Episode 401 - Holding Hope in Chronic Pain with Olivia (Feller) Gerber

The Nothing Is Wasted Podcast

Davey Blackburn and Aubrey Sampson

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.9 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 30 October 2025

⏱️ 68 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How do you hold onto hope when the answers just aren’t coming? What does it look like to keep the faith when it feels like your prayers are going unheard?Olivia (Feller) Gerber’s journey with chronic pain began in high school, when unexplained symptoms started to disrupt her daily life. Despite countless medical tests and doctor visits, she was left without a clear diagnosis—only more questions and mounting discouragement. In the midst of the unknown, Olivia discovered she couldn’t interpret God’s promises through the lens of her pain. Instead, she had to learn to see her circumstances through the truth of Scripture. That shift not only sustained her but inspired her to begin writing letters of encouragement to others walking a similar road, eventually leading to her book, Hold Hope: Encouragement for Christians with Chronic Pain.In this episode, Davey sits down with Olivia to explore the power of praying with specificity, the importance of community in seasons of suffering, and how to cling to hope when your situation seems stuck.If you or someone you love is walking through chronic pain and struggling to hold on to hope, this conversation will remind you that even in the absence of answers or change, God is present in your pain and will give you the strength to keep going. Website: www.letterstoholdhope.com Instagram: www.instagram.com/letterstoholdhope Book: Hold Hope: Encouragement for Christians with Chronic Pain https://phyliciamasonheimer.com/product/hold-hope-paperback/ Wondering where to get started on your journey towards healing? Join Davey on our next FREE, live Zoom call and find out how you can begin to take back your story and how Nothing is Wasted can help. Sign up today at: www.nothingiswasted.com/starthere Looking for help in navigating the valley of pain and trauma? Our Nothing is Wasted coaches can help: www.nothingiswasted.com/coaching Want a pathway through your pain? The Pain to Purpose Course can lead you through all you've been through: www.nothingiswasted.com/paintoppurpose Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Nothing is Wasted podcast, where we meet you in your pain and help you discover a pathway through.
0:09.6	No matter what you've faced or what you're walking through now, we believe your story isn't over.
0:15.0	Each week, you'll hear powerful conversations with people who've partnered with God to reclaim their stories of trauma, loss, and heartbreak, and we'll chat with Christian experts who offer wisdom and
0:26.2	practical tools for healing. This is a place of hope, redemption, and the reminder that
0:31.5	even in your darkest moments, God is still writing your story, because with him, nothing is wasted.
0:38.8	I'm your host, Davey Blackburn.
0:50.3	Hello, hello, welcome to the Nothing is Wasted podcast.
0:53.0	I'm so grateful that you are joining us yet again for another great episode right here on the Nothing is Wasted podcast.
0:58.9	Today we have a new friend of ours, Olivia Feller Gerber, and we were just so honored to have her on.
1:05.1	In fact, Olivia and I met, and we've had a couple of these recently where it's just been kind of meeting some people along the journey.
1:12.6	That's actually how the podcast started.
1:14.1	I don't know if you know that.
1:15.1	But the podcast began because in my own healing journey, I was meeting other people along the journey along the road, along my own healing journey.
1:25.3	And I was meeting people who had faith because they were watching
1:29.3	God show up in their story in ways that could not be explained. It could only be experienced.
1:35.9	And as they would try to explain that to me, I began to borrow their faith when I felt
1:41.1	lacking faith of my own. At the time, I had a blog, and many of you guys were
1:47.0	reading that blog. It was more of an update on how I was processing through the death of my wife
1:51.8	and our unborn baby, and how I was processing through having to carry the weight of the church
1:57.6	by myself and be a single dad to Weston as a 15 month old and
2:02.5	all of the things that life was now uh life what what life was now and all the ways that it was
2:12.4	very disorienting and difficult and so i was writing a blog i was updating you guys on that
	...

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