Verse of the Day for January 19

Jesus is talking to a large crowd that is following him enthusiastically, and instead of consolidating the enthusiasm he tries to slow it down.

Which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost.

Sitteth down first. Before the enthusiasm becomes a foundation, there is a chair and a calculation.

There is also a quiet mercy in being told to sit down. The crowd was moving and he stopped them. Nobody in that moment was told they were unwelcome; they were told to work out what following would cost before the enthusiasm made the decision for them.

And the failure he describes is not collapse. It is an unfinished tower with people walking past it — everyone that beholdeth it begins to mock him, saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish.

That is a particular kind of loss. Not a project that failed, a project abandoned at a visible height. It is what a January resolution looks like in March.

Deciding what you can actually sustain is not a lack of faith. It is the thing he told the crowd to do before following him.

Build a shorter tower and finish it.