Travis Wilburn – From Addiction and Isolation to Freedom Through Community

Sometimes the greatest transformation happens when we finally stop pretending we have it all together.

Behind the smiles, success, and appearances, many people are silently battling addiction, shame, anxiety, fear, and hopelessness. They believe the lie that they’re alone in their struggles—but God never intended for us to fight alone.

In this honest and powerful conversation, John Martin sits down with Travis Wilburn to share a testimony of redemption, freedom, and the life-changing power of godly community.

Travis opens up about growing up in a Christian home but spending nearly ten years running from God and chasing the world. Like so many people, he searched for purpose and peace through partying, alcohol, and temporary distractions. What started as casual drinking eventually became a coping mechanism for life itself.

Good day? Drink to celebrate.
Bad day? Drink to numb the pain.

For years, Travis lived trapped in cycles of addiction, lust, shame, and frustration—while still believing in God on some level. But deep down, he felt stuck and powerless to truly change.

Then everything shifted.

At 25 years old, Travis began sensing God gently drawing him back. Night after night, while his friends were out partying, he found himself sitting alone in his room listening to sermons, taking notes, and feeling God awaken something inside his heart.

One night, while watching a message from Pastor Andy Stanley, Travis responded to an altar call alone in his bedroom. He raised his hand, surrendered his life to Jesus, and encountered the presence of God in a real and personal way.

But even after giving his life to Christ, Travis still struggled with hidden sin and cycles he didn’t know how to break.

That’s when God used something unexpected to change his life forever: a small group.

Through authentic Christian community, Travis finally experienced what it meant to stop hiding. Sitting in a room full of men honestly sharing their struggles, fears, addictions, and failures, he realized he wasn’t alone. For the first time, he confessed the things he had kept hidden for years.

And healing began.

Travis shares how accountability, prayer, honesty, and brotherhood became the tools God used to bring lasting freedom into his life. He explains that true healing often begins the moment we stop concealing our struggles and bring them into the light.

As scripture says:
“Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.”

This conversation also highlights the importance of surrounding yourself with godly people during life’s hardest moments. Travis recounts a terrifying season when his young son suffered a serious accident and was airlifted to the hospital. In the middle of fear and uncertainty, it was the prayers and support of Christian community that carried their family through.

Today, Travis passionately encourages others to:
Get into God’s Word daily.
Find a Christ-centered church.
Join a small group and walk in authentic community.
And never believe the lie that you are alone.

No matter what addiction, fear, anxiety, or struggle you’re facing today, freedom is possible through Jesus Christ.

You don’t have to hide anymore.
You don’t have to fight alone.
And your past does not disqualify you from God’s purpose.

What’s one struggle you need to bring into the light and stop carrying by yourself today?

Contact Travis Wilburn:
📧 traviswilburn1@gmail.com

For more information contact us at
rtrdestiny@gmail.com

Transcript

Welcome And Testimony Snapshot

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Well, hello, friends. This is John. I'm back on Road to Redemption with my good friend Travis Wilburn. Travis, how are you, brother? Good job. Thanks for having me. So good to have you. I always love to see you. You just have a just such a bright light of joy and just so great to have you here. And Duke. Good to be here. And and I know we we had you on before when we were doing our audio and radio show, and that was really great. And yes, you you shared your testimony, and it was very powerful. And I thought you'd give us a little bit of a summary of that today, but then we kind of talk a little bit about you know what's in your heart.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

