Warning: This episode briefly mentions suicidal ideation and may not be suitable for all listeners.

What happens when we realize all our methods to find healing are merely ineffective attempts of self-help? How can pain lead us into a true understanding of our utter dependence and need for God in our lives?

Former country music recording artist and author Granger Smith found himself attempting to do everything "by the book" when it came to dealing with the drowning death of his young son, River. He did everything self-help offered when it came to finding healing and yet, it all fell flat. It was then that God revealed to him that he did not have the power to heal himself. The healing he needed could come only through the gospel of Jesus Christ. From then, Granger turned away from a nominal faith into a saving one and was able to experience the true depths of healing from his shame and guilt over the loss of his son. He gave up his successful music career and began seminary and ministry in his local church. Granger recently wrote about the story of this journey of losing River and his newfound authentic faith in his book, Like a River: Finding the Faith and Strength to Move Forward After Loss and Heartache.

In this episode, Davey and Granger talk about how self-help can't truly heal us, the difference between a nominal faith and a saving one, and how the gospel is what we need most when it comes to finding healing that can last.

If you've ever turned to self-help in an attempt to assuage the guilt, shame, or hurt from your past, only to find it unable to do so, this conversation will encourage you to look for healing in the only one who can truly help: Jesus Christ.

It's every parent's worst fear to lose a child. How do you continue to trust God when your 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 she cried out to the Lord so many times during her young daughter, Ava's, cancer journey. And while her grief began there and continued on well after her devastating loss of sweet Ava, she has learned that the Lord graciously allows for the anger, the questions, the fears and the doubts in the messy middle of our suffering. Esther has walked a long road of first being a parent of a child with life-threatening allergies to later receiving a diagnosis that no parent wants to hear as well as the non-stop rollercoaster of doctors and hospital visits. And while her circumstances have felt impossible and her grief has been messy, God has met her in it all.

Her story doesn't tie up in a neat, tidy bow when it comes to her pain, but instead, it is honest and authentic, one that allows for the raw emotions she feels while leaving room for the truth of God's goodness and kindness as she grapples her way through every parent's greatest fear.

In this moving conversation, Davey sits down with Esther to talk about how vital community can be after experiencing loss, the true wrestlings that can come in regards to God's goodness in our pain, how purpose shows up in small ways, and learning to worship when it feels hard.

No matter your story, you will be able to relate to Esther's wrestlings in the messiness of heartbreak and pain and find comfort in knowing that we serve a God who is not alarmed by it when we do.

Have you ever felt like you've gotten stuck in the grief? Instead of allowing the pain to bring something new and beautiful forth in your life, do you find yourself struggling to move forward?

Any loss can leave us feeling stuck, but for a parent, losing a child can make it feel like there will never be life past the devastation. For September Vaudrey, losing her beautiful, 19 year old daughter in a car accident in 2008 made her wonder if life would ever look different than it did in the aftermath of that tragedy. And yet, step by step, she began to see God's goodness as He took her pain and created beauty from ashes. It was not an easy journey by any means, but a rich one.

In this episode, September sits down with Aubrey to talk about what it looks like to get unstuck in our grief, why facing our pain head on matters so much, and how to give permission to others around us as they grieve in their own unique way.

Full of practical wisdom, this conversation is for anyone who has ever felt like moving through the pain in their story is an impossible feat but wants to try and experience the good God has on the other side of it.

What do you do when fear wants to rule your life after loss? How do you find freedom when anxiety threatens to steal your peace?

For Katie Piazza, it was the truth from God and His Word that set her free from what could have been a life full of unending anxiety. After losing her young daughter Colette to cancer, Katie faced a decision that would be difficult for any mother to make: would she allow fear and despair to rule over her life and home or would she choose the antidote to fear, Jesus? Though a long and difficult journey, Katie choose to place her hope in Christ even after such a devastating loss. From that, she has experienced freedom like never before.

In this episode, Davey sits down with Katie to talk about how to reconcile God's goodness in the midst of terrible circumstances, where to place our hope when life is hard, and how to live unafraid of the future in spite of all the pain and grief we face.

You don't have to know the deep ache of losing a child to encounter the incredible encouragement Katie's story and faith offers to anyone who wrestles with fear, despair or regret in a broken world.

In this episode, Megan joins Davey to talk about learning to take difficult seasons step by step, why knowing the truth of God's Word matters in the midst of it and how community can help us along the way in our pain.

Whether infertility is part of your story or not, this conversation will teach you how to walk in your own hurt over the loss of a dream as well as how to help others through theirs.

As someone with a very large, very prominent ministry, Angie Smith is the kind of person you would expect to “have it all together.” Through speaking, books, Bible studies, and more, Angie has helped thousands of people in their walks with Christ. But her platform didn’t come easy. Angie walked through some incredible seasons of pain, including the loss fo a newborn child, that redefined her relationship with God.

When pain inevitably gave way to seasons of doubt, Angie found herself seeing God in a new way, and in doing so learned more about each of our relationships with God and the seasons of pain and doubt that we all walk through. Angie sits down with Davey to share some of her story and how she’s using the lessons she’s learned in dark seasons to help countless other people.

As a mother, Amy Sylvestre wears a lot of hats. She’s both a biological mom and an adoptive mom. She’s a heart mom, and tragically, a mother of child loss. Walking through the pain of losing your infant child is one of the worst nightmares for any parent can face, and that became Amy’s reality when her son Hudson was born with a severe heart defect. Despite countless attempts by some of the best medical professionals in the country, Hudson didn’t make it long past his birth. Through unimaginable pain, Amy has learned what it means to have a faith that goes beyond your head and into the deepest parts of your being. To wrap up our parenting series, Amy sits down with Aubrey to share her story of loss and some of the ministry that has come out of it.

Ron Deal is a bestselling author, therapist, and speaker who specializes in family ministries and especially in blending families. But before Ron was as successful as he is today, he and his wife Nan walked through an unimaginably painful season. Twelve years ago, Ron and Nan took their son Connor to the doctor after he’d been complaining of a headache. What seemed like a minor illness turned out to be much more serious, and not long later, Connor was gone. Through incredible pain, Ron and Nan learned firsthand what grieving as a family looks like. To continue our Parenting Series, Ron and Nan sit down with Davey to share the story of losing their son and what they’ve learned through the long, hard healing journey they’ve walked through in the years since.

Dawn Barton’s demeanor and her story don’t seem to match at a glimpse. She radiates hope, optimism, and cheerfulness. You’d be forgiven for thinking she’s had an easy life, but that’s far from the truth. Dawn has walked through an amount of darkness that most of us couldn’t imagine. Through trial after trial, she’s learned to choose joy when despair would be a much more natural option. Dawn sits down with Davey to share some of the pain she’s walked through and how she found God in the midst of it all.

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 death, a miscarriage, the loss of her newborn son, and a divorce, it seemed like the whole world was against her.