There are few, if any, challenges as difficult and important as being a mother. From conception to adulthood, moms are tasked with raising their children, taking care of them, and making sure they grow up in a loving, safe home where they can become the best people they can be. This task is simultaneously incredibly rewarding and unimaginably challenging. Every mom knows that being a mother comes with pains and trials that none of us would ask for.To kick off our Parenting Series, Aubrey is joined by Kristi Blackburn for a special conversation about the joys and pains of motherhood. Aubrey and Kristi’s motherhood stories are very different, but they are both intimately familiar with the challenges and pains that come with this responsibility. And more importantly, they both know how God has met them in the midst of these challenges. Aubrey and Kristi share some of their mothering stories and the wisdom they’ve learned along the way in this special conversation.

This week marks the fourth anniversary of the launch of the Nothing Is Wasted Podcast! In the last four years, we’ve seen God move in incredible ways through this ministry and this podcast in particular. To celebrate the occasion, Kristi joins Davey and Aubrey to answer some of your questions, and we update you on some big events in Kristi and Aubrey’s lives as well as in Nothing Is Wasted Ministries as a whole.Thank you for listening to and supporting the Nothing Is Wasted Podcast over these last four years. Whether you’re a brand new listener or you’ve been listening since episode 1, we couldn’t do this without you. Your listenership and support are what makes the healing that so many people have experienced in the last four years possible, and we really believe that this is only the beginning!

For many of us, our pain is a one-time event. We experience something truly terrible, and then we begin the process of healing. While we may carry the scars of that experience forever, we won’t spend the rest of our lives in the same valley we found ourselves in in our worst moments. But what if that’s not the case? This is the questions that Liuan Huska faced when she discovered that she was dealing with chronic pain. Forced to come to terms with the realization that she would never be without this pain, Liuan had to wrestle with what meant to trust that God was good in the middle of a trial that no one would have asked for or imagined. Liuan sits down with Davey to share some of her story and what she’s learned about who God really is by walking through a painful season with no clear end in sight.

For most of us, forgiveness is a tricky subject. We know in our minds that it’s the right thing to do, and we probably try to forgive minor offenses as best we can. But when we are wronged in a much larger sense, forgiveness feels like the last thing we want to do. Lysa Terkeurst is all too familiar with that feeling. Not only is she a hugely successful ministry leader and bestselling author, but Lysa has walked through incredible amounts of hurt in her own life. Through this journey, Lysa has learned what forgiveness really is and how it unlocks the door for us to heal from our own wounds regardless of whether or not we are reconciled with those that wounded us. Lysa sits down with Davey to share some of what she’s learned about forgiveness and reconciliation, and the ways they factor into bringing healing in each of our stories.

When we’re in the middle of a trial, sometimes the idea of joy can seem ridiculous. It’s a concept that’s all over our worship songs and quotable Bible verses, we hear about it constantly in stories and sermons. But in the midst of pain, how are we supposed to be joyful? That’s the questions that Shaunti Feldhahn was attempting to wrestle with when she sat down to write her newest devotional. Shaunti filled the pages of Find Joy with words that she believed the Holy Spirit had given her to help others, but little did she know that she would soon find herself in need of the very things she was writing. Shaunti sits down with Davey to share some of what she’s learned about holding onto joy no matter what circumstance we find ourselves in.

No matter how successful we are in life, all of us are just one piece of bad news away from our entire world shifting into something we can’t imagine. That’s what Robb Hiller experienced when he was diagnosed with not just one form of cancer, but three. With his prognosis extremely negative and unsure how much longer he’d be alive, Robb embarked on the most difficult journey of his life. But in the middle of the pains of cancer treatment and the fear of death, Robb learned lessons about the nature of God and all of our lives that couldn’t be learned except through the fires of unbelievable pain. Robb sits down with Davey to share some of his story and what he learned about how we can thrive by helping others even in the midst of our own valleys.

