Rachel Henry found herself living every woman’s nightmare one night when she awoke to strange noises in her house. With her husband Simon away at college and her children asleep in their beds, Rachel was sexually assaulted by three men who had broken into her home.

We often idealize marriage, but real marriage never quite looks like the ideal. We’re all imperfect humans, and putting two broken people together doesn’t magically solve everything. In her thirty years as a professional counselor, Julie Dodson has seen the challenges of marriage firsthand in the lives of many of her clients, including Davey and Kristi.

The trials we each walk through come in all shapes and sizes. For some of us, our struggles are temporary and we can look forward to the day we’ll put them fully behind us. For others, our lives may change in an instant, and we may spend the rest of our lives healing from one moment. But what do you do when your trial is ongoing? What if you know it’s only going to get worse, and there isn’t an end in sight? Sandy Morris stepped into that kind of trial when her husband was diagnosed with Alzheimers at only 46 years old.

Most of us probably would agree that boundaries are an important part of any relationship. But what about our relationships with ourselves? In her years as a professional counselor, Alison Cook has discovered that boundaries aren’t just necessary between each other, but within our own souls as well.

When someone has walked through a painful circumstance, none of us would blame them for having a negative outlook. Life has been hard, so it’s easy to assume that life will continue to be hard. That’s only natural, right? But LeAnne Lavender defies that. She and her husband Derek have walked through some terrible circumstances. But instead of being grim and pessimistic, LeAnne has a different approach.

The first part of Chris and Emily Norton’s story is inspiring enough on its own, but it doesn’t stop there. They’ve walked through seasons of deep depression, they’ve become parents and foster parents, and much more. In the second part of their conversation with Davey, Chris and Emily share some more struggles they’ve walked through and how they’ve not only overcome them but turned around and used their season in life to change the lives of others.

Chris Norton’s life changed forever when he misjudged a tackle while playing football. A stadium full of fans and players watched as the young college player was wheeled out on a stretcher, completely unmoving, and Chris was left wondering if he’d ever walk again.

It only takes an instant for our lives to change forever. For Maria Hatch-Bowersock, that instant came in the form of a phone call. The voice on the other end told her that the plane carrying her parents and brother had crashed. Her mother and father were both dead, and her brother had little chance of making it.

Every pregnancy comes with its risks and worries. Along with the miracle of new life come fears of all the things that could go wrong. For Callie and Kevin Colwick, those fears were realized when complications with her pregnancy left her in a coma with little chance of survival. Kevin spent months in the hospital, unsure if he would ever see his wife awake again.

There’s an old joke that pastors only work one hour a week. While anyone who’s ever been around a church can probably tell just how far from the truth that is, perhaps not many people know how hard ministry can be as well as Tim and Denise Harlow.

This week marks two years of The Nothing Is Wasted Podcast! Thanks to all of you who’s listened and supported us over these last couple of years! To celebrate, Mel joins us in the studio to ask Davey Kristi some of your questions, hear the powerful story how Davey and Kristi met, and talk about some exciting new things that are coming to Nothing Is Wasted Ministries if the future.

If our children are our legacy, then Kate Battistelli’s legacy speaks volumes. Her daughter, Francesca Battistelli, is a Grammy-winning singer and songwriter who’s work has helped define Christian music for years. But Kate’s story starts before any of that. She shares her story of how God not only redeemed her story of abortion and infertility, but how he continues to call her into bigger and better things.

Brent and Jana Seaman are a testimony of how God can redeem the messiest of stories. A few years ago, Brent had gone through a divorce and spent time in prison, and Jana was mourning the death of her husband. Neither of their lives were anything like what they would have wanted, but God wasn’t done. Now they’ve made it their mission to help people experience the same type of life change that they did, and they sit down with Davey to share the story of how they got there.

Caleb Kaltenbach was given every reason to run as far away from Jesus and the Church as he could. Growing up with both of his parents in same-sex relationships, Caleb saw people hate his family in the name of God. But Caleb’s life would eventually be changed by an encounter with a Jesus who was different, and a group of Christians who modeled their faith by loving people no matter where they were. Caleb sits down with Davey to talk about this experience and his mission to reconcile the church and the LGBTQ community.

Losing someone we love is one of the hardest things any of us will ever go through, and it’s nearly impossible to know how to handle it. There is no manual for grief. But the story doesn’t end in sorrow. We mourn, but we don’t mourn like those who have no hope. Beth Marshall experience this pain when her mother passed away very suddenly. Now she sits down with Davey to talk about walking with God through grief, and how how she’s made it her mission to help others do the same.

When we go through trials in life, it can be easy to isolate ourselves. Sometimes misery doesn’t love company, and our instinct can be to face our pain on our own. When Tara-Leigh Cobble walked through a season of pain, she could have chosen to do just that. Instead, she shared her life with a community of believers, and they helped her walk through the loss of a family member, medical crises, and more. Tara-Leigh talks with Davey about connecting believers by leading the D-Group ministry, helping people engage with God’s word through the Bible Recap podcast, and more.

Jeff and Mackenzie Rollins are not content to see their ministry confined to the mission fields they’ve worked on. While they’ve served as full-time missionaries overseas, they’ve taken their calling far beyond that. On and off the mission fields, they’ve made it their mission to intentionally spread the Gospel and build a strong community wherever they are. But that community would be put to the test when tragedy struck the Rollins’ young family. Jeff and Mackenzie sit down with Davey to share their powerful story.

Erica Camacho’s story is one that’s almost hard to believe. It’s a story of success and heartbreak, exotic animals and sudden illness, hope and tragedy. But mostly, it’s a story of a family’s unwavering faith. Erica shares her story with Davey and Kristi about how her family kept their faith in God and their relationship with each other through unimaginable circumstances.

What’s on your mind right now? For most of us, the answer is usually a lot of things. We live in a culture of always doing more, of constantly trying to cram as much as possible into every moment. Too often we find ourselves worrying more than we can handle, and it’s eating away at us. In her new book The Next Right Thing, Emily P. Freeman suggests that we can live fuller lives by simplifying what we’re thinking about. She sits down with Davey to talk about what would happen if we let go of many of the worries we hold onto and simply asked, “What is the next right thing for me to do now?”

Family relationships have always been incredibly important to Mollie Thorsen. She works full-time helping run a family business with her dad, and her siblings were her best friends. None of us is ever ready to lose someone close to us, and when a sudden illness took the life of Mollie’s sister, she was devastated. But Mollie knows that the pain she feels won’t have the final word. In this episode, she sits down with Davey to talk about healing alongside her family, how God worked to prepare her to walk through this trial, and how her pain is propelling her to a greater purpose.