We’ve probably all heard the sermons about not trusting our emotions. “We should preach to our feelings and not let them lead us,” they say. After all, the heart is deceitful above all things, right? While that may be true, it doesn’t mean we should ignore our emotions or treat them as excess baggage. That’s something that Elizabeth Laing Thompson knows very well. Elizabeth advocates for us to recognize that God made us as emotional beings, and our feelings are not some problem for us to push aside or fight against. Elizabeth sits down with Davey to share some of her story of how she’s come to grips with her own feelings and how we can learn to have a healthy relationship with our own emotions.

Failure is not something any of us want. It is consistently ranked as one of the most common fears, but it is also a fact of life. None of us make it through with a perfect record. That’s something that Os Hillman learned the hard way. After not one, but two failed marriages, and going from thriving in business to being broke, Os had been through failure and adversity on a tremendous scale. What Os learned is that God was in those trials, and that there are lessons to be learned from all of our failures, if we are willing to listen. Os sits down with Davey to share a bit of his story and the lessons he’s learned the hard way on his journey.

For some of us, the idea of racial trauma is entirely theoretical. We maybe understand it as a thing of the past from the limited history we were taught, or we turn on the TV and see reports of it happening to someone else. Someone who doesn’t look like us. But we don’t all have that luxury, that unique privilege of experiencing racism in the third person. Sheila Wise Rowe knows this all too well. Ever since she was a child, racial trauma was a part of Sheila’s life. Now she’s made it her mission to help others heal from it. Sheila sits down with Davey for an important conversation about her story and what each of us can do in this pivotal moment in history.

As a pastor, Dr. Adam B. Dooley had preached about having faith in the midst of trials many times. After all, what pastor hasn’t? But standing in a hospital room with his three-year-old son, Adam’s theoretical knowledge was about the become practical. No parent should have to hear that their child has leukemia. With an uphill battle in front of his family and questions of whether his son would even survive, Adam was forced to find hope in the middle of the deepest darkness. Adam sits down with Davey to share a bit of story and what he’s learned through it all.

We want to believe that the churches and other Christian environments that our children grow up in will always be safe, but too often that isn’t the case. This is something Jill Monaco knows all too well. After a sexual assault from a priest as a child, Jill grew up wondering what was wrong with her. What had she done to invite this horrible abuse? As her adult life fell into a spiral of continued sexual and spiritual abuse, Jill was forced to learn the truth of who God is and who he says she is apart from the brokenness of others that she was experiencing. Jill sits down with Davey to share some of her story and how she’s helping others learn the hard lessons that God has taught her.

While Erin was in the midst of grieving her traumatic loss, Steve was about to walk into one of his own. He and his wife Wendy went to bed one night just like any other happily married couple, but Wendy never woke up. In the second part of their conversation with Davey, Steve shares his story and the couple shares how they found each other in the wake of unimaginable tragedy and what God has done in their lives since.

Before Erin Ullmer had met her husband Steve, before her new life and new family, there was the moment on the bridge. The moment where everything changed. A peaceful day walking in the park for Erin, her husband John, and their kids turned into a life-defining moment when Erin lost her husband, her daughter, and very nearly her life in a random act of violence. In this first part of their conversation with Davey, Erin and Steve share the beginning of her story and how God met her in a place of unimaginable pain.

Cory and Michelle Joy knew their oldest son Caleb had some struggles. They’d caught him in smaller things like drinking and smoking weed, but it was all too easy to dismiss this as childish foolishness. Surely he’d grow up and move past these things, right? By the time they realized the extent of the grip that addiction had on Caleb’s life, it was too late. Despite their best efforts to support him, Caleb’s addiction would eventually claim his life. Still fresh in their grief, Cory and Michelle sit down with Davey to finish off the addiction series by discussing what they’ve learned by walking through this painful valley and how they’re doing everything possible to keep others from going down the same path Caleb did.

Even as a child, Allen Cothran could tell his experience with drugs wasn’t like everyone else’s when he was quite literally intoxicated with the feeling he got from simple cold medicine. As an adult, Allen found himself pulled into using pills and alcohol to medicate away emotional pain, and the problem only grew from there. Stuck in the tension between his family and ministry and an uncontrollable addiction, it wasn’t until after a near-fatal overdose that Allen woke up to the struggle he was in. Allen sits down with Davey to share how he got clean and now helps others do the same in this continuation of our series on addiction.

Before he was the bestselling author of Every Man’s Battle and many other books, before the radio show and the successful ministry, Stephen Arterburn was an addict. When he was exposed to pornography at an early age, Stephen’s mindset was set down a dark path that would shape his life for years to come. Stephen’s journey from a sex addict to someone who’s ministered to thousands around the world is kind of story only God can write. Stephen sits down with Davey to continue our addiction series by talking about his story and the things he’s learned along the way.