Yeah, that's awesome. Well, yeah, I think the last time I was here, we went through like the Genesis all the way to where I was then, which was a couple years ago. And uh man, since then we've probably had at least another child. Yeah. Um, so yeah, it's crazy how much can happen in two years. Yeah. Um, but man, I was uh I'll give you the quick backstory in two minutes or so. I was raised in a Christian household in a Catholic family, and uh thought I knew God, but did not, so went totally off the deep end around age 16 or so and stayed off the deep end for man, roughly 10 years of my life. And I call that uh the lost years, like 10 years of my life that were totally wasted, not purposeful at all, partied them away, and then thankfully was able to rededicate my life to Jesus at age 25, and then that's really where I feel like my life began. So that's uh that's the fun part of the story to me. Everything before that is uh the stories you hear a lot, I'm sure, which is man, I was without purpose and uh aimed at nothing, and then Jesus came in and changed it all, and that was the tipping boy of my life. So that was at 25. Um and then I the thing I'd love to talk about today, and I'm we'll get there inevitably, I'm sure, but is small groups is really what changed it primarily, and that didn't happen until age 28. Okay. I'm 36 now, so that was roughly eight years ago. But man, you can walk as a Christian through life, be saved, and still be ineffective and struggle in sin cycles that you are powerless, seemingly powerless to control, even as a born-again Christian. And so that's why I really want to encourage people to engage with small groups. If nothing else comes of today than that, that would be a success.

SPEAKER_01 2:32

I know a lot of people want to hear about that. Um,

Alcohol As A Coping Habit

SPEAKER_01 2:35

yeah. Well, you're um, so you you know, you obviously struggled for a number of years and with with sin and and and you you you gave your life to Christ. Is there any um, I mean, did you have to walk through some trials? Anything like that you want to share and how how how you got through that?

SPEAKER_00 2:55

Are we talking trials, John, like BC days like prior to experiencing Jesus? Yeah. Uh yeah, I mean, tons of trials. It seems like everything you walk through prior to in calorie is a trial because you don't quite know how to deal with it, and you try to do it in your own strength. So, like my coping mechanism was alcohol. So I drank habitually and consistently from the age of you know, roughly 17 to 27. So call it 10 years, and that was the way that I coped with life. If you had a good day, you drank to celebrate. If you had a bad day, you drank to try to numb the stress of it out, and that was that was normal life for me. And so, yeah, I mean, that was a trial that created new trials every single day. It created uh marital stress once I got married at 27. Um, that was probably the biggest player in all of it.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

Well, what was it that finally got you to to give your life to Christ and truly, you know, surrender and get that out of your life?

Surrendering To Jesus At 25

SPEAKER_00 3:58

That's a good question. Uh around 25, man, it's it's kind of hard to describe. The Bible talks about how God knocks on the door of our heart, but he's so gentle. He's such a gentleman, the father. And so he'll knock on the door of our heart, but he doesn't barge in. So we have to open that door to him. And so, man, I felt like through all the late nights and the partying and all the things that that knock, that still small voice that we hear about was always there. And I did a whole lot of running from, and then finally I started running to. And around 25, man, I just started heating that voice, and it changed the desires of my heart. I remember I told you this before, but it was I would start sitting on my bed at eight o'clock at night, or on the 25 when all my friends are going out, and like, man, I can't explain it. I just wanted to encounter the things of God, and I couldn't explain it. So I started watching all these Andy Stanley videos. He was a pastor in Albert in Georgia. I encountered him and I would take notebooks full of notes on these sermons. And finally, he did an altar call uh late at night in my bedroom on the end of one of these sermon series. He said, if you want to know Jesus and give your life to him, raise your hand. And it felt like the silliest thing in the world to raise your hand in your own company in your own bedroom. But I raised my hand and uh dude just cried. And I knew that it was real, and so now it was age 25, and there were you know a series of things that happened right after that that only God could have brought in, like met my wife, you know, roughly six months later. And the first thing she had me do was watch Andy Stanley videos. She's like, There's this pastor who has these dating and relationship series in the 21st century. His name's Andy Stanley, you've got to watch these. And I'm like, God's doing something. Yeah, you already hear this. Exactly. So that was the moment that I encountered him in the realest way, even though I was raised in a Christian household. Uh, but still struggled with tons of sin and uh alcohol for the next two years and lust, all the things that men typically deal with, but keep inside, don't tell anybody anything about them and just say, I've got it all figured out. Um, men are really bad traditionally at struggling and telling people about it. Yeah. Yet that's the thing that will actually cause the healing.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

Well, and a lot, a lot of people too, we talk about this that they'll they're they believe in God and they you know go to church even, um, but they're yeah, they they we've got these sins we're dealing with, and they we're not really living free, joyous life that that the Bible promises.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

Right.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

And you know, a lot of people are just kind of stuck in that. Um, and they live in condemnation, you know, they don't really feel worthy. Um, but like you were saying, the the small groups are really a way to get free of

Small Groups And Confession Healing

SPEAKER_01 7:05

that. You know, you've I know you've seen that. Um go a little deeper on that. Talk talk to us about how that changed your life.

