How can you heal from what you can't erase? What do you do to transform your mental, emotional, and spiritual health from the inside out?For author, speaker and coach Christopher Cook, losing his mom to a long battle with cancer and his own difficult Multiple Sclerosis diagnosis taught him the power of decision in pain. While he couldn't change the outcomes, learning to make the changes in his perspective was what propelled him forward as he healed from the grief and disappointment he faced....

WARNING: This episode contains conversations about suicide and may not be suitable for all listeners/viewers. What do you do when your worst nightmare comes true after a painful battle with a loved one's mental illness? How do you hold the tension between hope and the mysteries of God in your life after loss? For author, speaker, advocate and pastor's wife Kay Warren, learning to hold onto hope after losing her son Matthew while accepting the mysteries of all she did not understand was...

How do we step into conversations with one another that may feel difficult or uncomfortable around the topic of race? What does it look like to love well our black neighbors? Author, journalist, and artist Chanté Griffin wanted to help those who were not black know how to better step into the space of healing the divide caused by racism and racial pain. She understood that this conversation requires us all to be humble and take on the perspective of Christ as we move towards one another in...

What does it look like to answer God's call in our life? How do we step into our calling when there is suffering that we never expected?For author, ministry leader, wife, and mom of 15, Katie Majors Davis, she could have never imagined all the ways in which God would call her into the unexpected places that He has over her life. As a young woman, Katie answered the calling of her life and became a missionary in Uganda. Through that time, God called her to start a ministry called Amazima and...

What do you do when the people of God fail and you find yourself questioning God because of it? How do you deconstruct your misunderstandings about God, His people and life without deconstructing your faith altogether? For author, Bible teacher, and medical doctor Lina AbuJamra healing from the hurt she experienced from her church led her on an unexpected journey in her faith. What started as a deep disappointment in people led her to feeling let down by God. It took a lot of time and...

What is the connection to our brain's health and our mental health? How can taking care of our brains help us heal from grief, trauma, depression or anxiety? Dr. Daniel Amen is a world renowned psychiatrist who began to notice early in his practice that there was a disconnect in psychiatry and the lack of study being done on the brain. It was through years of scanning brains through a technology called SPECT that Dr. Amen began to recognize that what many considered mental health issues were...

How do we experience true rest in a culture that demands striving and encourages fatigue? What does it even look like to live from a place of rest instead of burnout and exhaustion like most people around us do? For author, pastor, speaker, and mom of four, Jess Connolly, these were the questions she had to wrestle with in the face of all the demands coming at her from her various roles. When life hit a fever pitch and she seemed to reach a breaking point in every way, she knew that she...

How can you find hope when life shatters before your eyes? How can you continue to believe in the goodness of God after tragedy?For young mom Kellie Bullard, she couldn't imagine how quickly life could change. In an ordinary night, her life was turned completely upside down when her husband, Alex, died in a car accident less than a mile from their home. What was once a picture perfect life was ripped apart as she was left grieving the loss of her husband with a seven week old baby and a 2...

What does the gospel have for us in our suffering? How do we apply theological truths in our pain?Author and Bible teacher Paul David Tripp had a deep understanding of theology, especially when it came to pain and suffering. It wasn't until he walked through a season of physical suffering and chronic fatigue that those understandings he had in his mind became embedded into his heart. Through the difficulties and challenges of a medical condition that forever changed his capacity and revealed...

How do we lean into the tensions of life--the now and not yet? What does it look like to press into the different seasons as they come instead of constantly wanting something different?Author and artist Ruth Chou Simons knows what it is like to live in the hidden places as a mom to six boys. For years, her life centered around changing diapers, preparing meals and bandaging scraped knees. But it was in that time that God taught her the importance of stewarding what she had been given. It was...

How do you step into what God is calling you towards when others seem to discourage you? What does it look like to use your gifts for the kingdom in the face of challenges?For author and Bible Teacher Kat Armstrong, it was her study of scripture that led her to rethink her own beliefs on her role in the kingdom as a woman. Having experienced pushback from others who seemed to not value her voice and giftings as a scholar and woman in ministry, Kat began to see how her own misinterpretations...

How do we hold onto faith in a world full of so much suffering and sorrow? Where do we find hope in the mystery of all the pain?For Recording Artist and Author Ellie Holcomb working out her faith through song has always been the way God has invited her into the hope that exists in suffering. After walking through several years of losses and devastating heartache in the lives of those she loved, Ellie began to notice the ways in which so much of the goodness and joy in her life came birthed...

