According to The Blunder Book by M. Hirsh Goldberg, the company that won the bid to construct the 100 miles of track for the Washington, DC, subway system projected the cost to be $793 million. When the job was completed, however, it cost $6.6 billion. Goldberg said the same company that built the subway received a contract to build the Saudi Arabian city of Jubail. The initial estimate was $9 billion. But when the project was finished, the bill came to $45 billion. That's a cost overrun of $36 billion!

These unexpected construction expenses are of little significance, however, compared with the unexpected costs of our sins against God. The life of King Saul shows us the enormous price of disobedience. He never figured that his continued willfulness and stubborn pride would eventually cost him his honor, his family, his friends, his influence for good, and his fellowship with God. He lost it all. He failed to see it coming when he decided to keep a few bleating sheep for his own pleasure and spare a wicked monarch (1 Samuel 15:14-15, 20-21). But these were costly acts of disobedience.

Father, help us to count the inevitable cost of failing to trust You today. And help us to remember the enormous price Christ paid on the cross for us.  —MRD II  — Mart De Haan