The Nothing Is Wasted Podcast

How do you prepare yourself for loss? What do you do in the days before your world encounters a seismic shift? Can you ever truly be ready to face your greatest pain? For Melissa Swain, nothing could fully prepare her for the unexpected loss of her husband, Chris, in 2021 but in the days long before such a tragic grief, she had made the decision to trust God no matter what. Just a few years before...

We all come into marriage with our past hurts and hangups. How do you begin to untangle the knots from your previous life and start to build a new, healthy one together? What do you do when shame seems to overshadow everything within your relationship? For Quinton and Tameca Graham, it took a lot of open communication and grace from God in order to heal their hearts individually and together in th...

If you've ever served others in ministry, you know how quickly you can go from a thriving, joy-filled season to one in which you become a target for criticism and betrayal. How do you protect your heart when the very people you are serving hurt it? How do you navigate the wounds inflicted upon you by the people of God? As a pastor's wife, author Joanna Weaver knows all too well how deep the pain c...

How can we begin to process our stories after a life-altering loss? Where can hope be found in the midst of insufferable pain? How do we connect the dots and find God's hand in our lives when suffering overshadows? For Joan Kelley, those were difficult questions to answer after losing her teenage son, Will, to cancer. Yet, she found healing through looking at her life and the ways God has shown up...

WARNING: This episode contains conversations about suicide ideation and may not be suitable for all listeners/viewers. The statistics are staggering: twenty-two veterans die by suicide a day. After years of serving in the Army, Fernando Arroyo almost became one of those twenty-two when the pain of his experience in the military made him want to end his life. Finding hope and healing in the afterma...

If you've been around here at Nothing is Wasted, you probably know the story of how we came to be as a ministry. It was after his own pain to purpose journey in which Davey Blackburn lost his wife, Amanda, and their unborn child in a tragic home invasion that God birthed this idea of a ministry that walked others through whatever pain they faced. In this special two-part conversation, Davey sits d...

If you've been around here at Nothing is Wasted, you probably know the story of how we came to be as a ministry. It was after his own pain to purpose journey in which Davey Blackburn lost his wife, Amanda, and their unborn child in a tragic home invasion that God birthed this idea of a ministry that walked others through whatever pain they faced. In this special two-part conversation, Davey sits d...

There are moments in life where in an instant, everything changes. How do you choose joy when your whole life is blindsided by pain? How do you find hope when you don't even know what the next hour may bring? For Kelli Campbell-Goodnow, she never imagined the turn her life would take one night in January 2016. As she went to sleep, her life was good with her loving husband, United States Marine CH...

Losing a spouse is devastating. Losing a spouse to suicide is full of layers of pain and questions. How do you even begin to wrap your mind around such a traumatic event and how do you walk your children through their pain? What do you do when a new tragedy stirs up your past wounds and hurts from your childhood? Blake Williams has spent the last year navigating those questions and so many more af...

There are some stories with such unfathomable pain that it can seem impossible to ever see a glimpse of redemption throughout them. When the depth of heartbreak is so great, how can you ever see the light of goodness again? Jerry Sittser has walked a road of catastrophic loss that most of us cannot even imagine. In 1991, Jerry, his wife, mother, and children were hit head on by a drunk driver. In...

With so much going against leaders today, how can one learn to push through the hardships and challenges and stay the course? How do you keep pressing on when discouragement, rejection, or wounds make you want to quit? Glenn Burris has served his entire adult life in ministry. He has led churches and organizations through the ups and downs that inevitably come. He has suffered the wounds that can...

What do you do when you were living the life you always dreamed of and find it taken away in a matter of moments? How do you learn to trust God after a tragic loss? How can you forgive when a grave injustice is done against you and your family? Laura Hao had to answer these questions and so many more when she lost her husband in a senseless murder in 2018. Laura had always dreamed of becoming a mi...

