of Friendship with Craig Cooper

How can hospitality and kindness be a conduit for life-transforming change? What can happen when we open our hearts and homes to those in need of hope?

Craig Cooper was a church planting pastor when his path crossed with a struggling Nashville musician named Walker Hayes. Walker was a self-proclaimed atheist and an alcoholic who lost a record deal and was struggling to make ends meet. Craig and his whole family welcomed Walker and his family into their lives. Loving them well, showing up when they needed a friend, and helping them as needs came up in life. It was through their friendship that God began to soften Walker's heart towards the gospel. He would eventually quit drinking and said yes to Jesus, forever changing his life. After his life changed internally, he also experienced an outward shift as he got a record deal and a hit country song called "Fancy Like." Craig and Walker chronicled their unique and pivotal friendship in their book called Glad You're Here: Two Unlikely Friends Breaking Bread and Fences.

In this episode, Davey and Craig discuss the importance of walking with people through the highs and lows, how Scripture can help us in the valley, and why grace through friendship is so significant in a generation facing an epidemic of loneliness.

If you've ever wondered how you can be a conduit of God's grace to those right next door, this conversation will encourage you to step outside your comfort zone and open your home and heart to those in your life who need it most.

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Episode 356- Learning to Surrender Our Path for a New Purpose with Natalie Buchoz

How do you find purpose when your life as you knew it is permanently changed? How can you learn to surrender the plans and path you once saw for yourself?

For Natalie Buchoz, Director of Media for world renowned author and psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Amen, she could have never imagined the new path her life would follow after a skiing accident left her with a permanent spinal cord injury as a teenager. Once an active, athletic teen, Natalie's new life would be filled with doctors and a wheelchair. Now 15 years later, Natalie can see the ways in which God has used this new life and path to grow her spiritually in her relationship with Him. But it only came when she was willing to open her hands and let go of the life she expected.

In this episode, Aubrey talks with Natalie about how Jesus can show up in our most isolating experiences, the importance of post-traumatic growth, and how to find your true identity and worth after a life-altering change.

If you've ever struggled to let go of the life you thought you should have, this conversation will encourage you that surrender will give you a way forward that is beyond what you could ever imagine and that God is in the business of transformation.

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Episode 355- Catching Whimsy After Pain with Bob Goff

How do we return to a childlike faith, full of possibility and awe, after experiencing hurt? How can we lift other's eyes to the beauty that exists even when life is hard and painful sometimes?

Bob Goff is known for his big, bright, joyful personality. A self-described dreamer and author, coach, and speaker, Bob has encouraged countless people to embody a faith that shows up and loves others well. And while he has used much of his platform and influence to invite people to Catch Whimsy, the title of his latest book, many who know him, know he is also the type of guy to show up in practical and meaningful ways in people's pain and lowest moments. How did he learn to be both an orchestrator of fun and delight while stepping into the depths with those who are hurting?

Davey and Bob sit down to talk about how Bob was instrumental in Davey's healing journey as well as what we can learn from those in pain, how to love people well while steering clear from cynicism, and the incredible power of making ourselves available to others.

If you've ever felt like suffering and joy cannot coexist, this conversation is a reminder that whimsy can lead us back to a childlike faith that can help us endure the most painful seasons of our lives.

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Episode 354- Suffering and the Formation of Hope with Dr. Curt Thompson

How does hope begin to form in the face of our greatest pain? Why do some people seem to rise out of the rubble of suffering with a new sense of eternal expectation while others seem forever stuck in their heartbreak?

Dr. Curt Thompson is a Psychiatrist who has studied and seen the the impact of interpersonal neurobiology and how hope is formed. He knows that healing from the greatest traumas and tragedies is possible, but requires a unique kind of safe community to hear and hold of our stories of hurt and harm in order to heal. In his latest book, The Deepest Place: Suffering and the Formation of Hope, he explores how hope can be born after our pain, especially when we are willing to connect with others and share our journey.

In this episode, Davey and Dr. Thompson talk about how durable hope is essential to our healing, the way neuroplasticity can help us increase hope, and the undeniable power of confessional communities in our healing.

If you've ever wondered how you can muster any semblance of hope after heartache, this conversation will remind you that hope can grow and that no matter what you've walked through, with God and others, you can find the hope your heart is longing for.

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Episode 353- Healing What You Can't Erase with Christopher Cook

How can you heal from what you can't erase? What do you do to transform your mental, emotional, and spiritual health from the inside out?

