The Nothing Is Wasted Podcast

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 ho...

Matt Hammitt had what looked like the perfect Christian life. As the lead singer of the successful Christian rock band Sanctus Real and with 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...

Three years ago last 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...

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...

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 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 afte...

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 woul...

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...

“What is God’s will for my life?” If we’re honest, it’s a question we’ve all probably asked. For Mike Donehey, it’d be easy to think he’d figured out his answer. As the award-winning lead singer of Tenth Avenue North, it certainly seems like he’s doing exactly what God’s will for him is. But Mike found himself asking, “is this really God’s will?” And more than that, he even found himself wondering...

Our spiritual lives grow the most when we are in community with other believers. So what does that look like in this time when our ability to spend time with our communities has been so drastically disrupted? In this installment of our Livestream Videocast Series, Davey is joined by Tara-Leigh Cobble, Aubrey Sampson, and Tyler Tatum to discuss how to continue to grow spiritually despite social dis...

We are living in an uncertain time, and we’ve all probably felt that in our finances. Whether you’re out of work, worried about the future, or wondering what’s going to happen to your business, finances are probably not far from the front of any of our minds. In this installment of our Livestream Videocast Series, Davey is joined by Anthony ONeal, Joe Sangl, and Os Hillman to discuss how to make w...

None of us are exempt from the emotional effects of the COVID-19 outbreak. While we are all aware of the physical ramifications of the virus, this situation presents an unprecedented challenge to our emotional health as well. In this installment of our Livestream Videocast Series, Davey is joined by Alison Cook, Mike Foster, and Justine Froelker to discuss how to stay emotionally healthy in this s...

This is an unprecedented time for the church. If you’re involved in ministry on any scale, from a lead pastor to a volunteer, then you’re probably feeling the difficulty of this season. In this installment of our Livestream Videocast Series, Davey is joined by Brad Cooper, Aaron Brockett, and Tim Harlow to talk about what it looks like to do ministry in the mayhem that is our current COVID-19 cris...

Kelly Streiff’s story of pain isn’t one where she’s already walked through grief and healed and overcame. Those stories are powerful, but that isn’t the one Kelly has to share right now. When she sat down with Davey to tell her story, Kelly was only six months out from losing her baby daughter Imogen. While walking through still fresh pain and grief, Kelly shares her story and talks about what it...

“Blessing” is a word we throw around a lot in church circles. Every pastor has probably preached about it more times than they can count, and Mark Batterson is no exception. He’s even written about it in his newest book, Double Blessing. But what does a blessing actually look like? How do we know what is and isn’t a blessing? And what does it mean to see blessings even in the midst of trials? Mark...

Kasey Van Norman knows firsthand how God takes our trials and our pain and turns them around for good. She’s written a book called Nothing Wasted, and the title alone tells you that she is no stranger to the sort of things we talk about on this podcast. Kasey learned the hard way that God doesn’t waste anything when trauma early in her life left her with a disconnect between what she believed abou...

Trauma has a weird way of sneaking up on us. So many of us have experienced traumas big and small that we don’t even know the effects of to this day. These things that happen in the past live with us in the present and shape our lives without our noticing. This is at the root of the work that Aundi Kolber does. As a professional counselor and author, Aundi tries to help people understand the traum...

Nona Jones had what looked on the outside like success. She got a job at a Fortune 100 company at only 23, and her professional life only seemed to go up and to the right from there. Married to a pastor and with a deep faith of her own, it seemed that Nona had the “perfect” Christian life. But under the surface, trauma that had gone unaddressed built up until it could no longer be ignored, and Non...

Justin Skeesuck and Patrick Gray are, quite literally, lifelong best friends. Born only a couple days apart in the same small-town hospital, there hasn’t been a day when the two weren’t close. But when a teenaged Justin was diagnosed with a degenerative neuromuscular disease, both of their lives and their friendship were changed forever. Through unimaginable trial, these two friends have dedicated...

TOXIC RELATIONSHIPS SERIES PART FOUR From the outside, you could look at Ciara Weese’s life and see something close to a modern-day fairy tale. Married to her kindergarten best friend with a baby on the way and jobs as youth pastors at a church, Ciara’s life today bears little resemblance to the darkness in her past. Under the weight of trauma kept secret, unhealed wounds, and unspoken temptation,...

TOXIC RELATIONSHIPS SERIES PART THREE When Gary Thomas wrote Sacred Marriage, he probably didn’t know the amount of impact he would have. Now, with nearly a million copies sold, his words have been responsible for helping heal and sustain countless marriages. Which is, in part, why it’s so interesting that his newest book is called When To Walk Away. In the years since his earlier book, Gary has l...

Rebecca Bender’s story of becoming a victim of human trafficking is, sadly, not a unique one. By many estimates, there are more slaves in the world today than in any other time in history. In this bonus episode, Rebecca shares about some resources on how we can combat human trafficking in our own communities. This bonus episode is just a taste of the content we provide for our Nothing Is Wasted Mo...

TOXIC RELATIONSHIPS SERIES PART TWO It’s easy to think of human trafficking as something that happens “somewhere else.” We’d all agree that it’s a horrendous evil, but our subconscious minds dull its edges by framing it as happening in countries thousands of miles away or in the distant past. But for millions of people in the world today, human trafficking is a monster that must be confronted each...

TOXIC RELATIONSHIPS SERIES PART ONE 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 speciali...

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...