I have several clients at the gym who work with me for 30 minutes, twice a week. A few of them ask for things they can do on their own. One person asked for a core workout, and as I was writing her a plan, I found myself thinking about counting the cost of a firm foundation.
I explained to her that your core is literally the foundation for every movement in a workout. If the foundation is weak, everything built on it becomes less efficient and more vulnerable to injury. That’s why the plan I gave her starts with the most demanding stability exercises while her focus is still fresh. Fatigue comes as the workout progresses, so the exercises that require a stable foundation go first.
She had to accept something a lot of people resist: the hardest, least glamorous work comes first. You don’t get to skip to the parts that feel rewarding. You earn them by doing the boring, stabilizing work no one applauds. That’s one lesson I’ve learned over the past 13 years of my fitness journey. We have to pay the unglamorous price of doing the boring basics before we ever see the payoff.
In Luke, Jesus put it this way:
For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Luke 14:28–30 (ESV)
A wise builder, whether of the body, soul, or relationships, begins by counting the cost. Our spiritual lives work the same way. Prayer, studying Scripture, and obedience to God’s Word cost us time, energy, and surrender. None of that feels dramatic or even exciting on a daily basis. It’s the equivalent of a plank or a bird dog—unglamorous, repetitive, and elementary. Yet it’s exactly this unseen work that forms the foundation that steadies us whenever life becomes unstable.
Counting the Cost
I’ve felt what happens when I neglect time in the Word. During our first year in Russia, my English Bible took a back seat to other things, like learning Russian, because on the mission field that felt more urgent. I remember wanting to share at a women’s meeting in English, but instead I sat and stared at my Bible, embarrassed that I hadn’t been building anything solid underneath me in that season. Looking back, I realized I hadn’t counted the daily cost of strengthening my foundation.
Just as a strong core lets the body move with confidence, a life grounded in Christ lets us stand firm no matter what comes our way. But that foundation isn’t free. It costs something every day, long before you ever see what it was for.
So here’s a question worth sitting with:
What’s one unglamorous, foundational practice you keep putting off? What would it look like to do that one thing before the distractions of the day take over?
*For those of you who prayer walk, ponder the cost of a deeper relationship with Christ as you walk. Pray about what the Holy Spirit reveals to you.
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