Count the Cost

December 5

Sometime there’s just no point in arguing. We’ve all put ourselves through the ordeal of trying to justify our words or our actions. We’ve put ourselves through the wringer in order to clarify something said or done that another individual simply didn’t grasp as we’d intended it.

Though we may count ourselves to be skilled wordsmiths, we have to acknowledge that we have, at times, been unable to make our point. The one who did not understand initially, still didn’t ‘get it’ when we’d gone through our hoops of attempting to explain, to clarify.

Jesus must have felt the same way at His mockery of a trial when Pontius Pilate inquired of Him, “’Don’t You have an answer to what these men are testifying against You?' But He kept silent and did not answer anything,” Mark 14:60, 61.

Jesus did not argue before His accusers. He knew the futility of debate and He knew that in order for the plan of salvation to be implemented, this moment had to come.

But, beyond that, He knew that if these people had seen His miracles—blind eyes that were opened, deaf ears that were unstopped, demon-possessed lives that were set free from oppression—and yet did not believe Him, there was no point of further clarification that He could state that would change their hearts.

Like Him, we must sometimes allow the living epistle of our lives stand for itself. Abraham Lincoln once said in response to someone who urged him to argue his position when it was challenged, “It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.”

Certainly, no one would accuse our Sixteenth President of being a fool. His words were wise and precisely to the point, but the fact remains that much attempt at validation of our position or persuasion of another to it will be, for the most part, futile.

It will be much to our advantage if instead we, “Count the cost,” as Jesus advises in Luke 14:28. Here He is counseling that one assess his resources fully so he will know whether he can successfully complete a project. If we have counted the cost and know our position is a good one, if we have laid it out clearly, then we must allow it to stand on its own merit.