Luke 14:28 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?
There are two costs that simply have not been calculated: the cost of the lockdown on human life and the cost to our great grand children of the “stimulus” package. These two costs are much greater than anyone can imagine, and they are simply ignored. As a nation we are twenty five trillion dollars in the deficit. That is so much money we can never pay it back. And we keep adding to it every day.
But the other cost is much greater. It isn’t simply money, it is undiagnosed illnesses like cancer and heart disease. It is depression and despair. It is a lost year or more of education for those who need it the most, those who can’t afford private schools like those who are making the decisions that the rest of us must live with now. The lost businesses, life savings, blood, sweat and tears, all gone.
These types of senseless losses can be prevented, but cooler heads must be allowed to make the decisions. Unfortunately, those in power have hot heads, but they make decisions not based on facts, but on politics. I had better quit or I will get my own head hot!
Jesus has begun preparing His followers for His departure. And one of the lessons they need to learn is to count the cost. They must consider the price of discipleship. It costs everything. No cheap faith here. No easy road, no toll free highway.
The parable in today’s text deals with the cost of building. I don’t know if you have noticed the price of lumber currently, but it has increased dramatically in recent months. They say it is because COVID shut down the tree harvesting, sawmills, and lumber manufacturing factories. Trucks were concentrating on transporting essential materials, and lumber was not seen as essential. So now we have a backlog of orders. Low supply and high demand has caused prices to rise.
I know this because I am beginning a project that will use quite a bit of lumber! So I have my spreadsheets that keep track of cost estimates based on lumber prices. I keep having to revise my estimate based on the fact that lumber continues to increase in price. I’m getting tired of the increases!
Every now and again, I will see a house project that gets started and then sits unfinished for a period of time, sometimes for years. We drive by and say, “They didn’t count the cost.” The cost is more than just the money. Many marriages don’t survive a large home remodel because the cost to the relationship is higher than they expected. The hundreds of decisions that must be made, the long hours of sweet equity, the living in dust and mess all carry a cost. Like the results of the lockdowns, they can take a greater toll than the actual monetary value.
So what are the projects that you have undertaken where you underestimated the costs? Did the overages take you by surprise? When the hidden costs came due, did you handle them well, or did the grumbler in you come out?
Each of us is responsible to count the costs. Jesus wanted to make sure His followers considered the costs of following Him. True followers know that following Him means laying down your life, giving it all up, reckoning everything of this life as lost in order to gain real life. Is that how your spreadsheet that measures the cost of being a Jesus-follower?
The Arnold Journey 