The Greener Grass Conspiracy: Finding Contentment on Your Side of the Fence

By Stephen Altrogge

There is a cosmic conspiracy affecting every person who has ever lived. The world, our hearts, and Satan himself conspire to steal our happiness. These powerful agents breed discontentment with our possessions, relationships, jobs, and circumstances. 

Altrogge writes from his own experience. He argues that while discontentment assaults us from every direction, its promises are empty. “If only’s” may offer happiness, satisfaction, or a better life, but on their own they can’t deliver. 

With humor and honesty, Altrogge helps us do battle with discontentment by steering us back to the central truths of the gospel. He addresses issues like complaining and idolatry and reminds us of all that we have, and will have, in Christ. Readers will be drawn to his winsome writing and practical application. Discussion questions follow each chapter, making this book a useful resource for small groups. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Crossway Books
• Release date: Apr 7, 2011
• ISBN: 9781433521287

Stephen Altrogge

Stephen Altrogge is a freelance writer living in Tallahassee, Florida. He writes regularly at The Blazing Center. He and his wife, Jen, have three daughters.

Book preview

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Reviews for The Greener Grass Conspiracy

[mejerrymouse_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I don't know about you, but I am one of those people who loves a good conspiracy theory. Judging from the movie industry, I'd say I'm not alone. Perhaps that is why Stephen Altrogee and Crossway chose to title this new release The Greener Grass Conspiracy: Finding Contentment on Your Side of the Fence. What sets this book apart from those movies is that this book moves beyond theory, into reality."What is this conspiracy?" you may ask. "It's a conspiracy between the world, my heart, and Satan to steal my happiness" (pg. 12). It's serious stuff, my friends, with implications in this life and the next, but don't think that it makes for a boring book. God has blessed Stephen Altrogee with a great sense of humor and it shines through on almost every page of this book without detracting from the important message within. (You even have to make sure you read all of the footnotes because the humor is stashed there as well. ;)Whether you know it or not, you and I are at war."When we don't get what we so desperately want, we throw the adult version of a temper tantrum. Our passions rage within us. We become angry at God and discontent with life. We grumble and complain, and happiness appears to be out of reach. We become a casualty of war" (pg. 19).Do you want to avoid becoming "a casualty of war"? Do you want to know the secret of happiness and contentment? The answer may not be what you think. Learning the truth can be a lot like major surgery, but in the long run, embracing the truth will save your life.The Greener Grass Conspiracy is deep, yet the message is articulated clearly. Altrogee has spent time learning from the Puritans (largely Jeremiah Burroughs and Thomas Watson) and has taken the best of their ideas and made them accessible to a new generation. Most importantly, this book is Biblical and Altrogee keeps his focus on the Good News of Jesus Christ and all that he has done for us.Satan leads us to believe that God is holding out on us."The truth is, God will never withhold from us. The greatest, irrefutable proof of God's generosity is Calvary. Look at the beloved Son, ridiculed by the masses, beaten beyond recognition, hanging upon a cross, slowly suffocating, dying for sinners like you and me. God gave up what was most precious to him so that he could save sinners who hated him. If God was willing to do that, won't he also give us every good thing that we need? In Romans 8:32 Paul puts it this way: 'He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?' (pg. 52)The best way to fight sin in your life is to learn and meditate on the truth of God's Word. Altrogee writes:"Satan invites me to find satisfaction in something other than God. It doesn't matter if it's pornography or community service, as long as it's not God" (pg. 13).Do you believe that God is all-satisfying? Do you believe that He has control over all that happens and uses it for the good of those who love Him? What you believe to be true about God radically shapes how you live your life. Don't be deceived! Know the truth! Uncover the "conspiracy" with Altrogee in this excellent book; it can change your life.(P.S. If you've ever whined or complained or been unhappy about anything, this book is for you. Basically, this is a book for us all. ;)*Many thanks to Crossway for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion!

