One feels sorry for the builders of the colossus, the Baekdu Mountain Architects and Engineers. Hmmm. From "Baekdu" has come the Korean gods (so they say), the present leader(so he says), and the world's tallest pile of useless concrete (for real).

Ryugyong, old name for Pyongyang, "capital of [weeping] willows" is aptly named. It was to have 3000 rooms, seven revolving restaurants, and a worldwide reputation, all by 1989. Well, it got the latter, not as expected, and costing the country 2% of its gross domestic product that year! It is a deserted place of sorrow and shame now.

We can't help but smirk a little until we realize that this aborted dream is not only typical of the whole North Korean project under Communism, but very reminiscent of some of our own personal plans. Christians, we've been warned, and comrade Kim has now given a modern day illustration for us, to sink forever into our awareness: Finish what you start when Jesus leads you into His work. Above all, finish carrying the cross until it becomes the crown. I close with the words of the Master Builder Himself in Luke 14:27-30:

Whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be my disciple. For, which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it, lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying,