In a quiet moment this morning I began to contemplate the words of Jesus in Luke 14:28 “FOR WHICH OF YOU, INTENDING TO BUILD A TOWER; DOES NOT SIT DOWN FIRST AND COUNT THE COST, WHETHER HE HAS ENOUGH TO FINISH IT”
Your life is like a tower; through it you can reach great heights. But such heights can only be reached through patience and careful planning. A hastily built tower may be beautiful, but with the proper foundation and inter-structure it will not stand the test of storm or time.
Whatever our dreams, they must be built with careful consideration; the finished product will never be better than the preparation and unseen foundation.
Jesus focuses here on another problem; it doesn’t matter if you have “enough” to begin a project if you will not have enough to finish it. “Enough” what, you may ask, Enough money, enough skill, enough endurance, enough vision, enough cooperation, enough of whatever is required to build the tower.
For example, if I choose to build a home and I consider the price of the land, the materials, the time or the energy, but I do not consider what it will cost me to supply lights and heat and transportation to and from that home, if I do not consider what it will cost to insure it or make repairs or to do regular maintenance, than I may very well be able to be a house that I cannot afford to move into.
If I buy my “dream home” and it has all the luxuries a house could offer to a man, what good is it if I cannot afford to live there for any length of time?
Consider a race; you do not win it by how fast you begin. You win a race by how well you finish it.
Whether you’re talking about a race, a house, a tower or your life; the success of it will be measured by how well you finish.
So how do we finish well? Jesus gives us the answers; first He says you need to “SIT DOWN”. Life has a way of rushing us into what we are not prepared to finish. The most important step toward finishing well is taking the time to stop the present momentum of life BEFORE we begin to build.
Only by stopping and sitting down can we honestly “COUNT THE COST”. Every dream comes with a price tag. The question becomes are you willing and able to pay the price for your dream?
We live in an age of entitlement thinking; many people believe that because they have the desire for something, a house, a car, a child, a wife, a retirement; that their desire alone entitles them to their desire.
I may want a luxury automobile, but before I decide to buy one, I need to ask whether I can afford also to store it, as well as operate it. What good is my luxery car if it is sitting unoperational out in the elements?
I am convinced that most people do not count the cost of the most important decisions of their life, therefore it is not surprising that they do not count the cost of how they will finish their lives either.
If we divide our lives into thirds; Youth, Adulthood and Retirement, we can easily understand that in our youth we plan for EVERYTHING; in fact what do you almost automatically ask every child you meet? Don’t you often say, ‘WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW-UP?” We do this instinctively because we understand the importance of a child to possess dreams.
As young adults we plan for our marriages, our children our homes and our kid’s schooling, everything.
Surprisingly most people never plan to get older. In a recent survey of Americans; over 70% said they “plan” on social security to keep them in their retirement. In the same survey nearly 70% of the same people said that they expect The Security System to collapse before they can collect from it. U.S. Census Population Estimates supports such pessimism, it says; “For every 20 people entering the 50+ market... only 1 will be entering the 18-49 demographic over the next five years.” This married to the fact that the Federal Government has already emptied the social security accounts by “borrowing” from them what it cannot afford to repay paints a grim picture indeed.
So in reality, most people have no plan of how they will survive the last third of their lives; a time when, ironically, they will have increased living expenses, especially medical, and little or no income.
If we are going to live well; if we are going to leave a legacy of a job well done, we must heed the words of Jesus, here in the New Living Translation; “SUPPOSE ONE OF YOU WANTS TO BUILD A TOWER, WILL HE NOT FIRST SIT DOWN AND ESTIMATE THE COST TO SEE IF HE HAS ENOUGH MONEY TO COMPLETE IT?”LUKE 14:28
0 comments:
Post a Comment