It's every parent's worst fear to lose a child. How do you continue to trust God when you're experiencing unrelenting pain? The journey after such a tragic loss is never linear and it can be full of chaotic feelings and opposing emotions. Yet God offers us an invitation to meet Him in the messiness of grief. For Esther Lee, that invitation was often on the cold, dirty hospital bathroom floor where...

According to current statistics, we are facing a crisis when it comes to mental health and our kids. With an increase in suicide rates, depression and anxiety, many kids and teens are facing so much more than they can begin to know how to handle. What can we do as adults to be a safe place for a young person? How can we help a child heal from trauma and crisis? Kim Tschirret knew from her own pers...

What happens when you find yourself in the middle of a national tragedy, when your story is part of a collective one on every news outlet in the country? How do you find healing after a trauma played out on a national stage? For Christina Stanton, that was a lifelong question that began on a fateful day in New York City on September 11, 2001. Running for her life after the Twin Towers attack left...

So often when it comes to the topic of singleness, there is this sense that many believe significance comes only when you finally find "the one." But the truth is, leading a life full of purpose doesn't have to wait until there is a significant other. In fact, singleness, no matter how long that season lasts, can be a fulfilling, purposeful time that the Lord uses in your life and in the lives of...

Sometimes life can break your heart after one unexpected tragedy. But, what about when circumstances seems to break your heart all throughout your story? How do you find healing when it seems heartache is woven into the fabric of your life? For Christian recording artist, Blanca, it felt like her whole life was marred by heartbreak. As a child, she was a victim of sexual abuse. As an adult, she lo...

How do you live life with the end in mind, especially when you are told your days are numbered? We all know that Scripture calls us to live life through the lens of heaven, but how do we really do that? For Colleen Chao, finding out she had Stage 4 Cancer forced her to think about living the way God called her to in spite of the fact or perhaps because of the fact, that she is dying. Having expect...

Have you ever felt like you've gotten stuck in the grief? Instead of allowing the pain to bring something new and beautiful forth in your life, do you find yourself struggling to move forward? Any loss can leave us feeling stuck, but for a parent, losing a child can make it feel like there will never be life past the devastation. For September Vaudrey, losing her beautiful, 19 year old daughter in...

What do you do when you feel disconnected from God in the middle of a hard season? How do you learn to trust Him when circumstances make you angry and confused? For Emmanuel and Adrienne Threatt, this was the wrestling they navigated after experiencing multiple miscarriages over a period of time in which other losses seemed to come at them unrelentingly. Trust can come easy when things are going o...

What do you do when life takes a turn you never saw coming? How can you step into a story you didn't plan for yourself? For Kelley Scites, the wrestling with those questions began after an unexpected surgery. What had promised relief from pain and a new lease on life ended with having to be put on full time oxygen. The life she had imagined as an active mom came to a screeching halt as she had to...

It can be so hard to see, let alone accept the hand of God in the middle of our deepest pain. How can you learn to trust God's sovereignty in your darkest moments? For Greg and Cathy Buffkin, that was no small feat. After losing their adult son Ryan to suicide, it was difficult to accept their loss and find the strength to move forward after so much pain. Living every parent's greatest fear, the B...

How do you persevere in the face of unending challenges and difficult circumstances? Where can you find the strength to keep going when life tries to knock you down over and over again? For Dr. Danisha Keating, building resilience seemed impossible after a traumatic childhood filled with abuse and moving in and out of the foster care system. Her journey in life was hard, at one point leading her t...

How do you choose joy when it feels impossible? What can you do when a chronic diagnosis leaves you debilitated? For Lindsey Wheeler, the answer did not come easily. After a Lyme disease diagnosis left her struggling to get out of bed everyday, Lindsey knew she had to make a choice: to see the good in life in spite of her circumstances or to dwell in self-pity. It wasn't easy, but Lindsey chose to...

How do you grieve what never was? What does it look like when your grief is over a dream rather than a reality? For Megan Smalley, learning to navigate the unseen grief and pain of infertility was difficult and at times, lonely. Megan experienced the whole range of emotions that came through her initial diagnosis of infertility to the arduous, sometimes discouraging path through IVF to the wrestli...