SPEAKER_00 7:12

Yeah. So my brother-in-law Colby, who's probably been on here, yeah uh he uh called me. He got into a small group. He said, Man, you've got to come with this small group. You know, it's awesome. It's weird at first, but it's awesome. And so I went to there was a group of 12 to 15 guys, they had just started in Santa Rosa Beach, had come from Fort Walden, and I mean I went. And at first it was the strangest thing because it's a bunch of men sitting around a room saying, This is what I struggle with. And as a man, like the unwritten rules of manhood when you're growing up is like you don't show emotion, you shove all those things down, you don't tell anybody about them, but these men are bearing all of that to one another, and you could tell that they have freedom, that they're unashamed about it, and they're walking through these things as a band of brothers, like locking arms with a power that I didn't know. I'd never experienced that. We went to church every Sunday, but I walked in sin nearly every day and did not know how to walk out of it. And I thought that was my lot in life, even as a Christian. And so they would go around the room, they would all share, tell us what you're struggling with, you know. And some of these guys would go on for eight or nine minutes and just put it all out there, and then they came to me and I remember I shared for like 46 seconds. You know, I was like, I'm good, I got it all together, baby on the way, married a year ago, like, thanks for having me, you know, and that was pretty much it. But they do a powerful thing at the end, which is break into prayer groups, and in those prayer groups, it's easier to share in a group of three what you won't share in a group of 15. Yeah. And so I remember I was partnered with David Buchanan, powerful man of God, and he said, uh, tell me what you're really struggling with. And I said, Man, you have a crossroads in that moment. Either you keep this act up or you just share what you're really struggling with. And I said, Man, I'm newly married, struggling financially, putting every dollar I can into a business that we owned at the time, baby on the way, doing six months. I don't know how I'm gonna be a father. I don't know how we're gonna afford these things. I don't know how to be a good husband. Dude, I struggle with lust every day of my life. Like, I don't know how to walk out freedom as a Christian. And I feel like I've been sold a bill of goods in a way because I just feel like I'm handcuffed to sin and don't know how to walk out of it. And he's like, he said, let's start with finances. He said, Do you tithe? I said, No, dude, I don't tithe. And he said, I'm gonna come find you on Sunday at church, and I want you to tell me that you tithe, and I'm gonna walk with you and hold you accountable to that. And I said, Come on. So I remember he never had to ask me again. That was eight years ago. We've tithed ever since. I mean, it's radically changed our.

Tithing And Accountability In Practice

SPEAKER_00 10:03

What is is tithing to you and why do you do it? So tithing, tithe literally means tenth. Um, and it's for me, we tithe, we give a tenth of everything we earn back to the local church, the storehouse, before it ever goes out to anything. And I'm probably more militant about it than others are, but I want to make sure the first fruits go to God and not publics. And so I want God to be honored in our finances because he could do far more in our life with 90% with him in it than I could do with 100% without him in it. And so God is, man, it is not a get rich, quicks game. I'm very quick to point out, hey, don't do this to get something. It is a posture of your heart where you say, God, I want to invite you into my finances. I'm willing to give you the first 10% and trust you with it. And God will radically transform your financial picture. I promise you that if you stick with it. Yes. Yeah. So that's the first thing David asked me. Yeah, okay. Do you tithe? And uh I said, no, he held me accountable to do that. He prayed with me to break this bondage of lust. And I remember going home, Tiffany laugh, Tiffany's our wife, she laughs at the story now because she said, You came home and you look like a deer in the headlights. Like you were basically in shock. And it was because I had let the cat out of the bag and told everybody, perfect strangers, all the things you're struggling with. And you're like, Man, they're judging me. I was supposed to have it all figured out, and now they know you don't have it all figured out. I heard someone say Friday in a dinner we did, they said, Man, God can't heal what you conceal. And the Bible says, confess your sins one to another and be healed. You would think it would say be forgiven, but he says, confess your sins one to another and be healed. And so once you let these things out, the light tends to get in, and then God can deal with them. So, and that was the beginning of a small group journey that's now brought us all the way to where we host these in our house on Tuesdays. And that was eight years ago, yes.

