I tend to have selective memory about my education, but one thing I do remember from years of studying journalism: Pictures have tremendous impact.

One picture that stays with me is “Tank Man,” from Tiananmen Square. I was only three when the Chinese government forcefully silenced pro-democracy demonstrators twenty years ago. I have no memory of that day. But that picture of the lone man in a white t-shirt standing before a tank evokes strong emotion in me every time I see it. Not just emotion about democracy and justice, but a very personal emotion: perplexity.

That man stopped tanks because he believed so much in freedom. What would I be willing to face for what I believe? I have Christian brothers and sisters in China who suffer persecution daily for Jesus Christ (to name just one country). I can’t say I’ve suffered a day in my life. Would I be able to face the government if I encountered injustice? Would I be strong enough to stand up at all?

I have to wonder, and pray that the Lord would give me courage to trust him with whatever he has in store for my future. Counting the cost of following Christ is something he asks me to do. I may never be in a situation where I have to face military force for my beliefs, and Lord willing, I won’t be. But Jesus asks me to be all in. Tank Man’s courage challenges me to think: What would I do if it was for Christ?

Luke 14:27-33
Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 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.' Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.  So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.