Whoever doesn’t bear his own cross and come after me, can’t be my disciple.
For which of you, desiring to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and count the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it?
Or perhaps, when he has laid a foundation and isn’t able to finish, everyone who sees begins to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’ Or what king, as he goes to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?