SPEAKER_01 12:19

Wow. Well, and everybody has them. Everybody has, we're all fallen, and we all have something, you know, we're struggling with. And the small group is where you can really make yourself vulnerable and get other men or women, you know, to to come around you. Yes, you know, and pray for you and help encourage you. And exactly. And and it is a way you confess, you know, to one another, and you can really be set free. Yes. Uh, and you can have accountability too, like you said, of you know, when somebody doesn't come, the guys are calling them saying, Hey, where are you, man? Where you know, and having that kind of accountability, yeah, it's hard to find in in today's world, you know, of 100% men, you know, that care. Yes, men that work that want to see you, you know, in a relationship with the Lord and in and set free. Yes. So, so, so yeah, so you win and you, you know, you you David prayed and what what happened next?

SPEAKER_00 13:19

Well, uh, I became a sold-out evangelist for small groups and tried to get everybody that I could into them and have succeeded in a lot of ways because man, people just come in and uh find transformation. And like the other piece of it too, once you start to get free a lot of a lot of these things, it's like, how do I walk through the other things that I still deal

A Family Crisis Met By Prayer

SPEAKER_00 13:43

with? Because it's not like life is perfect, you know, it's God has radically transformed, we have three beautiful children and a wonderful marriage, and a wonderful business, and all these beautiful things that God has orchestrated, but they're still struggles. And a lot of them are now outside of my control. I didn't create them, used to, I created all my problems. Um, like we walked through a thing with Levi, who's our middle child, who's five years old, uh, in August last year. He was uh fell off a trampoline. I was out of town, he was airlifted to uh Sacred Heart and uh Pensacola, and I'm on a men's retreat on an island in Port St. Joe, where it wasn't easy for me to get there. And it's one of those moments where all the news you get is worse every 30 seconds. You pick up the phone, Levi fell off, got it, taken to the ER, he's fractured his skull, they're putting him on a helicopter, he's in ICU, and you realize how many things are how little you actually control, and how much you actually need to depend on God every single day, even in 21st century Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, or wherever you are. We have to depend on God. And it was the most fast, the reason I bring that up, the most fascinating part was we probably got 150 phone calls or texts within the first hour of that saying, I'm praying for you. Can I pray right now on the phone? We're praying for you, brother, like God's gonna be powerful. Wow. But how do people walk through those things if they don't have community around them? I'm like, what's the alternative? Like, I walk through that, just Tibney and I, without community of like-hearted, like-minded believers to lift you up. And so, like, fast forward, Levi gets to Pensacola, he's in ICU, this is you know, like eight months ago, and then I hit my knees when I got to the hotel room, cried out to God. And God said, I'm healing him. And this swelling that was on his brain, I mean, it was the most radical thing. You could visually see the swelling going down as all these prayer warriors came to it, and as I hit my knees in prayer, and then over the next 48 hours, Levi got progressively better and better and better. And these doctors were astonished. It's like the wonderful stories you hear about where they bring the x-ray in, they're like, Mr. and Mrs. Wilburn, like, we can't explain this. And he walked out 48 hours later and became a testimony to all the people that watched it, and they gave him no order, like he got to go right back into life because the swelling reduced so quickly, and because of all the prayers that came, uh, and because of the faithfulness of God. But I'm like, how do people walk through the equivalent of whatever that is for you alone? It may not be a son who uh falls off a trampoline, but it's gonna be I got laid off from a job, I went through a divorce, I'm struggling with my child who's far from the Lord. Your trial's gonna look different than mine in a lot of ways, but what do you do with it? And who do you cry out to? Like, do you cry out to God and do you have a community of believers around you who will carry that weight with you so it doesn't feel overwhelming? And if you don't, you need it, yeah, because we all do.

