It was the picture by the recipe in the cookbook that caught my eye! It showed a lovely rustic pottery bowl filled with the most delicious looking pasta and vegetables. The recipe called for pasta, fresh vegetables and two different kinds of cheeses.
Pasta! A cheap meal! It would fit right into the steam-lined budget Beloved and I had come up with the night before after finding that our budget for two months had been maligned. So we went over every penny we had spent and found the culprit and not surprisingly it was “groceries”. July had been a particularly celebratory month with much company at the cottage and many meals enjoyed with friends and family. And it was there that the budget went out the window and our food allowance went through the roof.
But once the problem had been identified I felt confident that I could quickly get it under control and we would be back in great financial shape within a month or two. After all, I KNOW HOW TO COOK CHEAP! So the pasta with vegetables looked like the perfect recipe…cheap and delicious! So off to Kroger I went with my small grocery list in hand.
Every few weeks I buy a gift card and pay for groceries with that. It makes checking out fast and also saves me from writing twenty checks to Kroger every month! So at check out I swiped my card, never looking at the price and went my merry way.
The pasta was boiling in the pot when I glanced at the receipt. $21.95! I had just spent $21.95 for a pot of “cheap” pasta! In fact it was not cheap because the specialty cheeses and pasta had cost a fortune! I was shocked…and mad at myself for not paying close attention. And the verse came to mind .. “For which one of you when he wants to build a tower (or cook dinner!) does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?”
Considering the costs….Christ was not talking about dinner but far more important things. He basically asks us to see nothing as important, nothing that can even begin to compare with the great joy of following Him. But that is not a cheap decision just as it is not cheap grace. . It is very costly. It literally costs everything.
But like me and the pasta dish we all want something cheap. Instead of fellowship with God we will substitute just about anything else yet in the long run the cheap costs us far more than we were ever wanted to spend. It catches us off guard, deceives us into believing we really are getting a deal. But Christ offers us the greatest treasure of all and then turns around and reminds us that it comes with a cost.
Consider…consider…consider.
It is all worth it. In the end it is worth everything.
Pasta! A cheap meal! It would fit right into the steam-lined budget Beloved and I had come up with the night before after finding that our budget for two months had been maligned. So we went over every penny we had spent and found the culprit and not surprisingly it was “groceries”. July had been a particularly celebratory month with much company at the cottage and many meals enjoyed with friends and family. And it was there that the budget went out the window and our food allowance went through the roof.
But once the problem had been identified I felt confident that I could quickly get it under control and we would be back in great financial shape within a month or two. After all, I KNOW HOW TO COOK CHEAP! So the pasta with vegetables looked like the perfect recipe…cheap and delicious! So off to Kroger I went with my small grocery list in hand.
Every few weeks I buy a gift card and pay for groceries with that. It makes checking out fast and also saves me from writing twenty checks to Kroger every month! So at check out I swiped my card, never looking at the price and went my merry way.
The pasta was boiling in the pot when I glanced at the receipt. $21.95! I had just spent $21.95 for a pot of “cheap” pasta! In fact it was not cheap because the specialty cheeses and pasta had cost a fortune! I was shocked…and mad at myself for not paying close attention. And the verse came to mind .. “For which one of you when he wants to build a tower (or cook dinner!) does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?”
Considering the costs….Christ was not talking about dinner but far more important things. He basically asks us to see nothing as important, nothing that can even begin to compare with the great joy of following Him. But that is not a cheap decision just as it is not cheap grace. . It is very costly. It literally costs everything.
But like me and the pasta dish we all want something cheap. Instead of fellowship with God we will substitute just about anything else yet in the long run the cheap costs us far more than we were ever wanted to spend. It catches us off guard, deceives us into believing we really are getting a deal. But Christ offers us the greatest treasure of all and then turns around and reminds us that it comes with a cost.
Consider…consider…consider.
It is all worth it. In the end it is worth everything.
Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.John 14: 27
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