Is there a message we need to see?

An unspeakable tragedy in Quebec. More reported leaks in oil pipelines. The BP blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. Sudden massive and disastrous flooding in Southern Alberta. They all coincide with the current debate over two major oil-transportation proposals: the Northern Gateway project and the Keystone XL pipeline. (The connection with the flooding in Alberta is that some people have been blaming it -- rightly or wrongly -- on climate change related to oil-sands production in northern Alberta.)

On top of that, this morning's Vancouver Sun carries an article speculating on the possibility of oil being moved by rail as production exceeds pipeline capacity.

Through it all, I'm wondering if God isn't trying to send us a message.

I'm not talking about end-times Doomsday stuff. There's no question that much of the environmental upheaval we're seeing, whether man-made or beyond our control, has already been prophesied as part of God's plan. But rather than look at it as Divine judgment, we should look at these events as a warning from God that we need to "count the cost" when it comes to resource extraction.

It's important, too, to say that I am not suggesting that God wiped out scores of innocent people in Lac-Megantic in order to make a point. It's enough to say that our greed and desire for "oil at any price" is at the root of this tragedy. But the "message" I'm referring to is, we need to take a hard look at the basic concept of resource development and transportation.

In my book, A Very Convenient Truth -- or, Jesus Told Us There'd Be Days Like These, So Stop Worrying About The Planet And Get With His Program!, I point out that Jesus talks of counting the cost of anything we do and I suggest that that cost must include the effect our actions have on God's Creation. In Genesis, it's clear that our primary purpose is to be the caretakers of His Creation, to enjoy it, but also to ensure it's replenished and protected (Genesis 1:26, 2:15).

"... we have to include consideration of the impact we have on Creation as part of all things we do. But when we follow God’s way, this consideration – and the action that goes with it – takes a different form.

"'For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has [enough] to finish lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see [it] begin to mock him, saying, "This man began to build and was not able to finish it."'

-- Luke 14:28-30

"Counting the cost is not just a matter of bricks and mortar and the price of labor, but also the impact on God's creation. Nor is finishing the work (v.30) a matter of getting it to the ribbon-cutting: it’s ensuring that God’s creation remains protected and nurtured. Consider how many projects have become objects of scorn because they wound up damaging creation – damage that often could have been mitigated had someone sat down and counted the cost. 

"Again, though, just as an obsession with profit-and-loss is wrong, so, too, is obsession with environmental impact. It all has to be considered in toto, keeping the Word of God constantly before us.

"God’s will is no mystery: we have sixty-six books to show us what He wants and what He doesn't want. The beauty of His Word is that, if we look hard enough and meditate on it long enough, His Will becomes clear. Is the solution in line with His will, or does it involve compromising for the sake of a short-term goal, no matter how 'good' our intentions or goals may be?

"We also need to have the faith, like Elisha at the waters above Jericho: if it’s His will for us to proceed, He will provide the means to mitigate environmental damage.

"When God tells you to do something, He doesn't tell you to afford it: He tells you to do it.

"Solutions proposed by environmentalists may sound catchy and many of them can be appropriate for the particular circumstances, but we have to be careful not to take them wholesale and simply add “in Jesus' Name”. That's putting lipstick on a pig. We must avoid inward-looking thinking, like undue emphasis on our “carbon footprint” and remember that Jesus teaches us to look outward – and upward – in our thinking.

"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. -- Matthew 6:33

"What could be simpler and more direct than that?"

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Put a different way, we need to ask ourselves how badly we need that oil. How necessary is it to be free from the "dependency on foreign oil" that we keep hearing about? If oil -- or any resource -- is located in a place where it is virtually impossible to extract it without harming God's Creation, should we be trying to get at it at all? Should we not be finding alternatives?

But how would we run our cars, you ask? How would we heat our homes and fuel our industries? What about the jobs and economic activity tied to oil?

In what do we place our faith? Oil or God? The just shall live not by oil but by faith; it's said that in tough financial times, economy trumps ecology; but God trumps all, whether we like it or not.

