The Weight I Couldn’t Carry Alone / Guest Post by Ken Hirshey

I grew up in a Conservative Church of Christ home. Worship was simple, no musical instruments, no fanfare. And the theology I absorbed was equally stark: once you were saved, you weren’t supposed to sin anymore. That was it. No room for stumbling. No space for struggle.

What I had was a very vertical relationship with God, rules flowing downward, and very little horizontal connection with others. I didn’t even know what a personal relationship with the Lord meant. Faith felt like a standard I could never quite reach, a bar set just high enough to stay out of grasp.

I was so burdened by this weight that I basically gave up and walked away from pursuing the Lord entirely during college.

That season cost me. I wasn’t the man, the friend, or the example I should have been. And for a long time, I didn’t know how to find my way back, because no one had ever shown me what the way back actually looked like.

It wasn’t a sermon that broke through. It was men—ordinary men in the marketplace who knew something I didn’t: grace.

Promise Keepers reset my compass and showed me what a Christian man could actually look like. Wild at Heart reinforced it. Then came The Journey, and with it, a revelation of the nature of my Heavenly Father that I had never experienced in all my years of churchgoing. He wasn’t a scorekeeper. He was a Father.

Pure Encouragement has become a daily anchor in this. It reminds me that my purpose and affirmation do not come from the standards of this world—from being the best athlete, the most successful CEO, or the most admired man in the room. They come from who God says I am. That single shift changed the weight I carry. It still does.

I am deeply convinced that marketplace ministries and men-focused mentoring are essential to winning back our families. Men need to step into leadership, strong and courageous, just as Moses charged Joshua before he crossed into the Promised Land. That call hasn’t changed. The battlefield has.

Action Steps: Putting On Your Armor of God Every Day

1. Seek a good mentor and nourish that opportunity. Don’t wait for a formal program. Look around your workplace, your church, your neighborhood. Pursue men who reflect who you want to become and show up consistently.
2. Build your three-strand cord. Scripture tells us a cord of three strands is not easily broken. You need all three relationships intentionally in your life:

3. Pursue intentional personal development regardless of your title. It doesn’t matter whether you are an athlete, a CEO, or a college student. Purposeful growth is how you put on your armor each day. Read. Attend gatherings. Engage in ministries like Pure Encouragement that point you back to your identity in Christ.
4. Let go of the scorecard. If you grew up under a theology of performance—one that said saved people don’t struggle—give yourself permission to lay that down. Grace is real. Your Heavenly Father is not grading you on a curve; He’s drawing you into a relationship.
5. Invest in Pure Encouragement’s tools. Use the resources available to you to build a stronger relationship with your Heavenly Father. These are not extras; they are essential equipment for the journey.

The road back for me didn’t start in a pew. It started with men who were willing to be honest about their own struggles and bold enough to speak life into mine. That is the ministry of mentorship. That is the cord that holds.

Be strong and courageous. Find your Paul. Be a Barnabas. Invest in your Timothy. And let Pure Encouragement remind you every day: your worth was never yours to earn.