We often think of our lives as sectioned off in different parts, each one wholly independent from the other. Our mental, physical, and spiritual lives have nothing to do with each other, or so we think. But in reality, our selves are nothing like that. The physical, mental, and spiritual sides of ourselves are all interconnected, and when one suffers or thrives, so do all the others. Anne Kertz Kernion has made it her goal to share the intersection between neuroscience, theology, and psychology, and how each of these affects the others and holistically impacts our lives. Anne sits down with Davey to share some simple spiritual practices we can do to help our mental and emotional health even in the midst of trials.

When we think of greatness, it’s hard not to picture a career like Darryl Strawberry’s. For many of us, he’s a household name, and his accomplishments as a professional baseball player speak for themselves. But no amount of fame and fortune could truly bring Darryl happiness. Instead, it would take a radical shifting of everything in Darryl’s life for him to realize that he’d spent his time chasing the wrong things. Now rather than pursuing his own fame, Darryl spends his life making the name of Jesus famous. Darryl sits down with Davey to talk about how God met him in the middle of his own mess and turned him around to find a whole new purpose.

Most of us believe in God in our minds. We think all the right things, that God is in control, that he is good, that nothing is wasted. But when these beliefs only live in our head, there’s only so far they can take us. It’s when we walk through intense suffering that these ideas move from our heads to our hearts, and that’s when God truly becomes real to us. Vaneetha Risner knows this all too well. Through chronic disease, miscarriage, sexual betrayal, the loss of a child, and more, Vaneetha has come to know God deeply through unimaginable pain. Vaneetha sits down with Davey to share some how she’s learned to thrive in the midst of suffering by taking back her story.

For most of us who have walked through difficult seasons, we can probably point to one big trauma in our lives. There’s usually this one point where everything went wrong, everything shifted in ways we never saw coming, and now we’re left trying to pick up the pieces. But for Kendra Clark, those painful seasons just kept coming. In the span of a few years, Kendra lost her parents and her brother, her husband left her, she went through several traumatic medical challenges, and more. Faced with a seemingly endless cycle of trial after trial, Kendra was forced to ask, “how is God really good in the midst of all this mess?” Kendra sits down with Davey to share some of her story and how she learned to not only survive but thrive in the midst of so many painful seasons.

For those of us who are parents, seeing our children suffer or in danger is one of the greatest pains we can experience. We want to hold on to these blessings from God, to keep them safe within our grasp from any harm that could come their way. But, as Meg Apperson knows all too well, that isn’t always possible. Meg’s second child was born with a rare birth defect that led to life-threatening complications, and before her youngest was out of the ICU, her older child was hospitalized separately. With two children in two different ICU’s, Meg was forced to come to terms with the realities of suffering and to wrestle with the question, “Is God really good when all of this is so bad?” Meg sits down with Davey to share her story and some of what she’s learned about trusting in the goodness of God no matter the outcome.

Each of our financial situations looks different. For some of us, 2020 was a hard year, and we’re still trying to pick up the pieces and figure out how to move forward. Others of us are more comfortable, able to pay our bills on time without any worry and perhaps wondering how we should handle this privilege. No matter what our bank accounts look like, we are all called to steward what we have wisely and to live generously, even if that looks different from one person to the next. That’s what Joe Sangl spends his life teaching people. As a leader teacher on finances from a Christian perspective, Joe has helped hundreds of thousands of people understand how to handle their money according to Biblical principles in any situation. To close out our Business and Finance Series, Joe sits down with Davey to share a little of how he got where he is now and some advice we all can follow on stewarding our finances well.

Painful seasons often bring financial struggles in their wake. As so many people have learned over the course of the pandemic that has wreaked havoc for the last year, our financial situations can be overturned in a moment’s notice due to circumstances beyond our control. Even those of us who have enough money have to ask ourselves, are we really doing everything we can now to prepare wisely for the future? Ryan Mack has made it his mission to help people deal with these sorts of challenges. In this installment of our Business and Finance Series, Ryan sits down with Davey to share how abundance isn’t about how much money we have in the bank, and to teach some practical steps for how we can arrange our lives to live abundantly no matter our situation.

