Considering the present in light of the future is an important life skill. I teach a college and career readiness class for high schoolers. One of the pivotal decisions my students encounter during the course is whether it is worth continuing their education or training beyond high school. Some of them want to severe all ties with school and enter full-time into the workforce. Others see value in investing at least two years in further training to gain knowledge, skills, or licensing which will reap a higher paying job and a more rewarding career. No matter which route they choose, analyzing the benefits and costs helps them make an informed decision.
Weigh the Cost of Certain Benefits
Beyond education, several societal developments of the last few decades should prompt each of us to analyze their benefits and costs. Rapid advancements in technology, healthcare, and communication have made each a prominent part of people’s lives. The conglomeration of media and their partnership with government has resulted in greater bias, misinformation, disinformation, and censorship. The rise in corporate power has given large companies and financial institutions tremendous international influence over politics, military operations, and economies. The progressive push toward wokeism, globalism, and totalitarianism desires to dismantle democracies.
Here are a few examples of specific societal developments followed by their proposed benefits and sometimes hidden costs. In a few weeks the World Health Organization will vote on amendments to give it unilateral ability to intervene in nation states who are suspected of having a “health emergency.” Several countries are looking at implementing a health passport, digital ID, biometrics, 15-minute cities, “climate lockdowns”, or a social credit system. The United States has widely opened its borders to illegal immigrants. Technology services and social media apps offer helpful, convenient productivity assistants for communicating, connecting with people, navigating, gathering information, or being entertained. Various countries are starting to eliminate cash in favor of a central bank digital currency. Transhumanism merges genetic engineering, cryonics, biotechnology, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence with the goal of ending disease, aging, and even death.
The proposed benefits of these developments are convenience, social equity, economic stability, health, safety, and security. However, the costs are reduced sovereignty, loss of control, forced compliance, less privacy, decline of social and emotional health, and loss of fundamental rights and freedoms. In the case of open borders it is also leading to more human trafficking, increased drug availability and dependance, greater crime and violence, internal security risks, and higher costs for healthcare, welfare, education, and law enforcement due to the immigrants who in masse take from more than they contribute to society. Regarding various social media and technology services, if it is offered for free, then the product is you. The cost is that you are covertly being tracked, profiled, marketed, or manipulated.
Although some of these movements are out of your control, it’s important to be aware of the benefits and costs. That way if you can do something you’ll know better how to respond like raising awareness, voting, protesting, resisting, boycotting, changing services or products you use, or standing for what’s right.
The Most Important Analysis
I have one more analysis I would like you to consider. It’s even more important than what I have already written about. This consideration deals with your soul and spirit—the core of who you are. God created you with a body, a soul (mind, will, emotions, personality), and a spirit (Genesis 1:27, 2:7). Even though your physical body will cease to breathe at some point, your soul and spirit live on forever. The question is how and where will you spend your life now and forever—with God or without him. Therefore, it’s important to analyze the benefit and cost of living for yourself apart from God versus living for God and with God.
At the beginning of humankind Adam and Eve were created in God’s image and used to enjoy complete fellowship with God in the garden of Eden. They walked with him and joyfully carried out his delegation to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. God gave them dominion over all the plants and animals. But there was one tree from which they were not to eat, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because it would kill them. Tragically, they did. They considered the benefit of eating the fruit for it seemed good for food, it was pleasing to the eye, and it was desirable for gaining wisdom. So they ate. However, they failed to recognize the horrific cost of their disobedience. They lost their innocence; they died spiritually; they severed their fellowship with God; they degraded the relationship between each other; they became aware of evil; they brought pain, destruction, and suffering to all of creation; they were banned from the wondrous garden of Eden; and they abdicated their authority over the earth to Satan. Adam and Eve’s sin poisoned all of creation bringing death, decay, disease, and natural disasters. Prior to their disastrous decision these never existed in God’s design (Genesis 3). Sin, which is refusing God’s design for your life, offers a short-term benefit, but at a long-term cost compounded by deadly interest.
Although each of us have inherited this same tendency to disobey God in favor of living for ourselves, God has provided a glorious solution. Jesus, God the Son, became a man, lived the righteous life that we should have lived, died the death that we deserve, and rose again to provide victory over sin. Anyone who trusts Jesus can be forgiven and live rightly with God now and forever.
So it’s worth considering the benefit and cost of trusting and following Jesus versus rejecting him. He freely offers salvation. There is nothing you can do to earn it. You simply accept it by placing your faith in him. However, there is a cost, but it is well worth it (Romans 8:18-39). As you follow Jesus he transforms you from your old self into all you were meant to be in him. This far exceeds anything you could become or do on your own. The difference is like dark and light, death and life. God loves you and has given his very self so you can have the best life. That life is to be with him, to be like him, and to do what he does through Jesus. Jesus taught, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? (Luke 9:23-25). The cost of following Jesus includes putting him first, obeying him, and suffering loss and discomfort. However, this “cost” is minimal compared to the unsurpassed reward of knowing God and helping others do the same. In contrast, the cost of living for yourself is separation from God now and eternal torment in hell as a result of rejecting Jesus and therefore condemning yourself to severed banishment from all that he is the source of: all righteousness, love, peace, joy, hope, truth, goodness, and kindness (John 3:16-21; Revelation 20:11-15). Instead of living for yourself, I pray that you come to resolution that the apostle Paul did, “But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:7-11). Life is not made of the abundance of things or the pursuit of happiness (Luke 12:15-21; Ecclesiastes 1-2, 12:13-14). Rather it is discovering and becoming all you are meant to be in Jesus and sharing that with others.
Conclusion
Consider the benefit and cost of living for Jesus compared to living for yourself. So much in our broken world of fallen people competes with God, but nothing compares with God. Knowing him is what your soul desires and what he designed your heart for. You will never be fulfilled with anything less than God. Discover that he is more than enough. Seek him and his kingdom first and he will supply all that you need (Matthew 6:33). Your cost in following Jesus is minimal because Jesus paid the greatest cost for you on the cross. Your reward in following him is glorious beyond imagination (1 Corinthians 2:6-12; Ephesians 3:14-21). It begins the moment you trust Jesus and continues for eternity. God wants to share his abundant life with you (John 10:10). Let him meet your every need, forge your character, guide your decisions, fulfill your moments, enrich your relationships, impart grace during your trials, and redeem your suffering. Give your life to him and let him live through you to save others (John 15:1-17). That is true life and well worth any cost.