I Stole A Bible.  It Changed My Life.

A Letter from the Executive Director

    Twenty years ago, I was an ER physician and chief of staff of a hospital, living the American Dream in a postcard perfect town along the coast of Maine.  I had two young kids and a beautiful home, when suddenly life stopped flowing from one good thing to another. 

    The first of a series of tragic events occurred during our annual beach vacation with my wife’s side of the family. Nancy’s brother was swimming in the ocean when he was pulled down by an undertow and drowned. Our kids witnessed the tragedy, and Nancy became depressed. Around the same time a mentally ill patient stalked me and was stopped only when police discovered he had murdered his mother and then hid her body in a closet.

And then came the clear September morning when I got a call from our neighbor. Her son was the same age as ours. She was calling to ask for help telling her son that his father was in the first plane that crashed into the Twin Towers.

The harder I worked to pull things together, the more our lives unraveled. The darkness would not lift. My supply of optimism ran dry.

I worked in the hospital emergency department, and had seen plenty of bad things happen. But for the first time I woke up to the fact that evil exists in the world.

Evil is not a scientific concept; it does not lend itself to measurement. It is a spiritual concept. Up until that point I had faith only in things that could be quantified, tested, and reproduced. I didn’t believe in God. If someone had pressed me about God’s existence, I would have pointed to television preachers caught in scandals or the church trial of Galileo. Then I would have rested my case. When a patient would ask about my faith, I’d respond, “I believe in the healing power of third-generation antibiotics.”

I’d read every book by authors such as Carl Sagan, David Attenborough, and Stephen J. Gould—all who argued for the power of science. An education in science had given me purpose, freedom, and the ability to help people. But now, with Nancy struggling and tragedy pounding at us from every side, science was failing me. What do you do when you wake up to the fact that evil is real? What do you do about a family in disarray? What do you do about a world that is dying?

Science, as powerful as it is, can’t even define evil, much less distinguish between right and wrong. If I was going to find my way out of this dark place, I needed to look in places I’d never looked before. I started with some of the world’s sacred texts, reading through the Ramayana and the Bhagavad Gita. Then I tackled the Koran.

One Sunday morning at the hospital, I found myself with no patients, so I went looking for something to read. On a coffee table, among back issues of People and National Geographic, I found a Bible. I had never read one. Although we had thousands of books in our home, we didn’t own a Bible. So… I stole it.

The Bible is a big book. Thank goodness my parents named me “Matthew” rather than “Numbers.” I started reading in the Gospel of Matthew.  Within a few pages I was presented not with answers but with the Bible’s great question: “What say you of Jesus?”

Right away I recognized that Jesus was unlike any person I’d ever met. He was both more human and more godly than anyone I’d known. Although my coming to faith was a process—more like Peter’s than Paul’s—it soon began transforming every area of my life.

Over the next two years, my son, then my wife, and then my daughter came to believe like I did in Jesus as our Savior and Lord. He does not claim to be a good teacher or a moral leader—although I think anyone with even a passing knowledge of him will allow that he is both. Jesus boldly and unequivocally claims to be the Son of God: If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen God (John 14:9). If his assertion is not true, then Jesus is a liar. On the other hand, if Jesus is who he says he is, then he is Lord of all creation. There is no middle ground. We are given only these two choices. My family chose to believe him, to trust him, and to follow him.

      The two years following my conversion to Christianity were not easy. I had been practicing medicine for fifteen years. But eventually I told my wife I wanted to quit my job as chief of staff and head of the emergency department and spend the rest of my life serving God. Concerned about putting food on the table, let alone paying for college for our two teenage kids, Nancy replied, “Honey, are you sure we need to do that much?”

We sold our home, gave away half our possessions, and moved to a house the size of our former garage. This “downsizing” led to the biggest adventure I could have ever imagined. 

For the past two decades, my wife and I have served full-time in ministry together. Nancy stopped counting when I had spoken at more than 1,000 churches, Christian colleges, and events. Our son and his wife are raising 3 beautiful children. Our daughter is married to the pastor of evangelism and discipleship at a large church, is the wonderful mom to a foster child, and works for the ministry, Heart ofAfrica. 

Our mission at Blessed Earth is to inspire faithful stewardship of all creation.  This includes stewarding God’s gift of trees (earth stewardship), gift of time (Sabbath living), and gift of life (suicide prevention). Our family has produced eight books and a number of video teaching series on various stewardship topics, ranging from simplicity to Sabbath, as well as hundreds of articles, chapters, and forewords, including the Introduction to The Green Bible. Our current writing focuses on fostering shalom in the home—stay tuned for details by signing up here for our quarterly Blessed Earth newsletter.

I am no longer an ER doctor, but our entire family is still very much in the life business. God continues to open more and bigger doors for us to travel around the world, sharing God’s Word.  I pray that you will join us!

Your brother in Christ,

Matthew Sleeth, MD

Executive Director, Blessed Earth