firm foundations
From the window of my office in Singapore, I observed that a plot of land was being excavated to make way for a new building. But for many months, the building project didn’t seem to make much progress despite a flurry of activity.
established
The room was a disaster. Desks appeared tossed about, popcorn littered the floor, and the whiteboards bore a conglomeration of abstract artwork. My classroom had served as an area for some elementary school-aged actors to rest and stay entertained between their few scenes in the high school musical. Now that the final curtain had closed, I surveyed the damage and went to work sweeping and cleaning. As I folded back the large rug I keep at the front of the room, the words on its underside caught my eye.
crooked house
Wobbly, woozy, unsteady. These words all describe the appearance of the Crooked House—the most photographed house in all of Poland. One observer commented that the structure looks as if it is “melting or sagging from exhaustion.” Designer Szotynscy Zaleski purposely created the exterior to feature few straight lines, and the result is an architectural ode to a funhouse mirror.
why the Bible matters
In his article Does the Bible Matter in the 21st Century? author Vishal Mangalwadi lifts up the inestimable worth of God’s Word. He also notes that bad things happen when a country chooses to ignore the Bible’s wisdom. He writes, “[The US] was built by an ethic—a spirituality that taught citizens to work, earn, save, invest, and use their wealth to serve their neighbors. This biblical ethic has been replaced by secularism’s entitlement culture that teaches people that they have a right to this, that, and the other without corresponding obligations to work, save, and serve.”
put your feet on the rock
During a leaders’ gathering, my friend Chad watched intensely as his daughter, Hannah, climbed up a rock wall. Hannah was making progress, until she began slipping a bit. Chad called out to her, “Put your feet on the rock!” He wanted his daughter to understand that she could find stability on the hard stone that was near her. Isaiah had…
foundations
A nearly finished 13-story apartment building in Shanghai toppled over like a lone domino pushed by an invisible hand. An engineer on site said, “When we arrived on the scene, we were very shook up. In my 46 years of work, I’ve never seen or heard of such a thing.” When they investigated, the engineers discovered that excavators had undermined…
tofu buildings
A massive 8.0 magnitude earthquake rocked China's southwestern Sichuan Province on May 12, 2008. It was felt as far away as northern Pakistan and caused destruction in an area three times the size of Belgium. More than 70,000 people died and another 365,000 were injured.
Although the buildings in the quake zone were supposed to be constructed to withstand a…
