Back in the year 1174, an Italian architect by the name of Bonnano Pisano began work on what would become his most famous project: a bell tower to beautify the Cathedral of the city of Pisa. The tower was to be a cylindrical, eight-story, 185-foot-tall building with arcaded stories, a fine example of Tuscan Romanesque architecture. There was just one "little" problem. During construction, the builders discovered that the soil around the Pisa Cathedral was much softer than they had anticipated. The foundation Pisano had designed for the building was far too shallow to adequately support the structure. Before long, the whole building had begun to tilt, and continued to tilt, until finally the architect and the builders realized that nothing could be done to make the Leaning Tower of Pisa straight again.

It would take 176 years in all to complete construction on the Tower of Pisa, and throughout that time, the builders tried many different ways to compensate for the "tilt" of the Tower. The foundations were shored up and reinforced; the upper levels of the tower were built on at an angle to try to at least make the top of the tower look straight. Nothing worked. The Tower of Pisa has continued to stand for over 800 years now; it now leans more than 18 feet away from center position. Even with all our modern technology, this building can never be made perfectly straight. Architectural specialists predict that eventually the structure will fall down because Bonnano Pisano didn't do enough research into the soil composition around the building site.

How's the foundation of your life doing this morning? Is it rock?