Episode 419 - Kiss the Fire with Shawn Johnson

The Nothing Is Wasted Podcast

Davey Blackburn and Aubrey Sampson

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.9 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 5 March 2026

⏱️ 67 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

WARNING: This episode contains conversations about suicide ideation and may not be suitable for all listeners/viewers. How do you get back up when life seems determined to knock you down? What does it look like to move toward the fire of adversity and pain in our lives instead of running from it?For author and pastor Shawn Johnson, the challenges of growing up in a home marked by addiction, battling his own addiction and suicide attempts, and later facing crippling anxiety and panic attacks felt like more than enough fires to walk through. But recently, he found himself facing an entirely new one: an incurable brain disease that has forced him to lean fully into pain, surrender control, and trust God more deeply than ever before. In his new book, Kiss the Fire: 7 Ways to Get Back Up When You Want to Give Up, Shawn shares his journey and offers hope-filled wisdom for continuing forward when everything in you wants to quit.In this honest and vulnerable conversation, Davey and Shawn discuss how God uses the pain of our past to prepare us for the purpose ahead, why stepping out of hiding and sharing our struggles can be so powerful—especially as leaders—and how community sustains us when new challenges arise in our lives.If you feel surrounded by the flames of pain, trauma, and uncertainty, this episode will help you keep moving toward hope—and show you how to kiss the fire. Website: https://www.redrockschurch.com/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/shawnjohnsonrrc Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shawnjohnsonrrc/ Book: Kiss the Fire: 7 Ways to Get Back Up When You Want To Give Uphttps://amzn.to/42n63oqNot living the story you expected? Pain changes us but doesn't have to define us. Find out how to begin your healing journey today: 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.
0:48.8	Well, hello, hello.
0:51.6	Welcome to the Nothing Is Wasted podcast.
0:53.4	I'm so grateful that you're joining me yet again for another great conversation.
0:57.1	Today, my guest is Pastor Sean Johnson, the founding pastor of Red Rocks Church in Denver. You might be familiar with Red Rocks Church because of Red Rocks worship.
1:08.0	Or the Red Rocks area of Colorado, the iconic concerts that take place
1:16.0	of the Red Rocks amphitheater. Yep, all the same place. And Sean is the founding pastor of
1:20.5	Red Rock's Church, which has just recently celebrated 20 years, which is an incredible feat,
1:26.4	to have started a ministry. And in 20 years later, it'd
1:30.7	still be not just surviving, but thriving. But in the midst of that thriving ministry, Sean's story
1:37.3	isn't really a polished ministry resume story. Most of ours are not. In fact, it seems like God uses more of our
1:46.0	brokenness than he does our talents and abilities and our achievements or our ambition.
1:54.1	He's really just using our availability to say yes to him in the midst of brokenness.
1:59.5	And that's Sean's story. It's a story of rescue. In this conversation,
2:04.7	he talks openly about the traumatic beginning of his story, being raised in dysfunction,
2:10.4	battling addiction, in a moment in his 20s where he was on the edge of ending his life.
2:16.7	And in that moment, God intercepted him.
	...

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