Seth Haines looked like he had it all together. As a lawyer and a writer, no one would have suspected that he had a problem. Sure he drank pretty regularly, but who doesn’t? It didn’t seem to be affecting his home life or his career. He’d never gotten a DUI, never been abusive, never seen alcohol hurt his work. On the outside, it looked like Seth had it all under control, but on the inside he knew he had a problem. Drinking had become his escape from the world, and before he knew it he couldn’t get by without that escape. To kick off our addiction series, Seth shares some of his story with Davey about how he realized he had a problem and what he’s learned about himself and God in coming clean.

Esther Fleece’s childhood wasn’t easy. Having dealt with an abusive father and being abandoned by her mother before age 13, Esther went through more hardship as a child than many of us may hope to face in our lives. Her trials didn’t stop there though. When the now-adult Esther’s father showed up at her home after years of absence and began stalking her, it became clear that her trauma would not be confined to just childhood. Esther sits down with Davey to share some of her story and what she’s learned about what it means to be “saved” by God.

As a successful neurosurgeon, Dr. Lee Warren was no stranger to hopelessness. He often had the unenviable job of telling patients that their prognosis wasn’t good. Day in and day out, Lee lived in this tension. He believed in a God who brought hope, but he so frequently saw people who’s situation was hopeless. But this went from theoretical to physical for Lee when his son was found dead in his home. Lee found himself wrestling with God from a whole new angle as he was forced to confront the question “How do we hold onto hope when everything is hopeless?” Lee sits down with Davey to talk about his latest book I’ve Seen the End of You and how he’s learned that God brings hope to the most hopeless of situations.

Matt Hammitt had what looked like the perfect Christian life. As the lead singer of the successful Christian rock band, Sanctus Real, and a wife and kids at home, it seemed like he had found his purpose in life. But just as Sanctus Real’s biggest hit song was rocketing up the charts, Matt and his wife Sarah got news that their unborn son had a rare, life-threatening heart defect. As their young son went through surgeries and treatments, Matt began to feel like God was calling him away from his thriving career in music to live out a greater calling as a husband and father. Matt sits down with Davey to share his story of his son’s medical struggles, walking away from the band, and finding a new calling he never would have expected.

Three years ago this week, the Nothing Is Wasted Podcast was launched. Since then, we’ve seen more people find hope and healing than we could have ever imagined, and we are so thankful to all of you in our community for listening and sharing what God is doing in your lives through this ministry. One of the questions we get most often is “How did Nothing Is Wasted start?” So for our third birthday celebration, with thought it would be a good idea to turn things around a little bit. Davey sat down with our new co-host Aubrey Sampson to share his story of pain, loss, and healing, and how it led him to found Nothing Is Wasted Ministries.

On the last episode of this podcast, we promised a special episode this week to celebrate three years of the Nothing Is Wasted Podcast. The world seemed different when we made those plans. In light of the killing of George Floyd last week and the civil unrest that has permeated our country over the last several days, we felt like that wasn’t the message that our community needed right now. Perhaps more importantly, we felt like we are not the first voices that you should be listening to in this moment.

Most divorce stories don’t end in remarriage, but Jeff and Cheryl Scruggs are the exception. After seven years apart, the couple and their daughters were a whole family once again. But a wedding is only the start of a marriage, and Jeff and Cheryl’s second wedding was only their first step into a long journey of learning what a Godly marriage really looks like. Jeff and Cheryl return to talk more with Davey about what life has looked like since they remarried and the things they’ve learned along the way.

With a wife and two daughters, Jeff Scruggs thought he had everything he could want in life. His wife Cheryl felt differently. Dissatisfaction in the marriage eventually led to an affair, and no matter how hard Jeff fought for their marriage, the couple soon found themselves divorced. But the death of their marriage wasn’t the end of their story. Lonely and hurt, Cheryl and Jeff met Jesus and after years apart they began the slow, hard work of reconciliation. Jeff and Cheryl sit down with Davey to share their story of divorce, salvation, reconciliation, remarriage, and more.

Michele Cushatt was already no stranger to pain and hardship when she faced her biggest challenge yet. Michele made her living as a successful communicator, which made it that much more heartbreaking when a doctor told her she had cancer in her tongue. They removed the cancer, and it came back again and again, until Michele was left in a state of constant pain for months and with effects that would last the rest of her life. Michele sits down with Davey to talk about her new book Relentless and how she’s learned how to walk with God through so many trials.

Luke Lezon’s life was already hard enough. Getting married and planting a church in the same year had turned out to be plenty challenging on its own. But Luke’s life got even harder when he suddenly contracted a mysterious illness. As doctor after doctor failed to diagnose just what was wrong with him, Luke found himself walking through the hardest trial he’d ever faced. Luke sits down with Davey to share some of what he learned about God both in the middle of hardship and in healing found in the most unlikely of sources.