It’s a perfect diversion to the world – we come together every other year to be entertained by the Olympic tradition of friendly rivalry and national pride. We put aside our differences and take time to celebrate universal passions that bring us together and enjoy the sense that the world is not so large and unfamiliar. The 2008 Olympic Games are underway and the Russian army attacks the sovereign nation of Georgia. The invasion has scary similarities to the German invasion of Czechoslovakia at the beginning of World War II. For the Nazi Germany, Hitler’s hunger was for an embedded ethnically-German province belonging to Czechoslovakia. So it seems for Russia and the Georgia province of South Ossetia, only this invasion began with a Russian cyber-attack on the financial and governmental centers of Georgia – truly a sign of the times.

Russia built much of its now sustained wealth on the heavy investment of crude oil. Pipelines now lead from Russia to Europe, providing as much as 40% of Eastern Europe’s oil. Georgia also hosts one of the longest pipelines in the world, the BTC Pipeline, which runs between the Caspian Sea offshore oil fields and the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. The pipeline’s major shareholder is the United Kingdom. With crude supplies becoming a critical piece to the world economy, it looks more and more like Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is playing power games – Power games under the shadow of the beloved Olympics.

Please pray for the victims of the Georgian invasion and for justice, freedom and national sovereignty to prevail.

– D

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Port Arthur, Texas. Were you expecting this label attached to a nicer place?

I just got back from a business trip to that fine metropolitan area. I’ve never been there before, so I can’t claim witness to the transformation taking place there. My colleagues say the growth is simply amazing, and everyone there is benefiting, down to the sandwich shops. New restaurants, hotels, subdivisions and shopping are all around. On the east side are the true agents of change: the refineries. On that side of town, you can scarcely throw a rock and not hit a refinery distillation column, storage vessel or furnace – it’s like a forest of metal tin cans, pipes, pots and pans straight out of Dr. Seuss.

Some of the largest refineries in the United States live here (One is sprawled on 3500 acres operating at peak production of 400 million barrels of oil per day), and they are ALL expanding. We were there helping one such refinery do just that. Their goal is to meet the increasing demand of oil and gas fuel products, including gasoline. And although I am not one of the over 2 million direct employees hired by the domestic petroleum industry, I am, along with my colleagues, a part of the countless that indirectly benefits from the growing global market. While my company is diverse in many industrial sectors, it is deeply imbedded in the welfare of refining – and I have a job.

Really, we all benefit. Yes, you too. Over 93% of oil companies are owned by you and me. They are apportioned in tiny pieces called shares to our stock portfolios, 401k plans and mutual funds. I can’t understand why someone running for president would have the “brilliant idea” that taxing the oil companies would help lower gas prices and ease the burden on families… Really? That’s not going to make my fuel cheaper or help my retirement fund… quite the opposite. Okay, that was slightly off topic. Still, the fuel prices are starting to change our driving habits, and food and freight prices continue to go through the roof.

There are no easy answers. I believe, though, in grand scheme of things, this whole “crisis” is just a blip on the RADAR. Time and time again, these kinds of market pressures produce great advances in science and engineering. I look forward to being a part of discovering and using new and renewable sources of energy. But for now, 97% of our transportation (planes, trains and automobiles) depends on oil products to go. So for now, we need to drill and we need to refine like mad.

Wind, nuclear, solar, and geothermal are not going to get us down the road. Electric and fuel-cell technologies are coming along but have some serious technological obstacles to overcome. Hang in there though… one day, sooner that you think, we will see capitalism and American ingenuity at their best, hopefully before the government further strangles the taxpayers by nationalizing the domestic oil industry. That’s another “brilliant” idea. Oops, I did it again.

Check out this site for more on the other side of the story.

I welcome more discussion. This one is juicy.

-D

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Most of us, down in our very core, acknowledge that there must be an absolute truth. After all, if absolute truth did not exist, we would be hostages to relativism, relating all matters of objectivity with subjective assertions. That would be foolishness.(2) We cannot simply allow social groups to decree or “vote” as to what truth is. Furthermore, our own internal definition of truth is influenced by our culture and experiences.

So, let me get this straight: For the truth, we can’t depend on our surroundings, and left to defend our own standard, we are helplessly influenced by our, well, surroundings. It is a troubling, self-perpetuating cycle. It comes to reason that we must depend on a source outside the influence of man. You see, absolute truth can only come from an ultimate source, the spring of all truth, the very standard and source by which all things are measured, namely our Creator. (Furthermore, our knowledge in an absolute truth, faith and moral law are due to the fact that we are designed in God’s image (see Romans 1:20). But, that is the subject of another day.)

Pilate asked rhetorically, “What is truth?”

Jesus had already answered Pilate’s question some days prior, stating,

I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6, NIV)

Statements like these fly in the face of relativism. It cuts to the quick, remedying any, to use Eagleton’s words, rejection of totality or harbor of pluralism.(1) Our very Source of Truth has spoken clearly. There can be no other interpretation. The truth that Jesus spoke of was of himself, the great “I Am.” (see Exodus 3:14).

So, what do we do with that? Read the following passage slowly. Allow it to soak in.

From the Gospel of John,

In the beginning was the Word (Jesus), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light. There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1-14, NASB)

We are left with the incredible conclusion that Jesus’ very presence was the truth he was speaking of – His own word in the flesh. This is the heart of the Easter story. There is one way that leads to the Father. There is one divine and absolute truth fulfilled only through Jesus Christ. There is a life that can be lived in complete forgiveness, freedom and faith.

I don’t own the truth. I only share the Truth that owns us all.

– D

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