The Nothing Is Wasted Podcast

What do we do when we find ourselves in the middle of a medical crisis with our kids? How do we learn to trust God with our most precious gifts, our children? For author Jessika Sanders, learning to surrender and trust the Lord was a journey after she found herself in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). It was through that experience that she began to not only pray for her own child, but the co...

What do we do when there is no cure for our pain? How do we live with joy and thanksgiving when our physical reality is a chronic condition? For author Andrea Herzer, learning to find joy in her chronic pain and incurable diagnoses was a feat. While her mind longed to be grateful, her physical condition made it seem impossible. And yet through her journey with chronic pain, cancer, and an accident...

How do we move through our deepest hurts in marriage? What do we do when the marriage we envisioned is not the one we are living in? For authors and podcast hosts Aaron and Jennifer Smith, the difficulty they endured in the early days in their marriage made them wonder if they would even make it as a couple. Troubles with physical intimacy and disappointment threatened to undo their union. It took...

How do we begin to experience the strength of God in the middle of our weaknesses? How can we allow the Creator of all to enter into our greatest place of need? For author and podcaster Emily Jensen, walking through her son's medical challenges revealed weaknesses in her spirit that were unlike any she had faced before. The missed milestones, the extensive plans for intervention, and her own grief...

How do we live in the most connected generation and yet feel so alone? What do we do when we find ourselves struggling with loneliness? Author and lawyer Justin Whitmel Earley argues that loneliness isn't the way God intended for us to live because we were made for deep and intentional friendships. It was his own journey through a season of depression and anxiety led him to discover the power of s...

How does suffering shape our hearts? How do we tell the story of our pain in a way that both heals our own ache and helps others in theirs? Author and recording artist Andrew Peterson is a storyteller. His beloved Wingfeather Saga Series tells an epic fantasy-adventure tale about three children caught in a great mystery. Exploring themes of courage, sacrifice, and redemption, Peterson masterfully...

How do we practice the way of Jesus when our lives are riddled with pain and suffering? What does it look like to grow spiritually when we are hurting? Author and Bible teacher John Mark Comer has been leading others towards what he calls an apprenticeship with Jesus, teaching how we can learn the intended rhythms and practices God wants us to engage in by simply looking to how Jesus walked and ta...

Have you ever wondered if you are still truly healing when the pain feels as fresh as the day you experienced a past loss or grief? How do we know that healing is happening as time moves forward, but our ache remains? Davey Blackburn, Aubrey Sampson, and Eric Schumacher are not only hosts on the Nothing is Wasted podcast, but all have experienced their own seasons of deep grief, loss, trauma and t...

How do we enter a new year after a loss or trauma? What do we do when it feels like that flip of the calendar means leaving something we held so dear in the past? The truth is with every new milestone, including a new year, our pain can seem to be amplified by the memories of what we've lost. It can be hard to enter a new season knowing that parts of ourselves, people we love and our lives as we o...

The holidays can feel especially tender for those of us who have recently experienced a loss, trauma or transition. Figuring out how to move through a season where it can seem like the whole world is experiencing happiness while we are struggling with feelings of grief and sadness is hard. How do we begin to find hope for the holidays? How do we navigate the waves of emotions and the changes in tr...

Grief can feel crushing. How do we begin to take the steps to move through the pain we encounter? How do we help others who are experiencing loss? Author Beth Marshall has felt the pangs of loss in her life. In one season, she lost three family members and began to wonder if the feelings she was experiencing were normal. Wondering if she could ever love her life again, Beth began taking some pract...

What do we do when the things we are seeing in church or with Christian leaders is leading to disillusionment? How do we deal with the disappointment in the ways Christians behave in the public square, online and in the pews? Author and Editor in Chief Dr. Russell Moore has experienced the pain of denominational turmoil and sharp political disagreements that have led to hurtful slander and unkind...

