The Grass is Always Greener

Why is it that we never seem to be completely satisfied with what we have? No matter what we possess or achieve, there is always someone who has accomplished more or found a way to buy a bigger, better one. If those are the rules, we can never hope to win. Regardless of where we live or what we drive or who we are married to, eventually we be tend to look across the fence or down the street and covet what others have. Suddenly, we develop that urge to upgrade and lose the joy of simply wanting what we have. Living life with the motto, “I’ll be really truly happy if I can just get one of those” is the sure formula for unhappiness. Is it OK to have nice things? Yes. However, basing our joy and contentment on the quality and quantity of those things is utter folly. Pick up a newspaper, read a magazine, turn on the news. The divorce rate, the drug overdose rate, the suicide rate are at least as high for the people who seem to “have everything.” That, clearly, is not the answer. In the bible the 10th Commandment (Exodus 20:17) is “do not covet.” More specifically, “your neighbor’s house, your neighbor’s wife ... your neighbor’s ox or donkey (car), or anything your neighbor owns.” Its probably fine to have stuff, but dangerous to want stuff-at least to want too much stuff too dearly. The proverbial grass almost always appears greener, yet rarely is. If we would merely go to the trouble to care for the relationships and possessions we already have, we might well discover that they are just what we needed.


Greener Grasses
When life begins to get difficult
And relationships dry out
When prosperity turns to drifting sands
Of sadness and fear and doubt
We begin to notice greener grasses
Across the fence, in neighbor’s fields
And our minds begin to wander
To what that greener grass would yield
We fail to care for our own grasses
So they grow drier still
As we dream about those distant fields
And the chance to eat our fill
And once our minds have wandered
From what has always been our own
Our feet are prone to follow
And the seeds of sin are sown
But once we trample down the fence
To graze upon our neighbor’s grass
It begins to wither up as well
‘Till its as brown as ours, alas
And we discover it doesn’t matter
Where in the world we go
Greener grasses will always beckon
Just beyond the fields we know
But some folks never learn the lesson
They just keep chasing the mirage
Until they perish in the desert
Because they failed to simply pause
And realize that God provided
Everything they would need
Yet they were never satisfied
Becoming victims of their own greed
But if we care for what He gave us
And simply water our own grass
Then we can live in greener pastures
Of our own that grow and last

By Frank Carpenter©