After graduating from law school, I worked with the Environmental Review Division of a major city to identify any potentially adverse effects of proposed construction projects, assess their significance, and recommend measures to eliminate or minimize harm. This process provided some of the information officials and the public needed to decide whether to proceed with a project.

The projects I reviewed included high-rise office buildings, transportation systems, historic preservation overlays, housing developments, and even an expansion of a fortune cookie factory. It was important to consider the immediate, long-range, and cumulative effects of a project on its physical environment and neighboring community. In other words, it was important to consider the consequences and costs of saying yes or no.

It’s no different when counting the cost to follow Jesus. He tells his followers two compelling, connected parables about a building and a battle. The point of the stories was not the successful completion of the tower or the outcome of the war but the willingness and deliberation to count the cost. We know the Holy Spirit will enable us to choose correctly, but it still won't be easy. Truehearted Christian discipleship is costly.

But the cost of not following Jesus is even higher. Such a forfeiture would lead to the loss of the abundant life Jesus offers us. The gospel is much more than an ethical message about a way of life. It is about Jesus, the kingdom he came to proclaim, and loving God before all else. It’s our choice. The cost, whatever it may be, is worth paying.