All Other Ground

The University of Nebraska at Omaha Library is sinking. Legend has it that the Indiana University Library sinks an inch per year because its engineers failed to account for the weight of its books. But this legend is older than the IU library itself—built in 1969—and has also been falsely attributed to several other libraries, including the University of Waterloo Library, Calgary’s McKimmie Library, and the University of Nottingham’s Jubilee Library.

However, the University of Nebraska at Omaha Library is actually sinking. In the mid-1980s, cracks developed in the library’s first floor—but not because its books were too heavy. Rather, engineers discovered cracks in the air ducts running under the floor slab. The cracks allowed warm air to circulate, drying and shrinking the soil and creating voids under the slab.

But five feet below the Indiana University library, explains Robert Meadows, an IU architect, “is a 94-foot-thick layer of limestone. When the library was constructed, the upper layer of this rock was harder than expected. Rather than blast, we raised the lowest level of the building a number of feet.”

Jesus compares His followers to the one who built upon a rock. Despite rain, floods, and wind, the wise man’s house stood strong. On the other hand, those who do not heed Christ’s words are like he who built on the sand: When rain and floods beat down on this man’s house, “Great was its fall,” Jesus said.

The old hymn declares, “On Christ, the solid Rock I stand; all other ground is sinking sand.” Hear and do what Jesus says; build your life on the Foundation that won’t fail!

Key Bible Texts

Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: (Matthew 7:24 KJV)