Warning: This episode discusses loss by suicide and may not be suitable for all listeners. What do we do when it comes to understanding God's role in the events of our lives? How do we interpret the pain we endure, the evil that exists in the world and God's sovereignty in it all? For author and professor of Old Testament Ingrid Faro, it was her own personal experience of pain and evil that led her to dig deeply into scripture in order to better understand how God works in the midst of...

What does redemption look like in our stories of pain and suffering? How do we step into the story of someone we love and hold space for them? For Nothing is Wasted co-founder, Kristi Blackburn, learning to be a place of refuge and healing for her husband, Davey, and son, Weston, years after they lost their first wife and mom, Amanda, has been no simple task. In the messiness of grief, blending families, and navigating the impact of trauma, Kristi has had to step into the call of being a wife...

How can music help us heal? What role does worship play in our most difficult seasons? Songwriter, worship leader and singer Mack Brock has written countless songs that have helped people connect with God. But there is one song that became a rally cry for Davey Blackburn after losing his wife, Amanda and their unborn child in a home invasion. It was the song Nothing is Wasted by Elevation Worship. Mack was one of the songwriters and the singer on the release of that song. Mack could never...

How do we begin to lead our generation through pain? What do we do with the tension of our heartache and the hope we have in Jesus?For author and pastor Levi Lusko, learning to grieve the loss of his daughter Lenya while leading others through their own pain has been a beautiful dance of both sorrow and hope. After losing Lenya from an asthma attack, Levi began to write down everything God was teaching him in the aftermath. Those lessons would eventually become a part of his best-selling...

How do you learn to feel the pain instead of just filling it? What does surrender look like when we've entered a story that we never imagined for ourselves?On this first ever live Nothing is Wasted podcast episode from the Nothing is Wasted Book Launch event, Davey and Kristi Blackburn are joined by Daniel and Brittany Brooker to discuss the messy road of healing and redemption. The Brookers know pain--having both lost a spouse at a young age while parenting small children. Their process...

What does true friendship look like in the midst of the darkest moments in our lives? How do we show up for our friends who are hurting after a tragedy? The Bible says, "A friend loves at all times and a brother is born for adversity." (Proverbs 17:17) It can be hard to find the kind of friend that will stick with you in difficulties, but for Davey, Kenneth Wagner was the epitome of that type of friend. Davey and Kenneth's friendship began in college and grew through each season of life:...

What happens when we attempt to selectively numb our pain? How does a season in the wilderness of suffering transform us if we allow it?Dr. John Walker has been a guiding voice and encouragement to countless pastors who find themselves in the throes of trauma, tragedy or burnout. He has offered a safe landing place for those who are tasked with shepherding others through the organization he founded called Blessings Ranch, a counseling and coaching ministry to help leaders live, lead, and...

How do you help an adult child who is experiencing an unimaginable loss? What does it look like to parent our kids who are grown and who are walking through difficult seasons?For Davey's parents, Dave and Brenda Blackburn, navigating how to help Davey walk through his own grief while also taking the time to grieve their own pain of losing their daughter-in-law, Amanda, and unborn grandchild was at times very difficult. Yet through their own hurt and watching Davey walk through his, they...

What does God invite us into in our pain? How do we learn to bring our honest emotions and thoughts to God?Pastor and author Rich Villodas has learned and taught others the importance of choosing honesty through lament when it comes to engaging with feelings of grief, anxiety and every other emotion that is a part of the human condition. As he has pastored in one of the most diverse parts of the country, he has walked with many individuals through their own stories of pain from their families...

What do we do with all of our limitations? How do we begin to reframe the limits of our bodies and our lives in a way that allows God to use the boundary lines He has placed around us? For speaker, author and mom of seven, Sara Hagerty, it was the many limits of her journey with infertility, motherhood, walking her kids through their own pain and grief after adoption, and the daily reminders of her finite ability to deal with all the challenges she was facing that led her to look at what God...

How do we live a more connected life with Jesus when this world offers so many distractions? What would it look like for individuals to experience personal revival in their own faith that could spark revival in other's lives as well? For author, podcaster and Bible teacher Lisa Whittle, it was her own journey towards seeking more of God that led her to write about it. As a woman in ministry, Lisa has seen and faced many challenges, but through it all, she was able to find God more and more....

WARNING: This episode discusses teen suicide and may not be suitable for all audiences. How do we begin to understand the staggering increase in mental health issues amongst teens? Why are the suicide rates moving in an upward trend, especially amongst younger children? Our world has undoubtedly changed because of the advent of smart phones and social media, but no one could have predicted the impact these devices have had on our kids. Dr. Chinwe Williams, an author, speaker and teen and...