Addiction & Faith Journey With Matthew Demoulin (Episode 3)
Addiction & Faith Journey With Matthew Demoulin (Episode 3)

Relational Recovery

Matthew Demoulin talks about how his Christian faith moved from background tradition to the centre of his addiction recovery. He reflects on a bathroom-stall Bible verse, saying yes to hard things and learning to see suffering as purposeful rather than pointless.

InspiringHonestHopefulSupportiveHealing

11:59•23 Apr 2026

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Faith, Bathroom Stalls and Sobriety: Matthew Demoulin’s Story

Episode Overview

Faith becomes Matthew’s central framework for recovery and daily life, rather than a separate religious activity.
A bathroom stall verse, John 15:5, gradually shifts his perspective from self-reliance to recognising dependence on God and others.
He highlights that Jesus not only meets people where they are but also calls them to actively follow, which requires difficult choices.
Saying yes to unwanted leadership roles at The Refuge becomes a practical way of following that call, even when he feels unqualified.
Suffering changes from being the destructive result of addiction to a chosen, purposeful part of spiritual growth and character building.

“I believe that I met Jesus Christ in the bathroom stall at the farm back in Benton County.”

How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This conversation from Relational Recovery follows Matthew Demoulin as he talks about how his faith has become the backbone of his recovery from addiction. Raised Catholic, Matthew explains that mass, holy days and family tradition were constants, but actually living out his faith felt confusing and distant. As his drug use escalated, he kept trying to quit “cold turkey”, turning to church and prayer in between relapses.

Each fresh start came with promises to God that he couldn’t keep, which eventually left him feeling like he didn’t really believe, wasn’t a good person and might be “going to hell”. Dropped off at The Refuge Ministry without much choice, Matthew arrived wanting “nothing to do with God”. Yet a simple verse taped inside a bathroom stall changed everything.

In the throes of opiate withdrawal, he read John 15:5 again and again: “Apart from me, you can do nothing.” At first he scoffed, listing all the things he thought he’d done on his own. Over the next few days, that same stall kept being the only one open, and the verse moved from irritation to a practical and then spiritual awakening about how none of us truly achieve anything alone.

Matthew shares how this led him to see his own insufficiency as a healthy kind of humility rather than a flaw. He talks about learning that Jesus not only meets people where they are, but then calls them to follow, even when that means saying yes to roles he didn’t want, like house leader or coordinator. He also reframes suffering in recovery — from suffering because of addiction to choosing to suffer for a purpose that shapes character and faith.

Anyone curious about how Christian spirituality fits into addiction recovery, or how faith can reshape shame and struggle, will find plenty to reflect on here. Where might you be invited to move from suffering without purpose to suffering for something that gives life?

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