The Nothing Is Wasted Podcast

Imagine waking up in a hospital room and finding out that you no longer remembered the last thirteen years of your life. Think about the fear, the confusion and the uncertainty that would set in when you realized you had just been in a coma and parts of your life were no longer in your memory. Most of us have never experienced something as traumatic as that and can hardly imagine such a scene play...

Boundaries can feel impossible sometimes, especially if you have lived your life without them. How do you begin to draw the line when it comes to what you are willing to accept in a relationship? How do you know when it is beyond the point of healing and time to let go of a toxic relationship? Author, speaker and Bible teacher Lysa TerKeurst never dreamed that her life would look the way it does n...

Boundaries can feel impossible sometimes, especially if you have lived your life without them. How do you begin to draw the line when it comes to what you are willing to accept in a relationship? How do you know when it is beyond the point of healing and time to let go of a toxic relationship? Author, speaker and Bible teacher Lysa TerKeurst never dreamed that her life would look the way it does n...

How can we look at our lives and see God's faithfulness throughout the knots of disappointment, betrayal, criticism or abuse? How can we trust the goodness of God when so much has gone wrong in our lives? For Bible teacher and author Beth Moore, her life has been a series of knots. From being sexually abused as a child to extreme criticism from those who proclaim Christ, Beth's life has been full...

What happens when we start to share our story of pain and loss? How can retelling what we've walked through help us in healing? For Jonathan Pitts, sharing the story of how he lost his wife, Wynter, has been a part of the process God has used to heal his greatest loss. In 2018, life was going well for Jonathan and his family. With an exciting upcoming move to the Nashville area and a new position...

Sometimes, we can try to cover up our past pain with that which we can control-achievement, performance, and productivity. But at some point, those coping mechanisms cannot mask the hurt we are feeling deep inside anymore. What do you do when what you've done to run from your past no longer works to hide what you're truly feeling? For Dr. Elizabeth (Ellie) Stevens, there came a point when what she...

Parenting is complicated whichever way you come into it. When grief and trauma are part of the equation, it can add even more layers to navigate. How do you sit in the messiness of adoption and fostering while learning to see the joys and the wins in the midst of it? For Jillana Goble, it has been through the challenges of parenting via birth, foster care, and adoption that she has learned to welc...

Perhaps one of the greatest questions that comes after trauma or tragedy is how do we help our kids navigate pain? What do we as parents need to look for after loss or in the everyday struggles that kids are facing? When do we need to bring in an expert to help and what can we do in the in between? David Thomas knows all too well the questions that emerge when families encounter crisis and the eve...

So often, we tend to think very little about our story and how our past impacts our present. But, what if the key to healing the wounds we are experiencing now is inextricably tied to engaging our whole story including our past? For professional counselor and podcaster Adam Young, it was when he began to engage his story, the wounds of his past and his family of origin, that he started to see the...

WARNING: This episode contains conversations about suicide ideation and may not be suitable for all listeners/viewers. Having a baby seems like it will be a season full of unending joy, but for many mothers, the elation of a new child can bring with it an unforeseen darkness too. Recent studies suggest one in every eight women experience postpartum depression. It can be jarring to experience the j...

After tragedy, trauma or transition, it can be hard to find vision for a way forward. Often times, our pain can cloud any idea of a future or plans besides our deepest ache. How can we start to see above the fog of what has happened to us and begin to believe that God has a greater vision for our life beyond suffering? In this special release episode, Davey talks about the importance of vision whe...

Every parent looks into the eyes of their young child with hopeful anticipation for their future. What do you do when the dreams you had seem to shatter and you find your relationship with your child not what you had imagined? How do you continue to love well when their choices are taking them down a road of relational disconnection, personal pain or destruction? Through her own parenting journey...

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...