Luke 14:28

"... which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it --"

The mind can conjure unimaginable edifices, adorned with the finest of stones and rarest of precious metals. Palatial rooms and sculpted landscaping hardly describe the interior and exterior spheres of its envelope. The awe of its viewers and occupants stuns even the mind of its creator, self-elevating him/her to a stature known by none other.

O' the cost. Where shall the greenbacks be harvested? As grand a modern tower of Babel it might be, it must be sourced. And as intricate as its finishes are, the complexity of its expense might rival the architecture. Certainly a foundation would not be laid without forethought.

36-plus years ago my ears first received the vibration of sounds that articulated the darkness of my despair. Instead of shooting through the other side, they took a detour under the pull of divine gravity and resonated in my heart, my soul. There they rippled a perfect sphere of waves as if a pebble were dropped onto the glassy surface of a perfectly still pond. Eventually reaching my mind, and then my eyes, the rivers of tears would restore that pond of whatever moisture evaporated that day. And I did not know then what I know today. How could I? The immortal life of a 14 year old boy's dream simply cannot fathom but the simplicity of the gospel.

I'm grateful I did not comprehend then what I apprehend today. Perhaps those same truths if freshly birthed in my mind now would bounce off a frigid, frozen and hardened layer of ice that would require a massive boulder to penetrate. The good and God-given gospel comes with a price. The formula is simple: Life + Death = Life. The loan is unquantifiable, and the interest compounds exponentially with each passing second of a sin. That's all. Everything; Jesus demands everything.

I feel the tingles of those wavelengths decades later. Instead of dissipating, they're gaining strength, and the tsunami has crushed life. Under its crashing weight, I still struggle to gasp for air. One day it will be extinguished forever. That's the price tag. The Cashier gazes into my eyes and says, "Paid in full."