The Living Story: Healing from Heartbreak, Finding Purpose, and Learning to Live Again
You have done the work. Read the books. Sat in the therapy chair. Said the prayers or maybe stopped saying them altogether. And something still is not landing. You are not broken. You are not behind. You are in the middle of a chapter that is longer and harder than anyone told you it would be. You feel stuck between who you were and who you are still becoming. And you are looking for someone who has been exactly where you are. Welcome to The Living Story. Hosted by Tennille Martinez, a teacher, storyteller, and woman of faith, this is a podcast for women in their 30s and 40s navigating healing, identity, heartbreak, and the long journey of finding themselves again after loss, divorce, depression, and the kind of pain that changes everything. Each episode weaves together personal testimony, scripture, and honest spiritual conversation for women who are done performing and ready to go deeper. Whether you are healing after divorce, recovering from heartbreak, rebuilding your sense of worth and purpose after loss, walking through depression and faith at the same time, or simply trying to find yourself again after a season that left you unrecognizable, there is a chapter here for you. This is not a podcast for women who have it together. This is a podcast for women who are still in the middle of it and need to know the middle is survivable. Faith will meet you here exactly where you are. Even if you are not sure you believe anymore. Even if you are angry. Even if the last thing you expected was for God to show up in a chapter that looked like this. If you have been searching for a podcast about healing, starting over, self-worth, identity, purpose, and becoming the woman you were created to be, you just found it. The chapters you least understand are often the ones that change everything. You don't just read stories. You are one.
Episodes
What happens when your mind knows the truth, but your heart is still grieving?
In this episode of The Living Story Podcast, Tennille shares the lesson she learned in the aftermath of heartbreak: understanding something intellectually is not the same as accepting it emotionally.
If you've ever known what God was saying but still felt stuck in sadness, disappointment, or unanswered questions, you're not alone.
Heal...
In Part 4 of the I Never Got My Why series, Tennille explores the true context behind Jeremiah 29:11 and why God's promise of hope and a future was first spoken to people living in exile.
What happens when God doesn't change the season?
Through the story of Israel in Babylon, this episode explores how to stop putting your life on hold while waiting for the next chapter and how to build, grow, and flourish in a place y...
In Episode 3 of I Never Got My Why, Tennille explores the wilderness story of Hagar and the powerful name she gives God in the middle of unanswered questions: El Roi, the God who sees me.
This episode is about isolation, edited pain, emotional honesty, and the deep human need to be seen fully in suffering.
Inside this episode:
- Hagar in Genesis 16
- El Roi, the God who sees
- emotional isolation
- the edited version of pain
- w...
Why do some questions stay with us long after the moment that created them?
In Episode 2 of I Never Got My Why series, Tennille explores what happens when heartbreak, disappointment, and unanswered prayers stop being something we experience and start becoming the emotional place we live.
Through the story of Naomi in Ruth 1, personal reflections, and an honest conversation about the gap between knowing truth and trust...
Why can’t I move on… even when I know the relationship is over?
In this first episode of the I Never Got My Why series, I explore the emotional and spiritual exhaustion of living inside unanswered questions.
If you’ve ever wrestled with heartbreak, grief, disappointment, emotional looping, or wondering why God allowed something painful to happen, this episode is for you.
Through honest storytel...
Before you compare your life to someone else’s, remember this:
You joined their story in the middle.
In this episode of The Living Story, we’re talking about comparison, social media, waiting seasons, and the quiet belief so many women carry that they are somehow “behind” in life.
Maybe you thought you’d be married by now.
Maybe you thought you’d have children, clarity, healing, p...
Before I met God, I had a whole library of stories I believed about myself.
Stories about rejection. Worth. Being overlooked. Being too much and somehow not enough at the same time. Stories about love, purpose, identity, and whether I was chosen at all.
In this episode of The Living Story, we’re talking about the quiet lies women carry for years — the ones repeated so often they stop feeling like stories a...
You read the books. You went to therapy. You journaled, processed, grew, and did everything the personal development world told you to do.
And something is still missing. Not because the work was wrong. Because there is a question underneath all of it that none of it could answer.
Am I actually known by something larger than all of this?
This episode is for the woman who has tried everything available...
There is a Japanese art form called kintsugi. When pottery breaks, the artist repairs it with gold. The cracks do not get hidden. They become the most luminous part of the whole piece.
What if God works the same way in your story? What if the chapters you have been trying to get past are actually the chapters He has been filling with something that makes them the most beautiful part of what He is building? ...
Twenty years. Thousands of girls. And one thing that has never changed: the moment a girl decides she doesn't matter is the moment the world loses something it cannot afford to lose.
