Leaning Towers

I had the amazing privilege of seeing the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa when I was in Italy several years ago. It’s such a beautiful architectural structure. It was built as a bell tower for the city of Pisa. As you probably know, the tower was not meant to lean. This was a defect in the structure and foundation from the very beginning. Although this structure is celebrated, it was never able to fulfill it’s full purpose and was unable to be used at all for many, many years.

As they continued construction on the tower it began to get worse. Because there was a defect in the structure, as they built, it began to lean more and more. There were many people who wanted to tear down the tower and rebuild it with the same materials so they could fix the problems in the structure. For whatever reason, they left it and tried there best to stabilize it.

How often do we find ourselves a structure that has a defect at the core? We go through life and we build our spiritual structure with bricks of brokenness and stones of sin on slabs of selfishness. We make mistakes. Sometimes big ones.

I was looking at pictures of a devastating storm recently. Almost every building was completely destroyed. It was so terrible, but in that moment the Lord spoke to me about storms. God allows such devastation to come through our lives sometimes because we have built a broken structure, much like the Leaning Tower. We keep building, trying to move forward in Christ but as we build, we get worse. Our structure is unable to fulfill it’s purpose. We have become so defective that we are almost useless for His kingdom. So, God allows the storms to come. It seems to destroy us; to end us. BUT, God always has a purpose for what He allows in to our lives.

In 2 Corinthians 5:17 it says, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”  This scripture gives us the opportunity to look at the devastating storm in a NEW light. The old things are passed away, and ALL things are becoming new. You want to be used of God? You want your life to be more than a leaning tower of disappointment? Then do not begrudge the storm that has come through. Let it bring forth a new start; a clean slate. He wants to rebuild you. He wants to make all things new in your life. Once that crippled structure is torn down, He is able to rebuild you stronger than you’ve ever been before. Don’t give up after the storm, instead, begin rebuilding through Christ and you will be everything that God intended on you being.

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Lorna Brittany Wells leads worship at Royalwood and is also a youth leader in Anthem Student Ministries.  She is married to Tauren Wells and is expecting their first child in 2013.