SPEAKER_01 17:10

And they're it it's it's especially in America, um they're readily available now. Yeah, small groups. Um you you can even if you go to a church, maybe a smaller church that doesn't have them, or many, they're yeah, they're open. I mean, they're these truth, these groups are out there, and and and I know, you know, with with the groups that you lead, there are yeah other people in there, you know, from other churches. Yes, you know, so so so they're they're out there for you. Um we just encourage you to take a step and and get in one. Yes, you know, ask your church or your friends, and if you take those steps, God's gonna open the doors. Yeah, get you in a good small group, no matter what season you're in. They're there for men, for women, they're for married couples, for singles. They're we're really blessed in this country to have a lot of. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 18:10

Um, we just really encourage you to do that. 100%. I went on Destiny's website this morning just to see how easy is it to navigate and find them. And if you go on the home page, click small groups, it will give you a drop-down of what you're looking for. Men, women, marriage, couples, click one. If there's not one where you are, come to Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. Like there's plenty of them. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:33

And and and I know Destiny has, gosh, I know over well, over a hundred. Yeah. And and and it's just we're just so blessed, really, to have these. Uh it's it's something we talk about, a road to redemption, our three key pillars. Is is first, we we encourage you to get into the word of God, into the Bible, and spend time with the Lord every day. You'll get up in the morning and read this Bible. We promise you, he will start speaking to you through your Bible. If you don't have the the hard back, just it's on your phone, get the Bible out. It it it God will speak to you that, and then uh get into a Christ-centered, Bible-believing church and go. Go. Just give it at least one year. I like to say I know Joel Olstein always said that. I just think that's so cool. Yeah, give it one year, and we we we promise it'll change your life. Yes, transform your life, and then uh lastly get into a small group. Amen. You know, get into a small group, commit to that small group, go, uh, be consistent. Yes.

Hope For The Struggling And Prayer

SPEAKER_01 19:44

Um, you know, God will will just come into your heart. Um, but Travis, there, you know, there are a lot of people hurting out there. Um yeah, we're we're in a tough world right now. And um, you know, I was talking earlier, like a guy like you, you know, you're you're successful, you're you got a lot going for you, but there are people out there that are struggling, going, oh, this guy's got it all together. What what do you say to people out there today that are really they're they're struggling. They're they're maybe depressed, anxious, maybe suicidal. Um they need they need hope, you know, and they they've yeah, they've heard about God and all that, but right now they're really what what what do you say to them?

SPEAKER_00 20:32

Man, I would say uh don't believe the lie that you are alone in that. There was a guy on Tuesday night that came to our group, shared with everybody that he was struggling heavily with alcohol, that he was going through withdrawals coming out of it then. So we laid hands on him and prayed, and then I saw him the very next day outside our office. So I went and talked to him, and I said, Man, thank you for being bold and telling the group that. And he said, Man, you wouldn't believe the enemy was telling me, don't share that out loud. Those guys in that group have it all together. They don't struggle with these things. And I said, Man, that's a lie. That's a lie. So, whatever you're struggling with, I would tell you, you're not alone. That there are countless people around you that are not only struggling with the same thing, that have found victory over it in the name of Jesus, and that they can help you walk through it. So seek out those people, do it through a small group, if at all possible, because you'll get to see victory walk out in their life. And victory is available in that to the degree that you plug into godly community and can commit to it. That's what I would say for now. Wow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:41

That's good. Well, let's let's just pray before we go. Um, this has been great. Uh, Father God, Lord Jesus, we love you. Yeah, and we're so thankful for you and and and for Travis coming on the show. We just we pray for all those that are out there that maybe. Maybe maybe going through some tough times or struggling. Father, we just pray that you meet them right now and you come and just cover them and bless them. And Father, if if they're not in a church or a small group, Father, help them to open a door for them to get connected to community. Lord, we just we pray that you will open doors for them to get into community and get into a close personal relationship with you. Father God, we just pray your hand, your hand of blessings over those that are listening right now. Yes. And we believe that they they're gonna take that first step to getting into close relationship with you. And um we just we pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Wow, it's been great, Travis. Yeah, thank you for coming on. Of course. Enjoy it, John. Thank you, brother. Bye bye.