For author, speaker and coach Christopher Cook, losing his mom to a long battle with cancer and his own difficult Multiple Sclerosis diagnosis taught him the power of decision in pain. While he couldn't change the outcomes, learning to make the changes in his perspective was what propelled him forward as he healed from the grief and disappointment he faced. In his latest book, Healing What You Can't Erase: Transform Your Mental, Emotional, and Spiritual Health from the Inside Out, he offers readers a way forward in what feels impossible.

In this episode, Aubrey and Christopher talk about the choice for change in our stories that are unchangeable, why learning to surrender is such an important step, and how to untangle shame in the places where we need the most healing.

If you've ever wondered if healing is possible in the parts of your story that are never going to change, this episode will encourage you that no matter what, God is able to bring transformation in whatever you walk through.

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Episode 352- Holding On To Hope and Mystery After Loss with Kay Warren

WARNING: This episode contains conversations about suicide and may not be suitable for all listeners/viewers.

What do you do when your worst nightmare comes true after a painful battle with a loved one's mental illness? How do you hold the tension between hope and the mysteries of God in your life after loss?

For author, speaker, advocate and pastor's wife Kay Warren, learning to hold onto hope after losing her son Matthew while accepting the mysteries of all she did not understand was difficult. Kay and her husband, author and Pastor Rick Warren, had walked a long, difficult journey through Matthew's lifelong struggle with mental health and faced every parent's worst fear coming true when their adult son died by suicide. Kay experienced the depths of grief and sorrow as she wrestled with God to make sense of such a tragedy. But her pain has given her the opportunity to become an advocate for mental health in the church and a voice of hope for parents who are facing a similar journey.

In this honest conversation, Davey and Kay talk about how reality, grief, and hope must all co-exist together, why we need both hope and mystery as we look back on our pain, and how to deal with the shame and guilt after losing a loved one to suicide.

If you've found it hard to hold on to hope in the darkness of your suffering, this episode will light a pathway towards it.

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Episode 351- Loving Your Black Neighbor as Yourself with Chanté Griffin

How do we step into conversations with one another that may feel difficult or uncomfortable around the topic of race? What does it look like to love well our black neighbors?

Author, journalist, and artist Chante Griffin wanted to help those who were not black know how to better step into the space of healing the divide caused by racism and racial pain. She understood that this conversation requires us all to be humble and take on the perspective of Christ as we move towards one another in love. In her new book, Loving Your Black Neighbor as Yourself: A Guide to Closing the Space Between Us, she gives practical steps and guidance for those who want to be a part of closing the historical divide that has plagued individuals, churches, and our country.

In this insightful conversation, Aubrey sits down with Chante to discuss the tension that can exist between our best intentions and the effect it can have on others, why humility is essential when we work towards healing the racial divide, and why we must begin with love as we have these important conversations.

Whatever your race, this episode will help you examine your heart as you engage in the hard and holy work of bringing unity and healing in your neighborhood, your community, and your church.

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Episode 350- Trading Our Fears and Anxieties for God's Unshakable Peace with Katie Davis Majors

What does it look like to answer God's call in our life? How do we step into our calling when there is suffering that we never expected?

For author, ministry leader, wife, and mom of 15, Katie Majors Davis, she could have never imagined all the ways in which God would call her into the unexpected places that He has over her life. As a young woman, Katie answered the calling of her life and became a missionary in Uganda. Through that time, God called her to start a ministry called Amazima and adopt 13 girls from Uganda. While many have marveled at her inspiring story of faithfulness, it was often met with unseen difficulties and trials as she cared for the poor, walked her children through their own stories of trauma and suffering, and faced the unrelenting challenges of life and ministry. Her most recent book, Safe All Along: Trading Our Fears and Anxieties for God's Unshakable Peace, offers readers her own reflections on how to find peace in a world full of fears.

In this deep conversation, Davey and Katie talk about how calling looks much different than we anticipate it to, the ways in which wrestling can lead us to more intimacy with God and why pointing our kids to Jesus in their pain is the most loving thing we can do.

If you've ever found yourself in the midst of suffering after answering what you thought was God's call, this episode will remind you that even in the middle of God's invitation there can be both pain and joy coexisting as you step out in faith.

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Episode 349- Finding Your Way Back to God in an Age of Deconstruction with Dr. Lina AbuJamra

What do you do when the people of God fail and you find yourself questioning God because of it? How do you deconstruct your misunderstandings about God, His people and life without deconstructing your faith altogether?

For author, Bible teacher, and medical doctor Lina AbuJamra healing from the hurt she experienced from her church led her on an unexpected journey in her faith. What started as a deep disappointment in people led her to feeling let down by God. It took a lot of time and realizations that what she had come to believe about God and how He worked wasn't based on His truth and that perhaps deconstructing the falsehoods and misunderstandings about God, wasn't a bad thing. However, as things were being taken apart in her understanding of who God was, she also needed to reconstruct what was true so that her faith would strengthen rather than fade away. It wasn't a quick process, but a holy one and one that she wrote about in her book, Fractured Faith: Finding Your Way Back to God in an Age of Deconstruction.

