I'm very glad that I had the pleasure of reading Stephen Altrogge's new book
The Greener Grass Conspiracy: Finding Contentment on Your Side of the Fence. The content of this book is absolutely fantastic and I believe very relevant to our time. I also found it very relevant to my life. Altrogge begins the book with this statement, "I've never believed in conspiracies." He then goes on to say, "Then I discovered that I was part of a conspiracy...it's a conspiracy between the world, my heart, and Satan to steal my happiness. These three are plotting and scheming together to make me perpetually discontent." There is so much vying for our attention that we continually play the "if only" game. He says at the very beginning that he’s not writing it as someone that is content but as someone that is still battling in this area. He wants us to fight with him, and I for one want to join in that fight. As I continued to read page after page, I saw so much of me and what I struggle with. This book has made me stop and think about where I need to go to find the contentment that I long for. Altrogge continues to point us to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is where we need to go. He writes this,
“The Gospel of Christ is the fountainhead of contentment. In the gospel we have access to infinite blessings. But if we don’t drink often we will always be thirsty.”
If we lose sight of the fact that contentment comes only from God we’re always going to be searching for it in something or someone else, and that will never quench that thirst. Until Jesus Christ comes again and takes us home to heaven, we’re always going to struggle with this. We can continue to find contentment in Christ, but there is always going to be a struggle and a pull for us to be discontent and search for contentment in all the wrong places. Altrogge leaves us with hope though. We have hope in the Gospel of Christ now, but we also have the hope of heaven for when Christ comes back or we go to heaven to be with Him forever. He concludes his book by pointing us to heaven, “When we’re in heaven, the battle will be over. Contentment will not be a struggle. Peace, pleasure, and joy will take the day. This is my hope. I haven’t yet learned to be content in all circumstances, but I’m fighting. I’m fighting because I know this isn’t my home. I was made for Jesus, and I was made for heaven. And so were you. But until that day we need to fight.”
Special thanks to
Crossway for providing this complimentary book to read and review. You can purchase the book here on
amazon.com.
