Episode 318 - If I Don't Laugh, I'll Cry with Molly Stillman
How can you find laughter and joy when life is so unbearably difficult? Where is joy when pain and suffering seem to be a never ending part of life?
For author and podcaster Molly Stillman, learning to laugh has been balm to her soul in some of her greatest losses. Having lost her mother as a teen, inheriting a sizable inheritance only to lose it shortly after and finding herself in debt and then experiencing pregnancy losses later in life, Molly has walked through too many sorrows to count and yet, she has found a way to laugh through it all. As a trained comedian, Molly has seen the gift of humor when life feels too heavy and has used that gift to bring joy to others in the most difficult moments. Now a homesteader and ministry leader, her life has taken the most unexpected turns and yet she still can find laughter and joy in the midst of it. She writes about her story and life in her new book, If I Don't Laugh, I'll Cry: How Death, Debt, and Comedy Led to a Life of Faith, Farming, and Forgetting What I Came into This Room For.
In this conversation, Aubrey sits down with Molly to discuss what it is like to look a mother at such a crucial time in a young girl's life, how to tell your story in safe spaces, and the ways that shame can keep us from bringing to light the truth of what we've been through.
If you've ever wonder if it's okay to laugh when so much seems to be going wrong, this episode will encourage you that humor is a gift from God and one He often offers us in the moments of our pain to give us a little push forward towards joy and healing.
Episode 316 - Even If He Doesn't with Kristen LaValley
What do we do with the hard questions that arise from the pain we are feeling? How do we acknowledge our fears and our doubts while holding onto our faith?
For author Kristen LaValley, the process of moving from a formulaic faith that believed God wouldn't allow pain if she did all the right things into a genuine, messy belief and understanding of God came through several seasons of suffering. From losing her and her husband's ministry position and faith community to witnessing a murder, the loss of a baby and a very traumatic birth experience with her twins, Kristen had to untangle her belief in a God that neatly healed and fixed every pain into the true nature of who God was and how so often it is His presence that He offers us in our heartbreaks. Now, Kristen and her husband help others walking through questions in their faith and spiritual wounds by giving them the same space to ask and process that they received from others in their journey.
In this insightful conversation, Davey talks with Kristen about how what we believe about God shapes how we experience suffering, the way in which suffering shapes who we believe God to be and why wrestling is so important in moving from a transactional relationship with the Lord into a true and authentic one.
If you've ever struggled with questions about God's goodness in the seasons of your difficulties, this episode will help normalize the grappling and undoing we all have to do about our beliefs about God in order to learn who He truly is.
Episode 305 - The Continual Journey Towards Healing with Davey Blackburn, Aubrey Sampson and Eric Schumacher
Have you ever wondered if you are still truly healing when the pain feels as fresh as the day you experienced a past loss or grief? How do we know that healing is happening as time moves forward, but our ache remains?
Davey Blackburn, Aubrey Sampson, and Eric Schumacher are not only hosts on the Nothing is Wasted podcast, but all have experienced their own seasons of deep grief, loss, trauma and tragedy. With pastoral wisdom and the heart of fellow sojourners in the valley, this episode is a unique roundtable conversation of what healing truly looks like at different points in our journey. Speaking from raw vulnerability, our Nothing is Wasted hosts share their own personal walk through pain and the often times messy, winding path towards healing.
In this conversation, Davey, Aubrey, and Eric tackle the role time plays in our pain, what to do when it feels as though God is absent in the days after loss, and how the journey towards healing is never a perfectly straight one.
If you are struggling to recognize whether or not healing is happening in your own life, this episode is a gentle comfort in knowing that hurt may remain for your days here on earth, but there is a hope beyond what you can see that will one day undo all the pain you've encountered.
Episode 267 - Finding the Hope of the Gospel in Miscarriage with Eric Schumacher
How does the hope of the gospel apply in the midst of a miscarriage or season of infertility? Where can we find comfort when our desire for a child isn't being fulfilled?
So often this conversation is focused on the experience women have but silently suffering are the men who too face the grief and pain after pregnancy loss or infertility. Eric Schumacher, pastor and author, walked through several pregnancy losses with his wife and found himself wrestling with shame and sadness. It was his own feelings of sorrow and thinking that he didn't deserve the space to grieve that God used in his writing: Ours: Biblical Comfort for Men Grieving Miscarriage. Suffering can feel like punishment and it was in his own wrestling that Eric began to see how the gospel can meet us so deeply in our pain.
In this conversation, Davey and Eric discuss how gospel hope applies in every pain we endure, what scripture offers us in suffering, and why honesty is so important when we are hurting.
If you've ever wondered how the gospel can meet you in what you're facing, this episode is a reminder that the hope of Christ is available for us all in every circumstance and every type of loss.
Episode 34 - Jamie Ivey
As the host of the popular podcast “The Happy Hour” and author of If You Only Knew, Jamie Ivey has had the opportunity to share her story with thousands of people across the world. It’s a powerful story, but like most of ours, it’s not always pretty. Jamie’s story is a moving testimony of failure and redemption, pain and healing, and God’s work through our messes. On this episode, Jamie sits down with Davey to talk about how God has taken the messy parts of her story and redeemed them for His message.