Relationships that are worth having are never easy. While this is true for any relationship from friends to family members, it may never be more true than in romance. Anyone, whether single, dating, engaged or married, will tell you that a good relationship with a significant other takes work. Debra Fileta knows this all too well as a licensed counselor specializing in relationships. She often sees people when their relationships are falling apart, and over her years of working with these individuals and couples she’s picked up a ton of wisdom about how to navigate these choppy waters. Debra joins Davey to kick off our Toxic Relationships Series and share some of her knowledge about how we can avoid toxic relationships and keep ours healthy and whole.

After a lifetime of trauma and hardship, healing and wholeness can seem unattainable. Every new trial feels like a step in the wrong direction, and eventually we look up and the life we want to live seems impossibly far away. This is where Kristi Blackburn’s story begins. She’s walked through more trials than anyone should have to face: an abusive father left her fearing for her life and the lives of her family. A physical assault in a foreign country left her injured and anxious. A failed marriage left her a single mother with seemingly no hope of a “normal” home life. No one would want to walk through any one of these, but Kristi has faced all of them and more. For this special 100th episode of the Nothing Is Wasted Podcast, Kristi sits down with Davey to share her incredible story of how God has walked with her through countless hardships and brought healing in ways she never would have expected.

Just about every pastor has preached at least a few sermons on how to go through trials. They can have all the right scriptures, all the best theology, all the best words to encourage and inspire the people they’ve been entrusted with. But what happens when a trial hits the pastor’s life? That’s what Mark Vroegop found himself asking when he and his wife lost their unborn daughter just weeks before she would have been born. As further medical complications made the aftermath of this tragedy even more difficult to navigate, Mark and his wife found themselves in a place where everything they believed was tested. And in that season they learned a deeper way to relate to God. They learned to lament. Mark sits down with Davey to talk about what he’s learned about walking through suffering and how we can develop a deeper relationship with God by trusting him with our pain.

It seemed like everything was right in Rebekah Lyons’ world. Recently moved to New York and with her children all in elementary school, it seemed like Rebekah was living a great life. But anxiety was lurking just below the surface, waiting to change all that. After her first panic attack left her lying on the floor of an airplane, Rebekah found herself living at the whims of anxiety and depression. But she found freedom from it, and now she wants to help others do the same. As a national speaker and bestselling author, Rebekah has made it her mission to help people find the same freedom and purpose that she has. Rebekah sits down with Davey to talk about her story, her newest book Rhythms of Renewal, and how we can structure our lives to find freedom from anxiety.

At age nine, John O’Leary’s world was very literally set on fire. Childish curiosity got the best of him, and playing with a gas can left him with burns over his entire body and an incredibly slim chance for survival. But when John came out of the hospital, this literal inferno had stirred up a metaphorical fire inside him. John now makes it his mission to help and inspire others by sharing his story and teaching people how to ignite the same “fire” that still burns in his soul. John sits down with Davey to share his story and what he’s learned through it.

Terry Wardle’s upbringing was not an easy one. Growing up impoverished in rural America, young Terry watched his family struggle through an unbelievable amount of disfunction. Crime, violence, and death became staples of his life, and this exposure to things that no young child should see made a lasting impact. Years later, all these hurts bubbled up to the surface. Terry had a successful ministry, but the unresolved pain in his life had left him in a dark place. It was only when he began to intentionally confront this years-old hurt that Terry began to find healing. Terry sits down with Davey to share some of his story and how he’s teaching others how to heal well from old wounds.

It seemed like an evening like any other for Karen Millsap. She picked up her kids from her husband’s CrossFit gym in the evening and headed home to do some work. But a single phone call was all it would take to shatter the illusion of normalcy forever. Amid the chaos on the other end of the phone, Karen was able to make out just one word. “Shot.” By the time she got there it was too late, and Karen found herself widowed at only 29 years old. Karen sits down with Davey to talk about the things she’s learned from grief and how she’s using her story to help others who find themselves in the same situation.

Debra Moerke’s story is one that is almost hard to process. It’s a story of immense tragedy and hardship, but also one of incredible grace and forgiveness. Being a foster parent couldn’t have seemed easy, but when Debra agreed to take in a group of siblings from an abusive home, she could never have foreseen the amount of pain that she was about to step into. But out of that pain, God thought Debra an incredible lesson in forgiveness, and now in her book Murder, Motherhood, and Miraculous Grace, Debra shares that lesson. She sits down with Davey to talk about this story and what God has taught her through it all.

