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Should SharperIron serve as a place for people to out other people, especially leaders?

We don’t have a “final” answer to that question. What we do have is a clear idea of what SharperIron has been about so far and what it’s about right now. It is not about victim advocacy, justice, exposing coverups or holding evil-doers accountable.

Some people love a good conspiracy. Others avoid them like the plague. Stephen Altrogge believes that whether we like it or not we are all part of one big conspiracy. This is not a conspiracy like those involving Area 51 or Lee Harvey Oswald. It is bigger and more sinister. It is a cosmic conspiracy.

In his new book, The Greener Grass Conspiracy: Finding Contentment on Your Side of the Fence, Altrogge explains this cosmic conspiracy we are all part of:

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. They’re stubbornly determined to poison the joy I have in God and to deceive me into believing that I can find happiness somewhere other than God. They want me to dishonor God by gorging on the unsatisfying pleasures of the world instead of finding true joy and satisfaction in Christ. (p. 12)

The cause of discontentment

So what is this conspiracy trying to perpetuate in our lives? Discontentment—specifically, discontentment with what God has given us in Christ.

Where does this discontentment come from? My circumstances or others around me? No—it comes from me. In reference to Mark 7:21-23, Altrogge points out the following:

The problem is me. I am my own worst enemy. The raging, covetous, discontented desires come from within. They’re not the product of my circumstances, and the desires won’t be satisfied when circumstances change. (p. 17)

Throughout Scripture we see that God is the center of the universe and its activities. That means I am not. God made me for Himself (Isa. 43:6-7). “Discontentment begins when I start trying to be God….when I attempt to displace God from his rightful place at the center of the universe” (p. 24).