Dispelling the ‘Greener Grass’ Myth

“Jesus, all for Jesus...

All of my ambitions, hopes and plans,

I surrender these into Your hands.”

— Jesus, All For Jesus (Robin Mark)

I have had several seasons of life where I genuinely believed other people’s lives were more blessed than mine was. Particular jobs they had, their family circumstances, their giftedness, and the list goes on for those things I would covet, as I have frequently been a purveyor of the grass-is-greener-on-the-other-side viewpoint. The more I ventured into the land of comparison, the more trudging through my own life was a bore or a pain. And then God granted me my wish; he gave me what I wanted. Several times this has happened. Strangely enough, I found the grass is not greener on the other side. It never is, because we never reach the other side. Our side is all we have and all we will have.

There is no such thing as ‘greener grass’.

That myth is a lie of the devil, who is committed to stealing our joy. And, because we are covetous by nature, we avail ourselves for delusion to these tricks too often. Sometimes our biggest problem is that we can see, and with our ‘eyes’ we get to compare, and comparisons—without view for thankful wonder—simply lead to envy.

Being Satisfied with ‘My’ Life

The opportunity of our lifetimes stands at the cognisance of this reality: to enjoy our own lives, such that we would have no other. Of course, we can’t have any other life than ours, in any event.

To agree we have our own lives and nobody else’s is both a fact and an important realisation. The moment we give up hankering for another person’s life, or stop entertaining special privileges and certain dreams, and the moment we take our life in thankfulness to God, is the moment we truly experience joy for all we’ve been given; for all we have, have had, and will have. The more we invest in this thankfulness, the more opportunity we have of enjoying the fact of just being—the halcyon human experience.

Being satisfied with my life, whilst it sounds simple enough, does require the godly perspective; one facet of which is to be able to see my life as another, perhaps less fortunate, person would see it.

There are always those less fortunate than ourselves.

But being satisfied with my life—and you with yours—is not just about downward comparisons; we just ought to know that the greener-grass myth is an ever present temptation to overlook what we should be grateful about.

***

The grass is not greener on the other side. It’s a myth. The less satisfied we are with our lives the less satisfied we will ever be. When we are thankful and grateful for our lives, joy at once becomes us.

True contentedness is being happy with what we have now; when none of our happiness relies totally on our hopes, ambitions, and plans.

The grass is not greener over the fence. The further we look, the worse we see. Enjoying the shades and textures of our own grass is true blessedness.

© 2012 S. J. Wickham.