How can hospitality and kindness be a conduit for life-transforming change? What can happen when we open our hearts and homes to those in need of hope?

Craig Cooper was a church planting pastor when his path crossed with a struggling Nashville musician named Walker Hayes. Walker was a self-proclaimed atheist and an alcoholic who lost a record deal and was struggling to make ends meet. Craig and his whole family welcomed Walker and his family into their lives. Loving them well, showing up when they needed a friend, and helping them as needs came up in life. It was through their friendship that God began to soften Walker's heart towards the gospel. He would eventually quit drinking and said yes to Jesus, forever changing his life. After his life changed internally, he also experienced an outward shift as he got a record deal and a hit country song called "Fancy Like." Craig and Walker chronicled their unique and pivotal friendship in their book called Glad You're Here: Two Unlikely Friends Breaking Bread and Fences.

In this episode, Davey and Craig discuss the importance of walking with people through the highs and lows, how Scripture can help us in the valley, and why grace through friendship is so significant in a generation facing an epidemic of loneliness.

If you've ever wondered how you can be a conduit of God's grace to those right next door, this conversation will encourage you to step outside your comfort zone and open your home and heart to those in your life who need it most.

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 difficult. Kay and her husband, author and Pastor Rick Warren, had walked a long, difficult journey through Matthew's lifelong struggle with mental health and faced every parent's worst fear coming true when their adult son died by suicide. Kay experienced the depths of grief and sorrow as she wrestled with God to make sense of such a tragedy. But her pain has given her the opportunity to become an advocate for mental health in the church and a voice of hope for parents who are facing a similar journey.

In this honest conversation, Davey and Kay talk about how reality, grief, and hope must all co-exist together, why we need both hope and mystery as we look back on our pain, and how to deal with the shame and guilt after losing a loved one to suicide.

If you've found it hard to hold on to hope in the darkness of your suffering, this episode will light a pathway towards it.

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?

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 book, Through the Eyes of a Lion: Facing Impossible Pain, Finding Incredible Power. Years later as Davey found himself in the depths of his pain after losing his wife Amanda, it was a text from Levi that would encourage his spirit and help him to find a way through his own grief.

In this encouraging conversation, Davey and Levi talk about how to deal with the feelings of guilt that can sometimes accompany a loss, why building a strong marriage is so important before a major trial, and the ways in which each new grief is unique.

If you've struggled to hold the tension between the hurt you've experienced and the hope you have in Christ, this episode will remind you that even with hope, our hurt will still hurt and God is with us through it all.

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.

How do you keep choosing to truly live after losing one of the closest people in your life? What does it look like to show up when you're feeling the depths of grief?

For our Nothing is Wasted podcast co-host, author, pastor and speaker, Aubrey Sampson, learning how to allow life to come in again through the cracks of her pain after losing her best friend, Jenn, was difficult. Finding her way through the grief without having the person she could always process pain with felt impossible. And yet, through it all, Aubrey began to see how even in one of her greatest losses, there were moments where she could keep death from winning by choosing to find joy and life in what was in front of her. It was there that she could begin to see God's redemption in her heartache and fight back against darkness.

In this vulnerable conversation, Davey sits down with Aubrey to discuss how redemption often doesn't look like we think it will, how to begin to move forward after losing someone you love, and what to do when God's presence feels more like absence in your pain.

If you've ever experienced the loss of a best friend or have wondered how to even begin to live again in grief, this episode will inspire you to keep choosing to show up fully in the one, precious life you've been given.

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 traditions we once held so dear?

In this special release episode, join Amy Sylvestre, Community Director here at Nothing is Wasted, as she shares practical wisdom from a previously recorded masterclass called Hope for the Holidays: Navigating the Season When it Hurts. This podcast episode is a special gift to you, our Nothing is Wasted listeners, as you walk through this season.

If the holidays feel different than years past because of the pain you are enduring, let this episode offer you tangible ways to honor your grief and make it through this Christmas season.

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, even in her worst pain. By going back in her own story, she has since been able to help walk alongside others in theirs by offering a listening ear or spiritual direction. And she has used what pain has taught her to bring hope and healing to those she encounters. While Joan knows she doesn't have all the answers, her journey has brought incredible lessons of faith, endurance, and how God can be trusted even in our darkest seasons.

In this episode, Davey sits down to talk with Joan about how everyone can use their unique wirings to bring hope to the hurting, why we have to make the time for our grief, and how processing your own story is pivotal in whatever healing path you are on.

Whatever the loss, Joan's story reminds us that we can all get to the place in our grief where we can still dare to hope.

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 down with Aubrey to discuss what the past few months have been like as the legal side of their journey came to a close with the trial and sentencing of the perpetrator of Amanda's murder.

For many, it may come as a surprise that this part of their story is just now happening, seven years after that fateful day that forever changed Davey's life. And yet, for the Blackburn's and Amanda's family, the significance of the number seven, a number that means completion in Scripture, is more than a mere coincidence. In spite of all the suffering they've endured, the timing is just another reminder that God has been with them every step of the way. And as this chapter in their journey comes to a close, a new one is beginning.