In this helpful conversation, Aubrey and Lina talk about why deconstruction is often rooted in our disappointments, ways in which we can heal from Church hurt, and how sometimes our doubts, questions and hurt can lead us into a deeper faith.

If you or someone you know has walked through being hurt by the Church and has found themselves unraveling, this episode will encourage you that perhaps through your hurt, God is wanting to rebuild in you a stronger, more resilient faith and life in Him.

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Episode 348- The Impact of Brain Health on our Healing with Dr. Daniel Amen

What is the connection to our brain's health and our mental health? How can taking care of our brains help us heal from grief, trauma, depression or anxiety?

Dr. Daniel Amen is a world renowned psychiatrist who began to notice early in his practice that there was a disconnect in psychiatry and the lack of study being done on the brain. It was through years of scanning brains through a technology called SPECT that Dr. Amen began to recognize that what many considered mental health issues were actually brain health issues and that when you started to heal the brain, you could begin to see incredible healing with the myriad of symptoms plaguing his patients. Dr. Amen has spent his lifetime and practice teaching people the importance of brain health through his many books. He recently released Raising Mentally Strong Kids: How to Combine the Power of Neuroscience with Love and Logic to Grow Confident, Kind, Responsible, and Resilient Children and Young Adults to help parents.

In this episode, Kristi and Davey sit down with Dr. Amen to discuss why brain health matters with our mental health, how to heal our brains after trauma, and how brain science can help us in parenting.

If you or someone you love struggles with mental health or if you are trying to raise brain healthy kids, this conversation will teach you how to better care for the part of you that impacts your life the most.

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Episode 347- Tired of Being Tired with Jess Connolly

How do we experience true rest in a culture that demands striving and encourages fatigue? What does it even look like to live from a place of rest instead of burnout and exhaustion like most people around us do?

For author, pastor, speaker, and mom of four, Jess Connolly, these were the questions she had to wrestle with in the face of all the demands coming at her from her various roles. When life hit a fever pitch and she seemed to reach a breaking point in every way, she knew that she needed more than some sort of watered down self-care answer. She needed to find a way to truly live from a place of trust in the goodness of God to provide and carry her through the noise and speed of life around her. It was through her own journey of figuring out how to deal with the soul-deep exhaustion that she decided to take others along in her latest book, Tired of Being Tired: Receive God’s Realistic Rest for Your Soul-Deep Exhaustion.

In this episode, Aubrey and Jess talk about how difficult it is to find rest in our modern culture, the different ways fatigue can show up, and how to lead in our pain and grief.

If you are tired of being tired--mentally, physically and spiritually--this conversation will show you that you don't need the world's false versions of rest, but you need an encounter with the one who offers you true rest in the depths of your being.

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Episode 346- Finding Hope When Life Leaves You Feeling Shattered with Kellie Bullard

How can you find hope when life shatters before your eyes? How can you continue to believe in the goodness of God after tragedy?

For young mom Kellie Bullard, she couldn't imagine how quickly life could change. In an ordinary night, her life was turned completely upside down when her husband, Alex, died in a car accident less than a mile from their home. What was once a picture perfect life was ripped apart as she was left grieving the loss of her husband with a seven week old baby and a 2 year old. But even in the midst of her greatest pain, God showed up in small and tangible ways along her journey towards healing. She wrote about the truth of her grief and what God taught her along the way in her new book, Behind My Smile: Finding Hope When Life Leaves You Feeling Shattered.

In this episode, Davey talks to Kellie about what it looks like to step out in faith when life is uncertain, how we can see God in our story, and the ways in which we can help young kids through their experience of grief and loss.

If you've ever experienced life changing in an instant, this conversation you show you how to see the goodness of God and find hope again amidst the shattered pieces of the life you once knew.

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Episode 345- Suffering and the Gospel with Paul David Tripp

What does the gospel have for us in our suffering? How do we apply theological truths in our pain?

Author and Bible teacher Paul David Tripp had a deep understanding of theology, especially when it came to pain and suffering. It wasn't until he walked through a season of physical suffering and chronic fatigue that those understandings he had in his mind became embedded into his heart. Through the difficulties and challenges of a medical condition that forever changed his capacity and revealed his limitations, Paul learned how the hope of the gospel can meet us in even the most painful days. His journey through that season and the lessons God taught him along the way are chronicled in his book Suffering: Gospel Hope When Life Doesn't Make Sense.