This episode is for every woman who remembers being that girl. And for every parent, mentor, or educator who has one in front of them right now.
Tennille Martinez opens up about what she has watched happen to girls in classroo...
I deleted messages on WhatsApp. More than once. And every time I did, I restarted the clock on my own healing without realizing it.
If you have ever reached back for something God already moved, if you have ever stood in a room with tears running down your face while worship music played and wondered why it was not getting easier, this episode is for you.
This is what real healing actually looked like for ...
I was angry at God for years. And the honest truth is that most of my anger was built on a version of Him I had never actually taken the time to know.
I had heard about Him. I had sat in rooms where people talked about Him. I had consumed the content, the books, the sermons. But I had never done the work of sitting with His word myself, letting the Holy Spirit correct me, letting the full story of who He is get past ...
I was sitting on the couch with my mom, three episodes deep into The Testaments on Hulu, when something came out of me before I knew I was going to say it.
That is not the God I know.
And I have not been able to stop thinking about it since.
In this episode, I am getting into all of it. Margaret Atwood and why her storytelling stopped me cold in The Handmaid's Tale and pulled me straight into The Testaments.
I wat...
Have you ever been in a hard week and needed to know things were going to be okay?
This Holy Week, I found myself in a hospital waiting room. I had been avoiding going to the doctor for weeks because I was too busy, too scared of what sitting still might force me to face.
Everything was going to be okay. Even if it was not, everything was going to be okay.
But the peace came before the results. And that is what t...
Have you ever felt like healing was for everyone else but somehow not quite available to you?
Like you were doing everything right and still felt like you were behind where you were supposed to be?
This Selah episode is for the woman who is raw and hurting, the woman in the long, quiet middle, and the woman who is almost through, but not yet whole.
Not a lecture. Not a formula. Just five things God ac...
I was baptized at sunrise on the beach with my church community.
One week later, the relationship ended.
Same week. Same breath.
If you have ever had a chapter that cost you more than you thought you had to give and still cannot quite explain what God was doing inside it, this is that episode.
This is my full testimony.
From the accident that took my voice to the fifty books that held me to ...
I was gone for six almost seven months. And if you have ever stepped away from something you loved because life asked too much of you all at once, this episode is for you.
A new subject I had never taught before.
A hunger for the Word I could not explain or ignore.
And healing that does not arrive on a schedule.
What I discovered is that the seasons that go quiet are not always setbacks. Sometime...
Do you struggle with the fear of sharing your story—afraid of being judged, misunderstood, or rejected? In this episode of The Living Story, we explore why so many women hesitate to tell their stories and how God can transform fear into freedom.
Through the lens of Elizabeth Acevedo’s novel The Poet X, the biblical journeys of Jeremiah, Moses, and Esther, and my own personal reflections—from teachin...
Perfectionism promises peace but leaves us exhausted.
In this episode of The Living Story, I share the quiet ways perfectionism shows up in our lives at work, in relationships, and in our faith, and how to finally let it go.
Through the sharp precision of Lessons in Chemistry’s Elizabeth Zott, the striving of Martha in Luke 10, the résumé of Paul, and the failure of Peter, we discover why God never asked u...
Do you keep replaying the same painful inner narrative? The one that whispers, “You’re not enough,” “You’ll never be loved,” or “This is just how it is”?
In this powerful episode of The Living Story, we explore how to stop rehearsing lies and start rewriting the truth with God. Featuring reflections on The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, the heartbreaking stor...
Popular Podcasts
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Hey Jonas! The official Jonas Brothers podcast. Hosted by Kevin, Joe, and Nick Jonas. It’s the Jonas Brothers you know... musicians, actors, and well, yes, brothers. Now, they’re sharing another side of themselves in the playful, intimate, and irreverent way only they can. Spend time with the Jonas Brothers here and stay a little bit longer for deep conversations like never before.
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by Audiochuck Media Company.
Building on the belief that a deeper understanding of the natural world enriches all of our lives, host Steven Rinella brings an in-depth and relevant look at all outdoor topics including hunting, fishing, nature, conservation, and wild foods. Filled with humor, irreverence, and things that will surprise the hell out of you, each episode welcomes a diverse group of guests who add their own expertise to the vast world of the outdoors. Part of The MeatEater Podcast Network.
Where the world and America meet, with episodes each weekday. The world is changing. Decisions made in the US and by the second Trump administration are accelerating that change. But they are also a symptom of it. With Asma Khalid in DC, Tristan Redman in London, and the backing of the BBC’s international newsroom, The Global Story brings clarity to politics, business and foreign policy in a time of connection and disruption. Come and join us our live event. You can register for Castfest tickets here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/showsandtours/shows/castfest-2026