We have everything – stocked refrigerators and overflowing garages and peaceful democracy – but contentment can be hard to come by. That’s because discontentment, according to Steven Altrogge, is a big conspiracy by Satan, the world, and our hearts to keep us looking for happiness in all the wrong places. Thankfully his book, The Greener Grass Conspiracy, exposes the whole fraud. With a mix of humor and introspective honesty, Altrogge shows where we’ve gone awry. But he also points to lasting contentment in Christ: steadfast no matter how the grass appears.
We all dream about what would make us content: a bigger house, a better job, a spouse – to name a few. But dreams don’t satisfy. Instead, “one dream replaces another and the circle of discontentment starts all over again” (50). That’s because at its root, “discontentment is the result of misplaced worship.” God created us with desires, but he meant for us to chase after him, not things. Altrogge shows that our discontentment slanders God because, in effect, we say that “God hasn’t been good to us” (103).
Consider for a moment the full weight of that statement. Discontentment slanders God. “God owes us nothing except justice” – but he gave us life instead. We deserved punishment, but he exchanged it for the riches of his grace! This is the mystery – and the foundation for contentment: that God pours out his mercy on ungrateful subjects.
Because of Christ, Paul could declare: “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content” (Phil. 4:12). Contentment requires faith that “God is moving in all things,” but ‘’all things,” as Altrogge reminds us, is a big box. It includes times of blessing and abundance, but also persecution and suffering. “Paul could be content in all things because he went to God in all things” (81).
In the last few chapters, Altrogge paints two very different pictures: contentment in abundance and contentment in suffering. Life, health, and food on the table – God is abundantly good; we ought to thank him. But when God sends hardship? Altrogge doesn’t give trite answers, but even then, he says, God is good. God often teaches us contentment in the “furnace of suffering” because it drives us into his arms. Hardship in this life makes us long for the next.
Before I read this book, I would not have self-identified as a complainer, but Altrogge made me think – and left me convicted: convicted of my petty grumbling, my ungratefulness, my misplaced treasure. If you find yourself chasing empty dreams, read this book. Let God satisfy the hungry longings of your soul.