Ashley Martin is a teacher-turned writer and speaker, and she is not writing from a safe distance. She is writing from the wreckage and the redemption of her own life. I've spent time with Ashley, I've heard her story, and I've now read her book. And I can tell you: this one is real.

Ashley's story starts in a seventh-grade pew, feeling completely alone in a room full of people. It winds through almost two decades of using alcohol to fill a hole that was always there, a God-shaped one. And it bottoms out at 3 a.m. in a detox center, suicidal, broken, and finally out of answers. Which is exactly where God showed up.

In this conversation, we talk about what young Ashley was really searching for and how alcohol became the answer for nearly 20 years. We talk about the moment she finally surrendered, and what she said to a nurse in that detox center that stopped the room cold. We talk about running from a calling not because you doubt God, but because you doubt yourself. About perfectionism as a spiritual trap. About the difference between managing your life and living it surrendered.

We also get into her book Lost No More, built around three pillars she calls surrender, prayer, and service, and what it practically looks like to build a daily path to God that doesn't require perfection to maintain. One of my favorite lines from the whole conversation: prayer is the GPS, not the spare tire. That one hit me hard.

And we talk about what God has done on the other side of her rock bottom. Because that part of the story is just as important as the wreckage.

This episode is for anyone who has been filling a hole with something that was never meant to fill it. Get Ashley's book, Lost No More, and follow her.

Ashley’s Website: https://ashleymartinministry.com/
Ashley on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ashleymartinministry/
Ashley’s Book: https://tinyurl.com/3crf3sz8

I've known Rachel Faulkner Brown for close to 25 years. I still remember standing on a sidewalk at a retreat, hearing her casually drop the details of her story, and staring with my mouth open, because Rachel was full of joy as she told her unbelievable story.

Here's what you need to know going in: by the time Rachel was 31, she had been widowed twice. But the grief isn't actually the headline. Because underneath all of it was something Rachel had been carrying alone since childhood, a secret she had quietly made a deal with God never to tell. And as long as she kept it, she kept performing. Out-serving everyone. Never fully known, not even by the two men she'd loved and lost.

We talk about what it took for that to change, what it means to encounter the actual gospel instead of the performance-based version so many of us were handed, and how a Kroger meltdown cracked something open that two decades of Bible studies hadn't touched.

We also get into Never Alone Widows, now the largest Christian widows ministry in the US with chapters in over 90 cities, and her new Bible study Seen: From Desperation to Destiny.

This one is for anyone who is grieving, performing, or quietly wondering if anyone actually knows them. Enjoy this vulnerable and freeing conversation!

Rachel’s Website: https://www.rachelfaulknerbrown.com/

Rachel on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rachelfaulknerbrown

Never Alone Widows: https://www.neveralonewidows.com/
Seen Bible Study: https://www.neveralonewidows.com/seen
Widow’s Might Devotional: https://www.rachelfaulknerbrown.com/book
There is More Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/there-is-more/id1599884540

I’m so grateful to have Dr. Joel Muddamalle on the podcast. He has a gift for making theology genuinely accessible without dumbing it down. Real scholarship plus real humility. That combination is rarer than it should be.

Joel holds a PhD in theology, serves as Director of Theology and Research at Proverbs 31 Ministries, co-hosts the Therapy and Theology podcast with Lysa TerKeurst and Jim Cress, and is the author of The Unseen Battle, which is exactly what we get into today.

We start with humble theology and what it actually means to come to Scripture in submission rather than mastery. Then we move into spiritual warfare, and if you grew up in a church that either blamed everything on the enemy or avoided the subject entirely, this conversation is going to reframe a lot. Joel frames spiritual warfare not as individual skirmishes, but as a long-running conflict between rival households: God's family versus a counterfeit one ruled by rebel powers. We also talk about isolation as one of the enemy's most effective tactics, the tension of living in the already-but-not-yet, and how to wait well in the middle of prolonged seasons that just won't resolve. Listen to this episode and then get the book. And go ahead and get the paper copy so you can underline it.

Dr. Joel’s Website: https://www.muddamalle.com/
Dr. Joel on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/muddamalle/
Dr. Joel on Substack: https://humbletheology.muddamalle.com/
Dr. Joel’s Books and Bible Studies: https://www.muddamalle.com/books
Therapy and Theology Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/therapy-and-theology/id1641587501