When is a project, task, or accomplishment too costly to be completed or when is the same task or project worth the price that is cost to obtain?

I was watching a TV program some time ago which documented the building of the Panama Canal which I found very fascinating. The French originally began the project in 1880 to allow ships to pass through Central America, to keep from having to sail around South America, which would save 8,000 miles in travel time and expenses. However, after eight years of labor and financial expenditures, therefore, project was canceled in 1888.

Not only was there a huge loss of time, material and money that were spent on the project that was never completed,  an estimated 22,000 people lost their lives from the physical challenges of  the project and from malaria and other diseases that overwhelmed the workers.

For the French, the project was no longer worth the cost that was incurred by attempting to finish it.

However, in 1903 President Roosevelt decided that the Panama Canal was worth the investment and effort and committed to finishing the project the French could not complete, knowing the challenges, obstacles and problems that still remained.

The two key reasons America was successful in completing the Panama Canal was because a military disease specialist was brought into stop the spread of Malaria and America decided on a "locks type" system to travel over the hills, instead of a river to pass through the hills to the Pacific.

Ten years later, the canal was completed and the first ship sailed through the canal, but the cost had also been high, not only in the financial cost it took to build the canal, but the 5,609 lives that were lost in those years it had been under construction.

Although the Panama Canal was a huge undertaking and has become one of the great wonders of the last hundred years and the cost and resources that have been saved by those who use the Canal cannot be calculated, today almost every understands the cost was worth the price.

For those who lost family, friends or love ones, the question could be asked, "Was the cost worth the price for me and our family?" For their families, they might have said no, the cost was not worth it to them, but for the majority of people in this world, we would agree it was worth the price.

We find a very intriguing similarity from history as well. Mankind has a desire to live forever, nations have spent billions of dollars to try and stop or slow down the aging process that leads to death.

Like the malaria that was killing a high rate of workers during the early years of the project, sin in our world today also kills people at an alarming rate, at the last check the ration was 1 to 1 and unlike malaria , there is no way to stop the effects of sin upon us and we all will die because of it.

Sin has also separated us from God and that is why mankind cannot see God, nor, has experienced God or has a relationship with God by our own efforts and abilities. A person might be better than their neighbor, but no one is perfect like God.

Knowing the dilemma sin had created for mankind, Jesus who was God, came to earth to live as a man, not only to show us how he desires for us to live, but even more important, He came to pay the debt of your sins and mine when He was nailed to the cross but after 3 days Jesus rose from the grave to demonstrate He has the power over both sin and death.

Why did Jesus do this? The cost that He faced was worth the price for Him because of Jesus great love for you personally. It is because of mankind's sin, we can never be good enough to be accepted by a perfectly holy and righteous God, but God by His very nature demands perfection from us.

When Jesus died for you upon that wooden cross, He died to take your sins upon Himself but He will give you His righteous life in return, as a gift to you, if you are willing to accept what He did for you in faith.

2 Corinthians 5:^21For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
The New King James Version. 1982 (2 Co 5:20-21). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

If I died tonight, I would be forgiven and proclaimed holy, righteous and perfect, not because I could live a holy life, but because Jesus declarers me to be forgiven of my sins against Almighty God.

You can be like the French, who rejected the cost or you can be like the American's who accepted the cost to see the project through. However, the big difference, is the cost was paid by Jesus, all we must do is be willing to accept His gift in faith to obtain all of the blessing that come with the cost He took upon Himself.

If you want to know God, to have a relationship with God or to find the forgiveness for your sins, I strongly encourage you to realize the cost Jesus took upon Himself, because of His great love for you personally.

If you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me, I would love to talk with you more about God's great love for you.

I pray you will have a great week!

Rick