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 of origin, loss, and disappointment and has led them towards the invitation from God to confess and name what they are feeling while leaning into the practice of lament.

In his latest book, The Narrow Way: How the Subversive Way of Jesus Satisfies Our Souls, Rich teaches how the Sermon on the Mount is an invitation to a countercultural way of living that will lead to peace, love, and fulfillment in a generation where anxiety, depression, and polarizing politics seem to lead the way.

In this episode, Aubrey and Rich talk about why vulnerability and inner work are so important for both leaders and lay people alike, how we can begin to address our pain, and the difference between good and bad self-awareness.

If you have found yourself running from the reality of your pain, this conversation will encourage you to take the brave step of facing what you're feeling and allow God to meet you in the truth of where you are.

How do you begin to experience freedom from the sin that grips you? What does it look like to walk in purpose while still struggling with that which holds you back?

For author, pastor and podcaster, Tim Ross, finding his way towards healing after childhood sexual abuse led to his own patterns of pornography addiction, took some time. Through Jesus and therapy, Tim was able to learn how to get to the root of the bad fruit in his life. It was because of his own journey that he wanted to take others to a place of authenticity and vulnerability in the parts of their lives they often kept hidden. Through his podcast, The Basement, and latest book, Welcome to the Basement: An Upside Down Guide to Greatness, Tim explores how being real with our struggles can help us discover our true identity and experience the greatness God has for us.

In this conversation, Davey chats with Tim about how to mentor people in the way of Jesus, the ways in which our journeys toward freedom may differ, and how God will build purpose into our lives from our pain and struggles.

If you've ever wondered where you can lead with the truth of what you're walking through, this episode will remind you that true greatness can be found when we are willing to go low and be honest about our struggles and hurt.

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 them learning to be vulnerable and transparent within safe Biblical community for God to start to heal the places of brokenness in their marriage. And it was through learning how to be honest with others that God began to reveal an opportunity for them to serve others in their marriages by sharing about their own. Through the Marriage After God podcast and their many books on marriage, including their latest, The Marriage Gift: A Daily Devotional Journey to Inspire, Encourage, and Transform Us and Our Prayer Life, the Smiths have been able to help others find healing in their relationships and to turn to God every step of the way.

In this insightful conversation with Davey, Aaron and Jennifer share how the struggles in their marriage taught them the power of prayer, how community can be an agent of healing in our relationships, and the way God can use our own vulnerability to welcome others to share their pain.

If you're in a season of difficulty in your marriage or know someone who is, this episode will encourage you to keep praying, even when you feel like giving up.

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 talked in this world. We are all being spiritually formed by something, he argues, and if we want it to be a formation in the likeness of Christ then we need to learn to sit with Him, become like Him and do the things Jesus did. This is the very message of his latest book, Practicing the Way: Be with Jesus, Become like him, Do as he did, which can help Christians learn the spiritual disciplines that Jesus taught and modeled for all believers.

In this deeply insightful conversation, Davey and Aubrey chat with John Mark about what spiritual formation is, what types of spiritual disciplines we should be doing in our seasons of pain and suffering, and the important impact of community when we are hurting. They go on to talk about the dark night of the soul, a spiritual experience often described by theologians but rarely discussed in churches, in which God removes the felt sense of his presence while remaining as near as He ever was. It can be one of the most disorienting experiences for those who encounter it and yet as John Mark shares, there is a richness offered in the spiritual life of the one who walks through it.

If you've been struggling to do basic spiritual disciplines in your suffering or if you've been wrestling with a deep sense of God's absence in your life, this episode is a gentle reminder that God is with you when you are hurting and that He invites you into rest and to simply be when you don't have the strength to do.

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 see a pattern emerge in his own story and in the countless others of those he counseled. Men who didn't receive a clear path in terms of their journey from boyhood to manhood and who didn't address their wounds, often struggled with maladaptive behavior patterns that hurt themselves and others. When there wasn't intentional attunement to their stories of pain, their lives and the ones around them were deeply impacted. It was through this realization that Chris based the work in his practice and his books in order to help men find a way through the terrain of their own hearts and lives into the healing and redemption that God intended. His latest book, Sage: A Man's Guide into his Second Passage, helps men navigate midlife and beyond.

In this deep conversation, Davey sits down with Chris to talk about how there is always a story behind our behaviors, the impact of how boys are raised in their emotional health as men, and the stages of every man's journey.

This episode is a reminder that God longs to enter into the painful parts of our story and help us find a way to turn that pain into tender strength for those around us.

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 nothing could have prepared her for what was to come. It was after a long season of experiencing abuse and toxicity in her marriage that Lily first heard the gospel. That moment forever changed her life as she was able to get away from the abuse and experience true freedom and redemption through Christ. Since then, she has seen God turn her pain into purpose as she has sought to share the gospel with others from her home country through the ministry she works for called Iran Alive. Not only has Lily seen redemption in her own story, but in countless others who were set free from an oppressive culture and who now walk in the freedom of a life in Jesus.

In this insightful conversation, Davey talks with Lily about how we tend to overcomplicate sharing the gospel, the power of redemption that comes when we serve in communities that were the source of our pain, and how to step into the suffering of those across the globe.

Your story and culture may look completely different from Lily's, but seeing how God can redeem the pain we encounter will serve to remind you that nothing is wasted.

What does it look like to grow in your faith when you came from an environment that contradicted so many of the things of God? How do you become a follower of Jesus after experiencing a childhood riddled with so much trauma and pain?

For Preston Perry, growing up in the inner city and facing so many challenges from being fatherless and the collective pain of a community in crisis, Preston struggled to truly know God. As a young person, he found himself entrenched in street life, dealing drugs and watching so many around him succumb to the ills of gangs and crime. It was through being discipled by a friend who grew up in a similar environment and yet was so different from the life they both knew, that God became real to him. The power of that relationship was pivotal in changing Preston's life and leading him to Christ. Since then, Preston and his wife, Jackie, have devoted their lives to ministry. Preston is a speaker and apologist who has been able to take his experiences and speak to people who grew up in a similar context as he did as well as widen the Evangelical Christian perspective on topics like justice.

In this episode, Davey sits down with Preston to discuss how our environment can shape our worldview, the way to reach those in communities that are different than our own, the power of discipleship in leading others to Jesus and how to fight for holiness in marriage after stories of trauma.

Even if your life experiences are different, Preston's story is such a profound reminder of God's power in all of our pain and mess and how redemption can come after our trauma.

Whether we realize it or not, we’re all preachers. Even if we aren’t on a stage with a microphone or a pulpit, we all have at least one person listening to what we have to say: ourselves. In her new book Preach to Yourself, Haley Morgan talks about how we can combat the lies of the enemy by preaching God’s truth to ourselves. Haley sits down with Davey to discuss how to preach to yourself, and much more.