In Part 2 of this two-part episode, Davey shares walking through the sentencing of one of the accomplices in Amanda's case, how you never know the impact your response to your story may have on others, and the wrestlings that can come as we struggle to understand God's justice in our hurt.

Whether you've been following Davey's journey since the beginning or if you are new to the Nothing is Wasted family, this conversation will encourage you to press into the hard parts of your journey with God because His faithfulness will be revealed and redemption will come in the most unexpected of ways.

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 down with Aubrey to discuss what the past few months have been like as the legal side of their journey came to a close with the trial and sentencing of the perpetrator of Amanda's murder.

For many, it may come as a surprise that this part of their story is just now happening, seven years after that fateful day that forever changed Davey's life. And yet, for the Blackburn's and Amanda's family, the significance of the number seven, a number that means completion in Scripture, is more than a mere coincidence. In spite of all the suffering they've endured, the timing is just another reminder that God has been with them every step of the way. And as this chapter in their journey comes to a close, a new one is beginning.

In Part 1 of this two-part episode, Davey recounts what he encountered during the trial, how he learned to find closure outside of the courtroom, and the way the picture of his earthly father helped him deeply understand the posture of His heavenly one in the depths of his pain.

Whether you've been following Davey's journey since the beginning or if you are new to the Nothing is Wasted family, this episode will remind you that even in the complicated parts of our story, God is ever so near.

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-53 pilot Major Shawn Campbell and her four children that she homeschooled at their dream duty station in Hawaii. But when she awoke, she got the call that every military wife fears, there had been an accident. For five days, rescue workers searched for the wreckage of a two helicopter collision off the coast. Soon thereafter, the search ended and Shawn was among the twelve Marine lives lost.

Kelli would have to immediately step into a completely unknown life. She would pack up her home and move across the country to be with family. She would decide to put her kids in school instead of homeschooling. And she would remind herself that while everything around her was changing, God did not.

Davey and Kelli discuss why it is important to pay attention to the small details of our stories as they unfold, the daily act of surrender that grief requires of us, and the ways we can trust God even when our lives change completely.

Kelli's story will help you face whatever circumstances you are in with a determined perspective to see God in the midst of it.

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 after losing his wife, Hope, to suicide. Having wrestled with mental health issues and chronic pain, Hope took her life in the couple's home and Blake found himself in the middle of a story he had never imagined for himself or his five children. As he has started to heal and move forward, the pain was a reminder of some of the past lies that haunted him his whole life after being abandoned and rejected by his parents. Blake could have easily allowed the old scripts he so often felt in his life to become his reality, but instead, he decided to shift his perspective from that of a victim into a victor.

In this transparent conversation, Davey and Blake talk about the importance of not allowing our past to dictate our future, the paradigm shift that is necessary to keep us from going under from our hurt, and the value in learning to speak truth to the lies we are believing.

You'll be encouraged to look through a different lens when it comes to your history, no matter what you have experienced.

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 and his wife and children were hit head on by a drunk driver. In an instant, life as Jerry knew it was completely over as the wreck claimed the life of his wife, his young daughter, his mother and the wife and unborn child of the other driver. There in the complete wreckage of his life, Jerry slowly began to learn how the must excruciating of suffering can grow the soul in unimaginable ways. The lessons Jerry learned through his own grief have served as a healing balm to many through his groundbreaking book, A Grace Disguised. Recently revised for a 25th Anniversary edition, Jerry vulnerably shared how grief has not only changed him, but grown him in ways that only suffering can. Through his story, he recognizes how all griefs, whether comparable or not to his own, invite us to step in to a grace that transforms us.

In this episode, Davey talks with Jerry about how experience can and ultimately has to be, the catalyst for our growth, the tensions that exist in pain and suffering, and how to step into the questions that inevitably come from our greatest pain.

With a hard won wisdom, a theological richness, and a profound outlook, Jerry's insight will help you process any grief you've experienced through a completely new lens. This conversation is one you'll want to listen to more than once as you glean from the deep well of Jerry's experience and wisdom.

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.

It can be so hard to see, let alone accept the hand of God in the middle of our deepest pain. How can you learn to trust God's sovereignty in your darkest moments?

For Greg and Cathy Buffkin, that was no small feat. After losing their adult son Ryan to suicide, it was difficult to accept their loss and find the strength to move forward after so much pain.

Living every parent's greatest fear, the Buffkins found themselves wrestling with difficult emotions and yet, managed to find the Lord in the most heart wrenching loss they had ever endured.

From their pain, they have a new found purpose as they've sought to equip others as they navigate walking alongside someone who has lost a child.

In this episode, Davey sits down with Greg and Cathy to talk about what it looks like to experience God's sovereignty in grief, the best ways to support someone who has lost a child, and the difference between healthy and unhealthy ways of healing after loss.

Grief is an inevitable part of our lives this side of heaven, which is why this conversation is so important for all of us as we come face to face with pains we never imagined.

Whether or not you've endured the loss of a child, this episode will give you important insight into what it means to choose healing when grief threatens to overwhelm.

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.