Oars in the water, Brother.
The first thing I tell the men who come through our Freedom Intensive at House of Resurrection usually surprises them.
I tell them:
"There is nothing you're going to learn in the next 48 hours that will change your life."
You can almost see the confusion on their faces.
After all, they flew across the country. They paid the money. They carved out the time. Surely the breakthrough is hidden somewhere inside my teaching notes.
But it isn't.
The moment that changes a man's life never happens during the Intensive. It happens three days later. It happens when the alarm clock goes off at 6:00 a.m. and he gets out of bed to pray instead of scrolling his phone. It happens when temptation comes and he makes the call.
It happens when he tells the truth. It happens when he apologizes. It happens when he opens his Bible.
It happens when he keeps putting his oars in the water.
The words have stayed with me since 2010.
I was sitting in my counselor Dr. McGill's office after my life had exploded. Twenty-three years of sexual addiction had finally come into the light. My ministry was gone. My reputation was shattered. My future seemed uncertain.
At one point during our conversation, he looked at me and simply said:
"Blaine, keep your oars in the water."
I've never forgotten it. What he meant was simple. Don't quit. Don't drift. Don't wait for a miracle while refusing to row.
Keep moving. One stroke at a time. I have thought about those words thousands of times since then.
The Christian life is much more like rowing upstream than floating downstream. Every day we wake up in a culture pulling us toward comfort, distraction, indulgence, selfishness, pornography, materialism, and spiritual apathy.
Nobody drifts toward holiness.
Nobody accidentally becomes a great husband.
Nobody accidentally becomes a great father.
Nobody accidentally becomes spiritually alive.
If we stop rowing, we drift. And drift is never neutral. The current always pulls us somewhere. This is where many Christians become confused about grace.
Dallas Willard famously said:
"Grace is not opposed to effort; it is opposed to earning."
That's it.
That is the tension.
Many of us have been taught to choose between grace and effort. The Bible never asks us to choose. Grace is not opposed to work. Grace empowers work.
Earning says:
"If I do enough, God will love me."
Grace says:
"Because God loves me, I am free to become the man He created me to be."
The Apostle Paul understood this balance perfectly… in one of my favorite passages.
In 1 Corinthians 15:10 he writes:
"But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me."
Notice the tension.
Grace.
Work.
Grace.
Work.
Paul doesn't apologize for effort. He celebrates it. But he understands where the power comes from. The grace of God was working through him.
Grace makes effort possible.
So if you're tired today...
If you're discouraged...
If you've lost momentum...
If you've drifted farther than you intended...
Get back in the boat.
Pick up the oars.
And row. ✝
Resurrection Starts Here
Courses, coaching, community, and Intensives designed for lasting freedom.
Men's Freedom Intensive
A life-changing two-day experience for men ready to break free from pornography, sexual brokenness, and secrecy.
The Collective
Our weekly online brotherhood where men find encouragement, accountability, and practical tools for lasting freedom.
Katharos Masterclass
A Christ-centered pathway that combines biblical truth, practical exercises, and neuroscience to help you pursue freedom and purpose.