[prozacstan · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I just finished The Greener Grass Conspiracy which was kindly provided to me by Crossway to review.Altrogge, a young man (in three days he'll be 29 years old), writes not as a know-it-all twit but as someone who is also trying to learn contentment. He has a good sense of humor and comes across as one of us, just a regular guy I would like to meet some day. I'm sure you would too.When I started the book I would not have said I had a problem with a lack of contentment. That has changed. Altrogge took a scalpel to the common experiences of many and showed how discontentment lies beneath the surface too often in my own life. He showed how something as small as complaining about traffic shows a dissatisfaction with God's provision. In that regard he quoted Thomas Watson from The Art of Divine Contentment:"Our base hearts are more discontented at one loss than thankful for a hundred mercies. God has plucked one branch of grapes from you, but how many precious clusters are left behind."Altrogge acknowledges that he doesn't have all the answers and doesn't try to offer cheap answers to life's problems. Instead, he points the reader to Jesus."I don't want to give you the pat, trite answers. I don't want to tell you just to trust in God and everything will be okay. I simply want to connect you to the God who is bigger than your sufferings and who fully understands what I don't. I want to connect you to the only person who can carry you through and give you contentment in the midst of suffering. I want to connect you to Jesus." (119-120)Following are a few favorite brief quotes:"I need to spend some time working on my gospel math, calculating the infinite distance between what I deserve and what I've received." (70)"Complaining isn't just an insignificant, minor, everyday sin. It's a slap in the face of God. When we complain, we're saying that God hasn't been good to us." (103)"When you start getting that generally annoyed, "I'm about to complain" feeling, take a step back, survey the blessings, and thank God for his generosity." (105)I have benefited from reading this book. I think it would be a safe bet that most people would. If you know you struggle with a lack of contentment, Altrogge provides plenty of balm to start the healing process. For those of you who don't struggle with discontentment, human nature being what it is you may very well be wrong in which case you, too, stand to benefit from The Greener Grass Conspiracy.

[joshrskinner-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A couple of weeks ago God began to deal with me greatly on the issue of contentment. It was the issue that was at the forefront of my prayers, my time in the Word, my thoughts. I was being greatly tempted by feelings of discontent and entitlement. Those are feelings that are not conducive to a productive, worshipful Christian life. About this time I received a complimentary copy of a book from Crossway that dealt with this very issue. The Greener Grass Conspiracy by Stephen Altrogge is a fun, easy, convicting and edifying book that is well worth the investment of the small amount of time it takes to make it through the 140 pages.


Let me briefly comment on Altrogge’s style and then deal with the content of the book. Altrogge is masterful in the way he uses humor to compliment his content. His use of stories is not to fill text or to simply keep someone interested. He uses humor as a means of disarming the reader as he deals with personal and difficult issues in a frank manner. His humor is the anesthesia before the scalpel, and he wields both of them well.

As entertaining as this brother is, the content of the book is the real draw. The Greener Grass Conspiracy looks at the conspiracy between the enemy and our flesh to ensure our discontentment, and how we can overcome this opposition. Chapter one shows us that we are not content, not because of our circumstances but, because of our “idol factory” of a heart. We are constantly creating idols to worship instead of finding peace and joy in the one true God.

In the second chapter, Altrogge explains that he is not the center of the universe. This part was rather obvious to me. The surprising part was that he presented a convincing argument that I actually was not the center of the universe either. And neither are you. When we begin to understand this we can truly begin to be much more content with how God chooses to treat us, because this is His universe. I may have an opinion on how He should run things but that is all I have, an opinion. A difference between Him and I is that He actually possesses a universe that was created for Him and by Him.

Chapter 3 addresses the misconception that contentment is equivalent to “ambitionless asceticism”. Neither a lack of desire nor a lack of ambition is contentment but rather “contentment is a disposition of the heart that freely and joyfully submits to God’s will, whatever that may be”. We recognize Romans 8:28, that God uses all things for the good of those who love Him. But take note of the term “joyfully”. Contentment is not treating God like a “divine dentist”. We do not bear with God, we “joyfully” submit to Him because we have tasted and seen just how good He really is.

