The Set-Up
No matter what you’re building, the most important thing is the foundation. It doesn’t matter if you are building a car, a house, or a snowman, if you don’t have a good, solid foundation, the completed project won’t last very long.
No one understands this better than the people living in San Francisco’s luxury condo tower, the Millennium Tower.
Completed in 2008, the Millennium Tower is the tallest residential building in San Fransico. It stands 58 stories and holds multi-million dollar apartments owned by star athletes and retired Google employees. Unfortunately, a few years after completion, people noticed that the building had begun sinking. By 2016, the building had sunk 16 inches and had begun to tilt two inches toward the northwest. It’s normal for buildings to sink a couple of inches as they settle into their foundation, but the Millennium Tower was only estimated to sink four to six inches over its lifetime. Despite efforts to stop the building from sinking more, as of 2022, the Millennium Tower has sunk 18 inches, tilts 26 inches, and has started to rotate slightly.
How did such a massive project fall apart so quickly? Simple. They started with a bad foundation.
Instead of resting the foundation on bedrock, the original construction crews for the Millennium Tower used a “friction pile,” which is much shorter and doesn’t reach the bedrock. In theory, the friction caused by the sand and the weight of the building should keep the building steady, but due to other factors, that idea clearly isn’t working. In other words, a 645-foot tall building was built on sand, not solid rock.
The saga of the Millennium Tower is a good metaphor for the Christian life. Without taking the time and consideration to set a good foundation in Christ, things are going to fall apart. In all honestly, it might not seem like a big deal now, but at some point, a bad foundation will give out. It might be easier to only do the bare minimum of this Christian thing – going to church on Sunday, throwing some cash in the offering, maybe reading the verse of the day from a Bible app – but Paul warns his readers that eventually, their shortcuts will catch up to them.
That leaves us with a choice – do the right but hard things now and be rewarded later, or take the easy way now and suffer loss later. The choice is up to you, but the outcome is ultimately in God’s hands.
Passage to Read
Reflection Questions
Verse 13 says, “But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value.” What do you think Paul means by this?
How can you start building or continue building a strong foundation in Christ today?
Is there an area in your spiritual life where you are taking the “easy way”? How might that affect you later?
Prayer Idea
Thank God that He is always willing to give second, third, and fifty-sixth chances. If there’s an area in your life where you feel like you’re “short-changing” God, ask His forgiveness and then ask for His strength to change.