It’s all too easy for us to try to separate the elements of the Christian life. We go to church, maybe we read our Bibles, but we only apply that to our inner lives. We see pastors and ministry leaders working full time for God, but we don’t see ourselves the same way. Most of us go about our day-to-day lives at our workplaces as though the truth of God’s word doesn’t affect that part of our lives. David Steward and Brandon Mann want to change that. As both followers of Christ and highly successful business people, their goal is to help others live on mission no matter what their job is. To continue our Business and Finance Series, David and Brandon sit down with Davey to share some of their story and how they help equip people to find their ministry in the marketplace.

Painful seasons are hard enough to walk through on their own, but too often, these trials come with the added burden of financial hardship. Whether it’s the loss of a job, unexpected medical bills, or any other number of factors, pain can multiply when money gets involved. Rachel Cruze has made it her mission to help people get control of their money no matter what season of life they’re in. As a speaker, host, and author, she reaches countless people with the good news that they don’t have to live as slaves to their own wallets. To kick off our Business and Finance Series, Rachel sits down with Davey to share some of what she’s learned about how our families of origin affect how we relate to money, and how she helps people take back their finances.

Erin Weidemann thought she made all the right decisions growing up. She was ambitious, driven, and seemingly healthy, chasing after the success that she believed would bring her a good life. But under the surface, she was far from okay. A devastating form of cancer had begun growing in Erin without presenting any outward symptoms, and by the time she found out, it seemed like it was too late. With her life seemingly on the verge of being cut short, Erin found herself reevaluating everything she thought she knew. Erin sits down with Davey to share how she found God, love, a family, and a purpose out of the painful season she walked through.

It’s easy for us to put pastors on a pedestal. We look to our spiritual leaders to be further along in their journeys than we are, but who does the pastor turn to with their own struggles? Too often, the answer is nobody, as was the case for Justin White. A prescription to treat a headache sent Justin down a slippery slope that ended in a full-blown heroin addiction. Small secrets led to bigger ones, and eventually Justin went from preaching behind a pulpit to living behind bars. Now free and sober, Justin sits down with Davey to share his story of addiction, recovery, and more.

Every married couple believes they’ll be together forever. But what happens when that doesn’t come true? All too often we ignore little problems until they become large ones, and too many marriages end prematurely as a result. That was the case for both Mary and Dave Gothi. When both their first marriages failed, it seemed like the death of both of their dreams. But God had plans for both of them that they could have never seen coming. Mary and Dave sit down with Davey to conclude our marriage series with their story of divorce and remarriage, and how they now help other married couples all around the world find the same wholeness that they have.

One of the most defining characteristics of marriage is the promise of faithfulness. There is something sacred that happens when we stand before God and promise to love one person only, until death do us part. But for far too many, that promise ends up broken. Too often, we’re left asking “what now?” That was Hilarie and Joe Barry’s story. Both the product of a previous failed marriage, everything came crashing down in their lives when Hilarie discovered that Joe had repeatedly been unfaithful. In this installment of our marriage series, Hilarie and Joe sit down with Davey to share what it looked like to walk through this season and how they’ve taken back their story, and their marriage, from the clutches of infidelity.

As a marriage and family counselor, Nicole Zasowski spent her days helping others walk through difficult seasons in their home life. But after two consecutive miscarriages, Nicole and her husband received news from a doctor that no one wants to hear. It would be incredibly difficult for Nicole to have a child, and every attempt would come with a large risk of walking through the pain of miscarriage yet again. Thrown headlong into a valley of her own, Nicole found herself having to learn in her life what she already taught to others. Nicole sits down with Davey to share her story of how God met her in her trial, and how she’s continuing to help others find the same healing that she has.