The Greener Grass Conspiracy – Review
I recently received a copy of Stephen Altrogge’s new book “The Greener Grass Conspiracy: Finding Contentment on Your Side of the Fence” from Crossway. I was asked to read the book and write a review on my blog and on amazon.com. I love Stephen’s blog, The Blazing Center, so I gladly accepted this challenge. Little did I know the impact that this short book would have on my heart.
“Do you ever wonder how it’s possible to be so blessed and so unhappy at the same time?…To have more than any generation in history and yet still crave more? What’s wrong with us?” (pg 12)
Those questions really start to make you think. Why am I so unhappy, why do I desire more, why doesn’t the new ipad 2 bring me lasting joy. Stephen has written a beautiful book that really attacks our discontented hearts by highlighting the beautiful gospel of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ! The Gospel is faithfully proclaimed throughout this book and page after page Stephen is pleading with the reader that contentment is found only in Jesus!
I don’t know how to put into words what this wonderful book has done for my soul. I plan on reading it often because I am prone to forget and prone to grow discontent. I love that this book was written and I love that Stephen doesn’t just give you seven steps to contentment. Instead, he slowly unpacks the gospel page by page so by the end of this book you can’t help but have your eyes fixed on Jesus, and then and only then, truly content. I highly recommend that you read this book. I will end with one of my favorite quotes:
“The Gospel of Christ is the fountainhead of contentment. In the gospel we have access to infinite blessing. But if we don’t drink often we will always be thirsty. The moment i feel the saltwater-like thirst of discontentment, I need to plunge again into the gospel. I need to stop and stare and wonder and laugh at the goodness of God in the gospel. I need to spend time working on my gospel math, calculating the infinite distance between what I deserve and what I’ve received. To marvel that a prodigal like me could be embraced by the Universe Maker as a son. To imagine the gutter of misery I would be lying in if Christ had not rescued me. If I want to overcome discontentment, I need to spend time wallowing in the gospel.” (pg 70)
