Counting the cost is the ability to scale and weigh what the cost of the mission and the journey will cost you to be able to decide with clear understanding of what is at stake and what it means to take upon you the responsibility of that decision. Jesus does not hold back on the decision of becoming His disciple aka a Christian or follower of Christ what that decision entails and costs and neither should we. Many preachers refuse to lay out before their congregants or man/woman standing before them the cost of becoming a true disciple of Jesus for fear that they may not become a Christian at all. But this decision only sets up the person/people for failure, due to not allowing them to take the necessary thought process of counting the cost to follow Jesus and be His true disciples. I believe it is for that reason many Christian fall away, give up, and walk away from Jesus due to a lack of counting the cost and being aware of that cost and equipped to endure the cost not just through our living but even more our worth dying for such a cost, just as Jesus lived and died for us.