“Discontentment is the result of misplaced worship,” and “the only way to grow in contentment is to undergo the process of identifying and destroying the idols in our lives.” Chapter 4 is the part of the book where “we re-break your nose, twist your foot, and rip your toenail out”, “where things get uncomfortable.” All this is necessary because we suffer from a self-inflicted worship malfunction, and the remedy, though necessary and sweet, is often painful.
Chapter 5 argues that contentment cannot be circumstantial, not matter how opulent the circumstances. There are lies that we believe and we must learn to spot them and believe the truth. The worst part of these lies is not that deceive us but that they attack God’s character, leading us to believe things about God that would minimize the glorious nature of who He is. This is not a small problem or an insignificant issue.

The chief offspring of discontentment is complaining and chapter 6 deals with this sin in light of the Gospel. The Gospel is the message that God covered our sins with the blood of Jesus, His Son. He purchased our forgiveness. He purchased us. Discontentment could easily be expressed as contempt of the Gospel. Discontentment and its firstborn, complaining, are a slap in the face of the Gospel and of the God who spared not His Son to redeem us from the sin we loved and the wrath we deserved. As a child of God, I have an eternal relationship with the Father. I have more than enough incentive to be more than content.

Chapter 7 is about suburban, Christian, pre-adolescents and their affinity for less than stellar white rappers…or something like that. Actually it is about the road to contentment, which is very rarely a straight and smooth thoroughfare. The path that leads to contentment is most often littered with hardship and heartache. Chapter 8 reveals the secret to contentment and our need for an “Antiques Road Show” moment.

Chapter 9 is entitled “Eat the Meat and Die”. Altrogge again deals with complaining and the resulting wrath from God that complaining elicits. “Count Your Blessings—Literally,” is a call to see the evidence of God’s love as shown through His provision. It is not, however, an argument for minimizing the burdens and heartaches that we, or others, endure, but rather it is a call to see these hardships for what they are, momentary and fleeting and see God for who He is, eternal and faithful.

“The Furnace of Suffering” illustrates the truth of how God refines the Christian through suffering, hardship, and persecution. We know that we can endure this fire because not only has our God endured it, but He walks us through it. Chapter 12 gets to a key component of discontentment that I wish had been introduced earlier in the text. Discontentment in the life of a Christian is often just a longing for Heaven, an impatience for what God has in store for those He has mercifully saved. We can be content when we realize that Heaven for the believer, that is God’s presence and our holiness, begins at new birth rather than physical death. Heaven, to those of us still in the flesh, may not be fully realized, but it is fully real.

This book is excellent. How is that for straight forward? Altrogge does a great job of drawing you in and then slapping you with the truth of God. God used this book mightily to minister to me on an issue that is prevalent and pervasive in our culture of idolatry and discontentment. I greatly believe that God will do the same for any who read it with a desire to be convicted and broken over their sin and restored by the truth of the Gospel presented within “The Greener Grass Conspiracy”.

[pchrismac-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

“The Greener Grass Conspiracy” by Stephen Altrogge reveals the forces that keep our hearts from contentment, and shows that it is possible to live without everything we want, but still live content with what we have.One key element of a life that is content is to recognize all that we have received. We have many physical blessings in this world, and maybe we should take to heart the message of the hymn “Count Your Blessings.” Beyond that, we also have countless and amazing blessings through Jesus Christ.In fact, we will never be content with things. We were created to only find contentment in real relationship with God.True contentment is found in a Person. It’s not found in getting what we want or in having difficulty removed from our lives. (p 87)Only Christ is able to help us find our contentment in God and not in things. Apart from Christ, our love for God will be smothered by the things of this world. (p 90)“Conspiracy” reveals the lies we believe that keep us discontent, and the effects of complaining on our hearts. We also find out that contentment is not automatic, but has to be learned.No heart is immune to the conspiracy. I’ve been looking for a way to communicate the message of contentment, and this book is the best I’ve found. I recommend it to any one who struggles with a desire for more, newer, bigger, or better. And I think that’s just about every one of us.