Burns Best Farm

Something to Ponder, don't you think?

We talk and write a great deal on this blog site about cultivation:  gardens, livestock, children, relationships between family and neighbors.  I love to cultivate my farm garden, and therefore I was particularly drawn to this daily "slice of infinity" essay that delivers into my email box each morning.  Some messages relate more than others, but this one today is one on which I plan to meditate for a few days.  Read it and see if it doesn't resonate with you:

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11/7/06
Cultivating Happiness
Betsy Childs

In the United States Declaration of Independence, the "pursuit of happiness" is declared to be an inalienable right. Regardless of whether or not this pursuit is a right, we should ask the question of whether or not the pursuit of happiness is ever truly successful. Obviously, happiness is attained all around us every day, but I question whether the single-minded pursuit of happiness leads to the sort that is truly lasting.

The various magazines in the check-out line at the supermarket suggest many means for pursuing happiness. The tamer suggestions range from organizing your closets to losing thirty pounds to purchasing the latest wireless technology. While I'm sure each of these endeavors produces a sense of satisfaction, most of us know from experience that no tip from a magazine is going to lead to any lasting sort of happiness. In fact, happiness is so elusive that it often seems that running after it is the surest technique to chase it away. As Ravi Zacharias has said, "The loneliest moment in life is when you have just experienced what you thought would deliver the ultimate, and it has let you down."(1)

Are we left with the conclusion that happiness must simply be bestowed upon us, that we have no hand in the matter? I don't believe so. In Charlotte Bronte's novel Villette, a cheerful young doctor admonishes the melancholy heroine that she should "cultivate happiness." As she contemplates his advice, she writes, "No mockery in this world ever sounds to me so hollow as that of being told to cultivate happiness. What does such advice mean? Happiness is not a potato to be planted in mould and tilled with manure."

In spite of this character's aversion to the metaphor of cultivating happiness, I believe it is a better model than that of a pursuit. Pursuit of happiness implies that it can be obtained in some constant, continual supply. When the prize that promised happiness doesn't deliver it, the one who pursues happiness simply finds another carrot to chase. On the other hand, one who seeks to cultivate happiness does not expect immediate pay off. Instead, he "plants" in his life those things which in time will lead to happiness. He recognizes that happiness comes in different forms at different times, just as plants must be harvested in season.

Every year around this time, I like to plant tulip bulbs in my yard. I don't expect to see tulips blooming in a few days or even a few weeks. I know that the bulbs must sit in the ground during the months of winter in order to bloom in the spring. When the tulips finally peak through as the ground thaws, I reap the rewards of the digging done in autumn. I don't despair when they die; I keep planting so that new blossoms will bloom.

The mindset of cultivation does not expect immediate rewards; cultivation demands patience, foresight, and the embrace of delayed gratification. C.S. Lewis noted that he didn't become a Christian in order to increase his present happiness; a bottle of port would have done that! If you are looking for immediate gratification, you might as well buy yourself a new purse or a new car rather than try Christianity. The sort of happiness that it promises must be cultivated.

"Beatitude" comes directly from the Latin word for happiness, but Jesus's Sermon on the Mount is a surprising prescription for happiness. Those who mourn, who are poor in spirit, or are persecuted rarely appear to us as happy. Implied in the beatitudes is the idea that true happiness isn't the same as immediate happiness. The comfort that comes to those who mourn is deeper than the comfort of those who have never shed a tear. Those who have hungered find more satisfaction in being filled than those who have wanted for nothing. Those who yield their rights now will, in the long run, receive even more than they are due.

The first time I ever planted tulips, I had to take someone else's word for it that the onion-like bulbs would one day produce the slender flowers I desired. If we are going to cultivate happiness in our own lives, we cannot rely on our instincts; these will lead us toward immediate gratification that is as short-lived as stem-cut tulips planted in the ground. The teachings of Jesus, the Psalms, and the Bible as a whole are preoccupied with the question of how lasting happiness can be obtained. If you desire to reap a bountiful harvest in your own life, I urge you to study the Scriptures and endeavor to plant in your soul those things nurture the kind of happiness that never fades.


Betsy Childs is associate writer at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.


(1) Ravi Zacharias, The Real Face of Atheism (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2004), 85.
rom today's Slice of Infinity:

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Denise again here:

I love that quote in bold and underlined.  I read blogs here where people pine away for the day they can buy the homestead and move there for a simpler way of life.  My husband and I have the same conversation almost daily here, as we live in the suburbs now and can only do the "farm thing" on the weekends.  But am I setting myself up for discontentment here and now?  Am I putting so much pressure on the ideal lifestyle that when it comes, I'll be disappointed and bitter because it doesn't live up to the lofty expections I've placed on it?

Deep thoughts to consider.  Thanks for reading this far!

Well said!

04:05, 2006-Nov-8 .. Posted by HSBFrontPorch

I think it is so important for us to be like Paul "content in all things" even while dreaming the big dreams. It's not easy, at least not for me always. I mean I'd love for us to earn an income on the farm so that my husband wouldn't have to work away from home, but there are only so many hours in the day.

Usually I have a little meltdown once a year or so about it and Tony has to remind me to enjoy what we have RIGHT now. It's already so much more than we ever expected. If we never get to develop our farm the way we'd like, then at least we got to enjoy living on this beautiful piece of land and gave the boys room to run and explore. And that is MORE than enough.

~Nancy