The Leaning Tower of Pisa - Right Idea, But Wrong Foundation

800 years ago, the people of Pisa in Italy decided to build a tower. The tower was to have bells that would ring out to the surrounding countryside as witness to the glory of God.

Things began to go wrong almost at once. After three stories had been completed, the tower developed an ominous lean to the north. Construction stopped for about 100 years. Then four more stories were added, built at an angle to shift the weight away from the tilt. But this caused the tower to begin to lean the other way.

Countless architects persisted with the curious structure for another century, trying to compensate for the ever-increasing tilt. The result was that the tower continued not only to lean, but took on a slight curve like a banana.

The last story was added in 1372. Since then, generations of engineers have tried in vain to save the tower from its slow demise. World War II dictator, Benito Mussolini, ordered it to be straightened by adding hundreds of tons of concrete to the base. It only made matters worse.

The problem is the foundation. The tower is built on weak, unstable subsoil that could not support its weight. Sooner or later the tower will topple, although modern engineers have added 800 tons of lead to the base, perhaps stabilizing it for another 300 years.

Let’s hope so, because it is one of the world’s architectural treasures. But sadly, most people who see it don’t think of it as a building dedicated to reflect the glory of God. The first impulse is to laugh, and then to wonder what’s keeping it from falling down.

The Leaning Tower of Faith

Do you ever feel like your faith is a bit like that tower? Most of us have not learned to be Christians in a systematic way. It has been a bit here, a bit there, with experiences adding up and knowledge of doctrine and the Bible coming together in a haphazard way. Like the builders of the Tower of Pisa, you keep going, but you are not really confident of your foundations. You’d like to be better equipped for the Christian life, and better equipped for service.

One Solid Foundation

Jesus spoke in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7:24-27 about building on a rock foundation and not a sand foundation. For me, there is one solid foundation for the Christian life. It is this:
When I accepted Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord of my life, He came to live right within me in a living union with my human spirit. I laid a new solid foundation for my life which IS that union with the indwelling Christ.

And that union is so solid that it can never be shifted or broken – the tower of my life can never lean because my foundation is greater in strength than a million tons of lead.

Jesus has promised that He will never leave me or forsake me - that my tower will never be allowed to fall, or even to tilt. Winds may come (and they will!), rains may come (and they will!), but this structure of my life will last, not for years, not for 800 centuries, but for eternity. My foundational union with the Son of God is a forever done deal.

By His foundational strength and not my weak engineering ability, my tower can be built in such a way that it can be a witness to the glory of God.

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