Did you ever watch Pilgrim’s Progress
Or read it. Or hear it told as a story of a man walking a narrow road with a heavy burden on his back.
That story has travelled farther than its author ever did. If you grew up in my time, you went for an altar call after watching Pilgrim’s Progress.
The Pilgrim’s Progress has been translated into hundreds of languages, read across continents, and passed down for centuries. After the Bible, it remains one of the most influential Christian books in history. It shaped how generations understood faith, perseverance, temptation, suffering, and hope.
Yet it was written in a prison cell.
“Following Jesus will cost you.”
— John Bunyan
Bunyan did not write those words from comfort or applause. He wrote them while locked away for more than twelve years because he refused to stop preaching Christ. He had a wife. He had children, one of them blind. All he needed to do was promise silence.
He refused.
What the world would call failure, God was quietly ranking as faithfulness.
Prison took Bunyan’s freedom, his income, and his public voice. But it did not take his obedience. And from that place of loss came a work that would outlive empires, inspire martyrs, steady believers, and guide millions on their walk with God.
This is the lesson our generation struggles to hear.
Grace is free, but discipleship is costly.
Salvation is a gift, but following Jesus will confront comfort, reputation, ambition, and security. The cross was never meant to be decorative. It was always meant to change who carries it.
What looks like defeat to the world may rank very differently with God. Heaven measures success by obedience, not visibility or money. By faithfulness, not applause. By surrender, not speed.
Bunyan lost years.
The world gained a compass.
Every generation needs this reminder. We cannot remove the cost from following Jesus and still expect the power of His life to flow through us.
Following Jesus will cost you.
But what it gives you will outlast everything you give up.