What if the perpetrator of your pain isn't something on the outside, but your own sinful choices that have led to your suffering? How do we navigate the self-inflicted hurt caused by our own destructive decisions? Author and Pastor Max Lucado knows the feelings that can come from sinful decisions. In his own life as a young man, he began to see the dangerous trajectory of his choices if he didn't...

What do you do when your past keeps showing up in your present? How do you address the pain from childhood as it presents itself in your adult life? For Dr. Mark McNear, a childhood of every kind of abuse and trauma left him completely broken. From sexual abuse as a small boy and the harsh emotional abuse of his father to several traumatic events of violence and being hit by a drunk driver, Mark's...

How do you find the words to pray when you are in the middle of loss and suffering? How do mark the holy moments, both big and small, in a special way? Author Doug McKelvey and artist Ned Bustard have collaborated on three volumes of Every Moment Holy, books filled with liturgies to help people find the words in the joyful, the mundane and the most difficult moments of life. In their second volume...

Warning: This episode does briefly discuss loss by suicide and may not be suitable for all listeners. How do we care for a loved one with a disease that steals their memories? How do we tend to ourselves when we are helping aging parents? For Guideposts Editor-in-Chief Edward Grinnan, these were the very questions he had to answer after his mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Edward had to lear...

How do we move towards the cross when our journey is full of detours, distractions and divergence from the abundance and freedom Christ offers us? For author, musician and pastor Josh White, learning to navigate the terrain of his past wounds while pastoring wasn't a linear course. When the hurt from growing up with an alcoholic father began to bleed into his life and ultimately his ministry, Josh...

What can we learn from those who have walked the road of suffering before us? How do we take the stories of Christians whom we admire and glean the hard-won wisdom from what they've endured? Many know the story of Elisabeth Elliot, who lost her first husband Jim after he was killed when on a missionary trip in a remote part of Ecuador. She would later lose her second husband, Addison Leitch, to ca...

When it comes to addressing trauma in our stories, it can seem as though cultural expectations and the messages received as young boys can keep men from engaging in their pain and ultimately, experiencing true healing. How can men better address their stories of hurt and heartache in a way that helps them to move forward with both strength and tenderness? Counselor and author Chris Bruno began to...

How does the gospel apply in the loss of a marriage? Where can everyone involved find hope after the pain of divorce? Having grown up as a pastor's kid of a world renowned theologian, John Piper, Barnabas Piper knew the right theological answers in life. It was through his own personal journey of pain after an unwanted divorce that led him to a newfound understanding of God's grace and mercy in hi...

How can you turn an ending into a beginning? What do you do when you find yourself wrestling with God over the losses you are experiencing? For pastor and author Tim Timberlake, after losing his father as a young man, who was his hero, he had a lot of questions and anger towards God. He found himself wrestling in ways he never had before. And yet through it, God clearly revealed the purpose He had...

WARNING: This episode discusses pornography and may not be suitable for all listeners. What do you do when you struggle with an addiction, but you don't fit the common narrative of those who struggle with that addiction? For author and speaker Jessica Harris, it was often difficult to even talk openly about her addiction to pornography that started as a teen because most people deemed this a male-...

What do we do when our suffering makes us feel angry at God? How do we continue to hold on to our relationship with the Lord when we are struggling with difficulties and trials in our lives? For author, musician and spiritual director, Strahan Coleman, his battle with chronic illness left him depleted physically, emotionally, spiritually and financially. And while it felt as though so much was bei...

Have you ever read the headlines of what is happening to Christians across the globe and felt a sense of helplessness? How do we step into the stories of suffering from those who are so far away? Lily Meschi has a unique story. As an Iranian woman, she experienced the impact of a culture that didn't value her as a woman. When she was just 18 years old, she entered into an arranged marriage and not...

What do you do if much of your pain is caused by your own choices? How do you begin to break free from shame and find God's grace in your past? For author, pastor and Bible teacher, Ines Franklin the journey towards healing has taken some time, but God has been with her every step of the way. Having grown up without a father, Ines found the wounds of her past and her own decisions led her to livin...