It feels like God is screaming at us to take a step back and look at Him. I believe that, if we do, He will show us exactly how we're supposed to get at the oil and transport it, if we are supposed to have it at all.* If we're not, I believe we should leave it exactly where it is and trust that He will provide for us.

Sadly, in British Columbia, where so much debate over the oil pipeline and oil-port expansion is going on, the provincial government has been pushing a mantra about "growing the economy and creating jobs to provide for BC's families" -- a platform on which they were elected in May -- and that will likely drown out any discussion of alternatives -- including the God alternative.

*(Elsewhere in the book, I suggest that the relative ease with which oil is found and extracted in Arab countries is part of God's promise to Hagar that her son's seed will always be provided-for -- even though he will be constantly at war with the rest of the world. While the idea of not being dependent on Arab oil seems to be the right thing, it may set one at odds with that plan and promise of God.)

If there was ever a time to "trust in the Lord with all [our hearts] and lean not on [our] own understanding," it is now.

And that's the "message" we need to see.

Sooner or later, we'll realize ...

... how powerless we are even to deal with things of our own making. A Twitter entry from one of the Vancouver fishwraps considered the lightning strike that hit one of the ships trying to siphon off oil from the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and asked, "Is this God's doing?"

The paper was probably being facetious (although lightning is included in an insurance contract as an "act of God"), but I'd say there's more than an atom of truth to that, in light of my earlier blog entry on the disaster. The fact is, our science and technology got us into this mess: how can we expect science and technology to get us out of it?

I'm reminded of the account of the prophet Elisha at the waters above Jericho in II Kings 2. The waters are polluted, the land is barren, women are miscarrying, and nothing the people of the city have been able to do has cured it. So they turn to the Man of God. Instructed by the Holy Spirit, Elisha calls for salt in a new, unused jar, throws it into the water and declares the Word of God that the waters are healed. And they were.

As it was at Jericho, we don't need more science and more technology. We need to return to the basics (salt) and God, through His Word. People would be surprised at how quickly He'll respond.

God is trying to get our attention! Enough with the oil, already, He says! Extract ONLY what you can get without destroying My Creation and use it wisely! Stop fussing about being "self-sufficient" and remember that I promised to make a great nation of Ishmael. They're My children too, so learn to live in peace!

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This has also been a knock to those who called President Obama the "Messiah". If anyone thinks that pointing fingers and talking angry is leadership, they're in a sad state. I don't think people want to hear how he's going to hold BP's feet to the fire and make them pay; nor do I think people want to hear him say "I told you so" about "fossil fuel addiction"; nor are they particularly interested in his new Clean Energy Policy when their livelihoods are going down the tubes. You can't stem an oil blowout by pointing a finger.

The President's response to this may have another motive: steer people away from his own comments about offshore drilling prior to the blowout. Bill Maher, not noted as a Republican, pointed out Obama had said, "It turns out the oil rigs today generally don't cause oil spills. They are technologically very advanced."

Sorry, America -- and the Nobel Prize Committee and the Canadians who gushed, a year and a half ago, that "we" had finally elected a "different" president -- he's just another politician.

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Another Very Convenient Truth:

Looking through Scripture the other day -- reading up on something completely different -- I came across Amos 3:15 "And I will smite the winter house with the summer house and all the houses of ivory shall perish ... saith the Lord." Isn't that a prophecy of seasons being turned upside down: the very thing that appears to be happening with "climate change"? Why are we even bothering to fight it? Clean up our own environmental act and take proper care of Creation because God commanded us to do it way back in Genesis: but don't let's kid ourselves that we can actually win the battle against climate change. Turn back to Him and stop worrying.

And God said, "Had enough yet?"

A couple of days ago, with the BP undersea oil blowout raging, I was watching an episode of "Dharma and Greg", in which Dharma's parents went to Washington to protest outside a senate committee hearing where Greg's father was testifying.

(If you're unfamiliar with the show's premise, Dharma's parents are superannuated, unrepentent hippies who still engage in activism of all sorts -- except the effective kind; Greg's folks are from the monied elite. It's the classic "social clash" love story.)

