Serve God and Save the Planet

I recently picked up a copy of the The Green Bible and began reading the intro by Dr. J. Matthew Sleeth.  He was instrumental in creating the first environment friendly bible printed on recycled paper with soy inks.  The bible has highlighted scripture in green font whenever it pertains to nature or creation in a special sense so if you are particularly fond of the outdoors and learning how to take better care of our home – you are in for a treat and then some.

What impressed me most about Dr. Sleeth’s story was that when he felt God had called him to “save the earth” he put his money where his mouth is in a huge way.  He says, “When I read the Gospels and thought about the world’s environmental problems, I found answers. Matthew 7:1 struck me as particularly compelling, “Do not judge so you may not be judged.”  How often, in all walks of life, do we judge others by a standard different from the one we used to measure our own shortcomings?

“When I applied these words of Christ to myself, I did not like what I found. I was concerned about pollution and the death of the world, but what about our family’s part in it?   So we took an accounting. Our family added up all the energy we used and the trash and pollution we made. This process is called ecological foot printing.  We found our family was average for the United States...

Although this was better than most doctors or people in our neighborhood, it was a poor showing compared to the rest of the world. After telling us to not judge others, Christ instructs us to clean up our own act. He understands that the surest excuse to not do the right thing is our innate ability to spot flaws in others.  After we measured our energy usage, our family took Christ at his word and set about changing. First, my job, paycheck, and doctor-sized house went. As I told the hospital board when I resigned as chief of staff, I felt called to serve God and save the planet”—with an unpaid, undefined job and a financial leap of faith. We moved to home the exact height, width and depth of our old garage. Don’t feel sorry for us—we had a doctor sized garage. We found that one set of couches served us fine; two of the other sofas helped young couples starting out.  Without multiple televisions, stereos, alarm clocks, garage openers, clothes dryer and incandescent bulbs we were able to cut our electric bill to 1/10 of the national average.

Our family also began to distinguish between wants and our needs. We stopped defining ourselves by what we did and begin to concentrate on what we were becoming. First I, then Clark, then Nancy and finally Emma became followers of Christ."

What caught my eye immediately was how this family who had been living the American traded it in for the God Dream.  The way I see it, the more you have, the harder to give up. For instance, before I had a cell phone I was fine with my old-school landline. Now? I feel I  really need my cell phone as if it were a limb or a kidney. I’m not sure how Dr. Sleeth’s family took to losing all their creature comforts at first but it’s evident that they presently know what the secret to abundant living is and it cannot be found at Target or Macy's or even Costco.

I have been inspired to do my own ecological foot printing and our family – slowly but surely-- is making little differences that equal to big improvements over the long run. We already have the small home but I'm finding even small homes can be gluttonous pigs in the way of consumption.  We want to be better stewards of our planet earth home for it was a gift from God to begin with. In fact, the earth and all that’s in it was an answer to Satan’s accusations that God was stingy and angry and not really kind and loving. Before the universe, God created a beautiful home for creatures of the air, water and land and then gave them the capability to create more of their own kind! What an answer to Satan’s allegations fashioned to stain God’s character!

Thank you Dr. Sleeth for helping us to see how gracious God truly is and thank you God for being better than we ever imagined! 

For more information on The Green Bible click here and for more on Dr. Sleeth and his non-profit Blessed Earth, click here and here.

-S.N. Belmonte 2009 ©