Finally!

Last night I finally finished Serve God, Save the Planet. I would HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone remotely interested in the topic. You'd think by the title that it would be entirely about environmental issues and how that ties into faith, but it isn't. I mean it is, though Sleeth does a really great job of shedding new light on life issues such as parenting, health care, possessions, and family throughout the book- often by sharing from his personal journey and experience. It's probably one of the most inspiring (yet practical) books I have read.

I feel like I need to read it again.

Some of the facts are sobering. For example, "If your family dries one load of laundry a day using an electric dryer, you use 150 kilowatt-hours of electricity a month. Back at the power plant, one ton of poisonous gases are created each year to run your family's dryer." [pg. 92]

Eek. I never thought about it that way before, and I think that's why I appreciated the book so much. It opened my eyes to stuff of which I was just plain ignorant. No other way to say it. Do we still use our dryer? Yes. (GUILTY!) However, we are trying to cut down, and I'd like to transition to a line-drying situation for the most part (though the lazy part of me doesn't).

Sobering facts aside, the book is still hopeful. The overall message is to love God and to love other people. And, if we are really doing that, our actions will follow.

I think the most challenging part of the book for me was when he posed the question, "Does this [action, decision, purchase, mindset, use of my time] bring me closer to God?"


**chirp, chirp**


Ummm.....

Can't say that I really ask that question of myself very often, to be honest. When I first read it, I thought it was a little too lofty-fundamentalist-blanket-statement-sounding, but then I realized that it's not. It's just a really simple, yet hard question. And frankly, I don't often WANT to ask myself that question, because the answer is probably "no."

Needless to say, it was very thought-provoking. I like books that make me think, but not in a "my brain hurts" kind of way. (Thank you, annoying college philosophy class) This book certainly did, though in an encouraging way. And, practical! We all like practical.

So, read the book! It's a really easy read. Even my self-professed slow reader of a husband pounded it out in a couple days, which is way faster than I ended up reading it.