The Leaning Tower of Pisa is one of the most popular tourist sites in the world. Over 5 million visitors trek to Italy each year to behold this massive building project gone wrong. The famous tower was begun in 1173 but not completed until 199 years later in 1372. Just shy of 186 feet, it is as tall as a 15-story building although it only has 8 floors. It is constructed of marble and limestone and was built to be the bell tower for the nearby Pisa Cathedral.
Only five years into the construction of this now-iconic landmark, the tower began to lean. Due to soft sand and clay beneath, and its massive weight of 16,000 tons above, the structure started to list toward the south/southeast. Over the following centuries, the tilt increased reaching 5.5 degrees in 1990. To prevent further leaning and possible collapse, 960 tons of lead were added as counterweight between 1993 and 2001. This remedial effort did, in fact, straighten it a bit to just less than 4 degrees.
My dad described anything that was out of plumb as being off-kilter. I’m not sure what a kilter is, but we all knew what he meant. It wasn’t straight. And while most of us OCD types prefer our homes and buildings to be plumb and level, such construction also promotes usefulness and stability. It also makes it easier to play pool.
The cause of Pisa’s off-kilter tower goes deep into the soil reminding us of something the Individual for whom the nearby cathedral was built once said. Jesus warned us not to build our lives on shifting sands of public opinion and current philosophy but to base our thoughts, actions, and eternities on His Holy Word. Failing to do so, He warned, would result in eventual collapse as everything else moves and changes over time, thus undermining anything built above.
My son earned a doctorate in Geo-Technical Engineering and has worked extensively on foundation design to prevent situations like that of Pisa’s bell tower. Testing the soil ahead of time, combined with corrective measures to make sure the underlying earth and foundation can support the structure above, are crucial to ensuring that buildings will remain solid.
Much current thought and prevailing public opinion is very much off-kilter compared to the perfectly plumb Word of God. Podcasters, broadcasters, entertainers, politicians, and others constantly lay brick upon brick on towers of relative morality that list badly toward evil. Over time, behaviors and actions that were once rightly understood to be sinful have become acceptable and even celebrated. Unless the foundations are fortified with Biblical teachings or counterweights of Jesus’ truth are added, western civilization will eventually collapse leaving millions, and perhaps billions, of victims in its debris.
Although most ideas and policies of our nation’s founding were established on Judeo-Christian principles from the Bible, our expansion and so-called “progress” have strayed from these once-solid moorings to result in a structure that is flawed and listing. Sadly, as with Pisa’s Leaning Tower, people seem to prefer off-kilter when it comes to morality and truth. We seem to like ideas that are crooked while the straight and true are rejected. Jesus’ level foundation that is unshakably solid is spurned to the preference of what is warped and twisted. May God have mercy.
Many individuals are living their lives off-kilter and are heading toward eventual collapse. If you step back and compare your faith and values to those of the perfectly plumb Jesus Christ and find your conduct off-kilter, confess any of your life-construction methods that neglected or rejected His standards. Then, by reading and applying Biblical principles, dig out the soft clay of worldliness and replace it with His unshakable truth. Apply godly counterweights to bring your life back in line with that of Jesus, for His is the only perfectly straight example. May we reject all that which is off-kilter and embrace the straightest of all. Blessings, George