The Foundation

THE FOUNDATION
(Matthew 7:24-27)
 
“Hey, Babe. Guess what? 
I won the contract!” Kunle was excited.
 He could hardly wait to leave the meeting 
before calling his wife, Clara. 
He just won a big contract that would
 change his life. He is a very hardworking
 engineer with many years of experience,
 but he had not gotten any big breakthrough 
in his career. 
Until now.
“Woah! Sweetheart, we have to celebrate 
this! These kinda contracts don’t come easy. 
Did you get the contract for both? I hope so!” 
Clara was happy for her husband. 
They have been married for over 20 years. 
They met in the University and had been 
together since then.
“Naaa- I got only one. But honestly, that is 
okay with me. One Tower is better than none, 
Babe. Let’s meet in an hour- I’ll tell you all 
about it.”
“Okay, Sweetheart. Where do we meet? 
Dunes? Or Hilton?”
“Hilton makes more sense.
 After all, I’m celebrating my new Billionaire 
status!”
They both laughed as they hung up. 
Kunle hurried to his car and drove off. 
His mind wandered back to the first time 
he heard about the project and decided 
to throw in a bid. After several meetings, 
submissions, discussions, he finally nailed it.
The Government had proposed to build the 
Twin Towers in the City Centre, and they 
were going to be the tallest buildings 
in the Country. 
He submitted a bid to build both Towers. 
He knew he was a competent and 
experienced engineer. 
He had handled several big projects 
all over the country, rivaling Julius Berger. 
He had prayed, fasted, believed God 
for the job. 
And just two hours ago, he got a call 
from the FCT Minister asking him to 
come over to his office for a meeting. 
He got there to hear the news: 
his company had been awarded the 
contract to build one of the Towers…
“I submitted bids for both sir, why am 
I given just one?” Kunle asked, laughing. 
“Kunle! You want to chop everything! 
Don’t be greedy- let other people partake 
of the National Cake!” The Minister replied. 
“But seriously, we decided at the Federal 
Executive Council to award them to two 
different contractors, Mr. Kunle. 
The second was given to Schwartz Construction
 Limited…”
Kunle was surprised. 
The word in construction circles is that 
they always cut corners and bribe their way 
through to get jobs. But then, it is not his call- 
he was just happy he got one. Half a loaf is 
better than none…
“The good thing is, with this new technology,
 you both should be able to complete both 
Towers within a month of mobilization. 
Arrangements have been made to pay you 
both the first instalments tomorrow. 
Congratulations, Kunle!” The Minister smiled 
as they shook hands.
Kunle took it as a challenge. He wanted to 
prove a point by building a better 
Tower than Schwartz. 
He mobilized to the site the next day 
and construction started. Schwartz 
moved to site too, and the Towers started 
going up…
The Towers were a hundred floors each, 
Kunle and Schwartz were in a strong 
competition to finish before the other. 
All the workers on site were aware of 
the competition between both companies 
and were all working round the clock to 
finish ahead of the other. 
After two weeks on site, Kunle was on 
the fiftieth floor. Schwartz was on the 
sixtieth. 
Kunle was a bit sad. 
He was losing the battle and he knew it. 
His workers were trying their best, 
but it seemed their best was not good enough. 
Schwartz was ahead and with the speed 
they were going, they would finish 
before him. “This would give Schwartz 
the bragging rights”, he thought…
He got home that evening tired and 
downcast. 
They stopped work early because there 
is a forecast of heavy storm that night.
 They would continue work the following day. 
Clara tried to cheer him up. 
“Don’t worry, Honey. 
Just do your work diligently and to the 
best of your ability. 
God will always honor His own…” 
Kunle hugged her. 
“Thanks, Babe. 
You sure have a way of 
lifting up my spirit. 
I don’t know how 
Schwartz is doing it, I have 
no idea how he’s gone so far ahead. 
I don’t want to admit 
he’s a better engineer than I…”
Kunle drifted up to sleep. 
He woke up by 5am, his phone ringing. 
“H-h-hello?” He listened to the voice on 
the line. He jumped on his feet. 
“WHAAAATTTT???”
His voice woke up his wife. 
She was scared, wondering why her 
husband shouted, who he was talking to. 
Kunle continued on the phone for about 
ten minutes. Then he hung up and sat down 
on the bed with a heavy sigh…
“Sweetheart, what is the matter? 
Are you okay? Is everything alright?” 
Kunle turned to his wife and held her hands. 
“My site engineer just called me. 
Schwartz’s Tower has collapsed! 
The heavy rain brought it down!”
“Seriously? If that storm could 
bring it down,
it means Schwartz must have 
built his Tower on a faulty 
foundation!”
“Yeah! No wonder he was ahead of me. 
He built his Tower on a wrong foundation…”
And the rains descended, and the floods 
came and the winds blew and beat upon 
the Tower: and it fell. And great was the
fall of it…