In this conversation, Eric sits with Paul to discuss how suffering can lead to a deeper trust in Christ, the role prayer plays in our pain, and how God will bring a new level of understanding of theological truths when we are hurting.

If you've found yourself wondering how the gospel applies to your pain, this episode will show you that the good news of Christ is for you in whatever you are facing.

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Episode 344- Now and Not Yet with Ruth Chou Simons

How do we lean into the tensions of life--the now and not yet? What does it look like to press into the different seasons as they come instead of constantly wanting something different?

Author and artist Ruth Chou Simons knows what it is like to live in the hidden places as a mom to six boys. For years, her life centered around changing diapers, preparing meals and bandaging scraped knees. But it was in that time that God taught her the importance of stewarding what she had been given. It was in that mundane, quiet season that God cultivated in her a reliance upon Him. Now, she is a well-known author and artist for her company, Gracelaced, but she will be the first to tell you that her work is simply an overflow of those quiet, hidden, faithful years of doing the work God had called her to in her family. Her latest book, Now and Not Yet: Pressing in When You’re Waiting, Wanting, and Restless for More, looks at how to handle those times where your soul is waiting or feeling restless and how to trust God when life isn't what you thought it would be.

In this episode, Davey and Ruth have a meaningful discussion about the importance of recognizing your season in life, what restlessness could really be a symptom of, and how so often, we become what we behold.

If you have felt yourself in a time of waiting or feeling restless, this conversation will remind you that even in the hidden, unseen moments of your life, God is inviting you to trust and know Him more.

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Episode 343- Stepping into God's Calling with Kat Armstrong

How do you step into what God is calling you towards when others seem to discourage you? What does it look like to use your gifts for the kingdom in the face of challenges?

For author and Bible Teacher Kat Armstrong, it was her study of scripture that led her to rethink her own beliefs on her role in the kingdom as a woman. Having experienced pushback from others who seemed to not value her voice and giftings as a scholar and woman in ministry, Kat began to see how her own misinterpretations led to her not stepping fully into the call God had on her life. As she examined some of the strange ways in which people had taught about women in the Bible and their role in the kingdom of God, she began to grow in God-given confidence that she was made to teach and lead.

In this episode, Aubrey sits with Kat to discuss how women are used by God throughout scripture, what it looks like to step into your calling, and how our storylines intersect with God's greater one.

If you've ever found yourself shrinking back from what you've been called to do, this conversation will encourage you that if God has called you towards something, nothing can stop you.

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Episode 342- Finding Hope in the Mystery of Suffering with Ellie Holcomb

How do we hold onto faith in a world full of so much suffering and sorrow? Where do we find hope in the mystery of all the pain?

For Recording Artist and Author Ellie Holcomb working out her faith through song has always been the way God has invited her into the hope that exists in suffering. After walking through several years of losses and devastating heartache in the lives of those she loved, Ellie began to notice the ways in which so much of the goodness and joy in her life came birthed out of the pain. It is through music that she often shares her own wrestlings and the ways in which God allows us each the opportunity to experience hope in the canyons of the most difficult times. Her latest album, All of My Days, are Psalms set to music that have given her hope in the pain and suffering of this life.

In this episode, Davey and Ellie consider how we can get comfortable with the questions and doubts that arise out of our pain, where we can see God in the valleys of life and the incredible invitation to hope in the midst of it all.

If you've ever struggled to understand the mystery so present in pain, this conversation will be a balm to your soul as you are reminded that God is big enough to handle every question, every doubt, and every frustration we have in our most difficult days.

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Episode 341- Demystifying Evil with Ingrid Faro

Warning: This episode discusses loss by suicide and may not be suitable for all listeners.

What do we do when it comes to understanding God's role in the events of our lives? How do we interpret the pain we endure, the evil that exists in the world and God's sovereignty in it all?

For author and professor of Old Testament Ingrid Faro, it was her own personal experience of pain and evil that led her to dig deeply into scripture in order to better understand how God works in the midst of suffering. Having experienced domestic abuse and divorce, a remarriage than ended when her husband died by suicide, and so much more, Ingrid began to ask questions when it came to pain and suffering and evil in our experience as humans. It was through her own story and scholarly study that she wrote Demystifying Evil: A Biblical and Personal Exploration, in which she examines the impact of evil and how to undo its power in our lives.

In this episode, Aubrey and Ingrid talk about how our stories can lead us to our life's work, the power of lament and what to do in the face of evil.

If you've ever struggled to make sense of the things that have been done to you, this conversation is a reminder that God can handle all our anger and questions, doubts and fears, and invites us to be honest with the pain that we are experiencing.

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