The senate committee hearing involved offshore oil drilling. I wonder if the syndication company made a snap scheduling decision based on events of the day?

It was good to find something funny in all of this, because looking at the BP situation now, all I can feel is sadness. What's the use of saying, "I told you so" or wondering aloud, as comedian Bill Maher did, whether President Obama was going to "catch s**t" for saying offshore drilling was safe just a couple of weeks before the disaster? After all, if people weren't demanding oil, BP wouldn't be drilling for it, right?

Now, with solution after solution coming up snake-eyes (latest headline: new answer could take weeks), we're faced with the classic scenario of mankind's best technological efforts being unable to keep up with mankind's worst technological disaster.

Einstein said (and I've probably quoted this one elsewhere in this blog or at the Rev. Downtown site, but it bears repeating) that you don't solve problems using the same approach that created the problem in the first place. And here we are, showing in spades how our intellect has become far too sophisticated for the world we live in.

This isn't about oil. This isn't about environmental disaster. To be blunt, we are seeing what happens when we fall away from God. We need oil and its various uses. Even the guy who stood beside Beach Drive in Vancouver last year during one of the Critical Mass bike rides, shouting "no more oil! No more f**king cars!" over and over again, needs oil. (If I thought he had the power of reason, I would have stopped and pointed out all the oil-dependent things he had in his possession.)



Oil is a staple throughout the Bible: the source and maintainer of light and heat, the metaphor for the Holy Spirit itself. But when "need" takes a back seat to "desire", that's when things start going wrong. See, you could argue, "God put the oil in the ground for us to use," and you'd be right. But does that give us license to drill wherever we think there might be oil?



I don't think so, and the First Great Assignment God gave us should be the clue. He told us, "Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it." (Gen. 1:26 KJV - my italics). Without going into a great long dissection of that passage, I read that to say that we are the managers of His creation; we are entitled to enjoy that creation, so long as we are able to replenish it.

And there's the rub: if we cannot enjoy something without destroying or threatening other parts of Creation, we need to leave it alone.

How does that apply to oil? We need it -- no question. We know that it is possible to drill for oil out of the ground on dry land without doing irreparable harm. That's largely because, if there is a problem, we're in our own element as human beings and can deal with it: we can mitigate, contain, clean up and remediate when there is a problem. But add the complication of being outside our element -- at sea or underwater -- and you can't guarantee the same level of safety.

Here's where we need to bring the Word of God into the conversation. Psalm 127:1 says, "except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it." Conversely, if the labor is in vain -- or, in this case, causes unspeakable harm to God's Creation -- it's a pretty safe bet the Lord isn't building that house. We need to ensure the Lord is blessing our activities -- and that doesn't mean making a decision and then asking the Lord to bless it: it means going before Him, seeking His will and committing to follow it.

Another Word is Jesus' reminder about "counting the cost" (Luke 14:28-29). Environmental considerations -- including immediate impact on wildlife and our ability to handle a potential disaster -- have to be part of that cost consideration. If one can't guarantee that, best to leave it alone.

Where does that leave us with offshore oil exploration? I'd say it means leave it alone. It means moderating our demand to suit the oil that's readily obtainable, as opposed to the oil that's in too risky a location. It means reining in our greed.

It also means praying for BP, for their executives, their workers and people who depend on that company -- shareholders and those with pensions tied up in BP shares.

It means going before the Lord and asking Him to forgive us for our own greed and wastefulness, which has landed us in this mess. We are clearly in a situation that is beyond the reach of human intellect to resolve: but as we know -- or should know -- with God, all things are possible. It's the clearest evidence yet of our need to turn to Him: humble ourselves, pray and seek His face (2 Chr. 7:14).

Volcanoes, earthquakes, pandemics (or fears thereof) ... now an undersea oil blowout: I get the feeling that God is standing there, waiting for us to finally get the message, wondering if we've had enough yet.

(Please note: I see that the Google Ads thing has a message from someone in the oil & gas industry -- whatever the message is, I don't endorse or condemn it.)