When Sarah Forgrave was only four years old, her older sister was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. The doctors said her chances of survival were slim. This worst case scenario became “normal” for Sarah as she spent some of her most formative years watching her sister’s four-year battle with cancer. Having walked through this trial, Sarah found herself unknowingly prepared for more to come, and as an adult she would watch her loved ones face more medical trauma and eventually go through it herself. Through all the valleys she’s watched and walked through, Sarah found her purpose. She sits down with Davey to share how she found the power in stories and how she’s using hers to help others.

When Kevan Chandler was diagnosed with a rare neuromuscular disease as a small child, it would have seemed that his life would have limits. How could it not be when he would never even take a single step?

We often think of our perfect life as being very peaceful. We want everything to be neat and tidy, and any chaos or messes are obstacles to be eliminated. But when an encounter with a homeless man changed her life forever, Ginger Spouse began to wonder if the best that God has for us isn’t a perfectly clean life, but one where we embrace the messiness that He brings us. Ginger sits down with Davey to share what God did through her willingness to invite chaos into her life, and what that means for each of us.

Misty Phillip’s story is not an easy one. Through loss, rape, abortion, suicidal thoughts, stillbirth, and more, she’s walked through darker valleys than most could imagine. With everything she’s gone through, it would be hard to blame her for turning her back on God. After all, who could believe in a good God in the face of so much hurt? Instead, she’s learned to walk closer with God through every painful step of her journey. Misty sits down with Davey to share some of her story and what she’s learned through unfathomable hardship.

Born into a life defined by poverty and crime, LaMorris Crawford had a pretty tough childhood. The orphaned son of a teenage mother, LaMorris looked for anything he could find to numb his pain. Sports, popularity, drugs — all the coping mechanisms available to a poor young kid were not enough. All of that changed when LaMorris had a radical encounter with Jesus. Once a poor kid with little hope for a future, he now works as a traveling evangelist and the chaplain for the Cincinnati Bengals. LaMorris joins Davey to talk about his story of transformation, how he’s finding redemption in the worst aspects of his own history, and some of the chances he’s had to share the hope he’s found with others.

The picture of life that existed in a young Justine Froelker’s mind was beautiful. She was a girl with a passion for dance, and she planned to make that dream her reality. But those dreams were shattered when mysterious pains landed her in the hospital, and she spent her high school years in and out of hospitals, surgeries, and body casts. Years later, Justine felt the ripple effect of these trials and another dream she had died when she found herself unable to have children. Now, as an author, speaker, and counselor, Justine spends her life taking the lessons she’s learned in her valleys and helping others walk through theirs. She sits down with Davey to share how she’s rewriting her painful story and teaching others to do the same.

No parent should ever have to bury their child. The amount of pain that comes with that experience is unfathomable, a grief so strong it defies words. Tammie Brenton knows this all too well. When her daughter Madi found herself in the hospital after the birth of her second child, everything changed for Tammie and her family. Through misdiagnoses and failed treatments, transplants and seeming recoveries, they walked through the ups and downs of a years-long battle with this disease. Tammie sits down with Davey to share her fresh story of grief and how she found God’s presence every step of the way.

“Cancer.” It’s the word none of us wants to hear on the other end of a phone call or a conversation. It’s the ultimate boogeyman of all disease, containing a thousand worst-case scenarios and unimaginable trials in just one word. When Joanna Dennstaedt was diagnosed with skin cancer, it sent her into an incredibly low place. But in the midst of her valley, Joanna found purpose in her pain. The valley that Joanna found herself in is all too common, and God was going to use her to minister to the people that she found herself walking alongside in this difficult season.

The enneagram is one of the most popular tools for understanding personality. It’s become a frequent topic of conversation, the subject of endless memes, jokes, and lighthearted discussion. But while these things are fun, they barely begin to scratch the surface of what the enneagram has to offer. The depth of this powerful tool reflects the nuance and complications of what it means to be human. Chris Heuertz, author of The Sacred Enneagram, returns to the podcast to dive into the deeper side of the enneagram, how it reflects more variety than just the nine types suggest, and what this means for us when we walk through painful seasons.

Justin and Trisha Davis were a great ministry team. The two moved to Indianapolis to plant a church, and that church was growing and thriving. It seemed like a tremendous success, but problems under the surface would soon emerge. The couple had put their ministry before their marriage. Soon, their success had outpaced Justin’s character, and he found himself in an affair with Trisha’s best friend. Trisha was devastated, and Justin was ready to leave both his marriage and his ministry behind. Instead, the couple walked the long, hard road of forgiveness and reconciliation. Justin and Trisha share with Davey about how they found healing and were restored to do ministry from a better place in this installment of our Sexual Betrayal Series.