The Nothing Is Wasted Podcast

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 recov...

Under even the best of circumstances, parenting is a challenge. Very little that’s worth doing is easy, and raising children is no exception. But for Colleen Swindoll-Thompson, that challenge was increased tenfold when her son was born with severe special needs that would leave him dependent on her care for his whole life. But Colleen’s trials didn’t end there. A divorce from an abusive husband, a...

“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 val...

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. C...

SEXUAL BETRAYAL SERIES PART FIVE Kristin and Michael were both married to different people, but their relationships shared some dark common threads. Michael said “I do” for the first time hoping that marriage would be the answer to his addiction to pornography. Kristin’s fiancé had confessed the same struggles to her before they were married, but she thought they were in the past. But when neither...

SEXUAL BETRAYAL SERIES PART FOUR 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...

SEXUAL BETRAYAL SERIES PART THREE When Sarah Rumel moved in with her pastor’s family, it seemed like a ray of hope. In taking her in they took out of a home where drugs were a way of life, and tried to set her on a road to recovery. But instead of recovery, it led to ruin when Sarah found herself in a affair with her pastor. The next six years of Sarah’s life were a web of manipulation and control...

SEXUAL BETRAYAL SERIES PART TWO Cameron and Karissa’s lives were changed in an instant, but that night was really only the tipping point in a long journey. Issues left unresolved for years had grown to their climax when Cameron confessed his affair to Karissa. But that night was also only the tip of the iceberg in their healing. The confession was a first step, but there was an unimaginable load o...

SEXUAL BETRAYAL SERIES PART ONE It’s easy to put people in ministry on a pedestal, to expect that they have their lives together. No one expects the people they see on stage on a Sunday to fall from grace. But a strong exterior life can sometimes only mask deeper problems, as Karissa Sprinkle found out when her husband Cameron walked into their home one night and made a confession that would chang...

MENTAL HEALTH SERIES PART THREE For a lot of people, mental health just isn’t something you talk about. Unfortunately, that goes double for the church. So when Natalie Franks went through a mental health crisis in college, it seemed like she had no one to share it with. She finally opened up to her friend and roommate, Casey Pruet, but the weight of another person’s health is too much carry alone....

MENTAL HEALTH SERIES PART TWO Kayla Stoecklein’s husband Andrew was a great man of God. As a pastor of a thriving church, he stood on stage and delivered hope to thousands. But under the surface, he faced a terrible battle. After a years-long battle with depression, Andrew died by suicide in August of 2018. Despite unimaginable pain, Kayla has made it her mission to keep as many people as possible...

MENTAL HEALTH SERIES PART ONE On the surface, Sarah Pisney looked like she had a fantastic life. She was fulfilling her calling as a missionary overseas, and she would have told anyone that she was doing great. But under the surface, things weren’t so great. Undiagnosed and untreated symptoms of depression and anxiety began to take a toll on Sarah, and she found herself if a place she never would...

When trials hit our lives, it can be hard to even believe that God is for us. How can we reconcile a good God with a life that seems bad? But even if we can believe, then what? How do we relate to a good God in the middle of painful circumstances? Aubrey Sampson found herself asking that when she found herself suffering from an autoimmune disorder, watching her young son undergo surgery and a diff...

It’s hard enough when one challenge hits your life, but what if it’s not just one? Sometimes trials don’t come alone, and we can find ourselves walking through one difficult season after another. Every new circumstance brings new levels of pain and grief, and it can be hard to draw near to God when everything seems to be going wrong. This is exactly what Molly Huffman faced. After her mother’s dea...

Mere Knox is a picture of what it looks like to live a life devoted to changing the world for God. She serves as a preacher, worship leader, and much more for NewSpring Church’s Fuse student ministry, and she’s had the opportunity to impact countless lives for the gospel. Mere sits down with Davey to share some of her story and the things she’s learned about ministry, community, singleness, gender...

Rachel and Simon Henry’s lives were changed in an instant, but their story goes far beyond that one night. In this second part of the interview, Rachel and Simon continue to share with Davey about getting closure, finding healing, and how God has redeemed their story and turned it into an opportunity for them to help others as well. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rachel Henry found herself living every woman’s nightmare one night when she awoke to strange noises in her house. With her husband Simon away at college and her children asleep in their beds, Rachel was sexually assaulted by three men who had broken into her home. More than four years later, Rachel and Simon have walked through an amazing journey of healing, and they’ve made it their mission to h...

We often idealize marriage, but real marriage never quite looks like the ideal. We’re all imperfect humans, and putting two broken people together doesn’t magically solve everything. In her thirty years as a professional counselor, Julie Dodson has seen the challenges of marriage firsthand in the lives of many of her clients, including Davey and Kristi. Julie sits down with Davey to share some of...

The trials we each walk through come in all shapes and sizes. For some of us, our struggles are temporary and we can look forward to the day we’ll put them fully behind us. For others, our lives may change in an instant, and we may spend the rest of our lives healing from one moment. But what do you do when your trial is ongoing? What if you know it’s only going to get worse, and there isn’t an en...

Most of us probably would agree that boundaries are an important part of any relationship. But what about our relationships with ourselves? In her years as a professional counselor, Alison Cook has discovered that boundaries aren’t just necessary between each other, but within our own souls as well. Alison sits down with Davey to discuss some of the ideas that she shares in her new book, Boundarie...

When someone has walked through a painful circumstance, none of us would blame them for having a negative outlook. Life has been hard, so it’s easy to assume that life will continue to be hard. That’s only natural, right? But LeAnne Lavender defies that. She and her husband Derek have walked through some terrible circumstances. But instead of being grim and pessimistic, LeAnne has a different appr...

The first part of Chris and Emily Norton’s story is inspiring enough on its own, but it doesn’t stop there. They’ve walked through seasons of deep depression, they’ve become parents and foster parents, and much more. In the second part of their conversation with Davey, Chris and Emily share some more struggles they’ve walked through and how they’ve not only overcome them but turned around and used...

Chris Norton’s life changed forever when he misjudged a tackle while playing football. A stadium full of fans and players watched as the young college player was wheeled out on a stretcher, completely unmoving, and Chris was left wondering if he’d ever walk again. But that wasn’t the end of the story. Chris went from laying paralyzed on a stretcher to walking across the stage at his college gradua...

It only takes an instant for our lives to change forever. For Maria Hatch-Bowersock, that instant came in the form of a phone call. The voice on the other end told her that the plane carrying her parents and brother had crashed. Her mother and father were both dead, and her brother had little chance of making it. Maria shares her story with Davey and talks about how she learned to see God’s goodne...

Every pregnancy comes with its risks and worries. Along with the miracle of new life come fears of all the things that could go wrong. For Callie and Kevin Colwick, those fears were realized when complications with her pregnancy left her in a coma with little chance of survival. Kevin spent months in the hospital, unsure if he would ever see his wife awake again. Callie and Kevin sit down with Dav...