"Happiness is in Hard Work" Kathryn Kuhlman

A man stood at his window and watched his neighbor walk by. He walked, not as a man should, enjoying triumph, but with a slow step, sagging shoulders, like a man with a great burden on his soul. And John Burroughs knew why. The man had no work that he loved. Nothing to keep him busy. Nothing to make him content. To give his days purpose and direction. And the man who watched said this to himself. An idle man is a wretched man. An idle man is an unhappy man. And as he said those words to himself, listening to the singing of the birds, to the soft whispering of the trees, he knew that no man knew better than himself the blessedness of work, of life -giving and life -sustaining work, that work could give man real happiness and real contentment. For had he not been idle himself once, and one of the most utterly dejected of God's creatures, life had lost its savor for him, had become empty, stagnant. He couldn't eat, he couldn't sleep, he couldn't think, he couldn't dream. He was discontented. And work, hard work, had saved him. Good hard work on a farm. with his hands, raking, hoeing, ploughing, planting, feeling the good earth between his fingers, feeling his oneness with the universe. The plough had done its perfect work on him as on his fields. The bitterness, the boredom had ploughed under. The stagnant pools of discontent drained off. The planting, the pruning had shaped his life. as surely as they had shaped his fruit trees. For seeing the river shine, watching the birds arrive, hearing their excited laughter, looking up from his work and seeing the skies and the distant hills bathed in the magic of sudden beauty, he had found renewal. He had found inspiration. He had found his life's work. And John Burroughs turned from the window, walked slowly to his desk. And the book entitled Wake Robin had been the first of a series of books about birds, about trees, about flowers. rural scenes that had brought him worldwide recognition. If only he could make others realize that happiness was no will of the wisp. That real happiness was the simplest thing in the world and within the reach of everybody. Oh, sure. It seems so simple that most folk couldn't believe that one could really be happy in one's work. You know, there's a condition or circumstance that has a greater bearing upon the happiness of life than any other. What is it? It's one of the simplest things in the world. It's within the reach of all. If this secret were something that I could put up for auction, there would be some mighty high bidders, believe me. Only the wise ones can guess what it is. Some might say it's in health. Others will say it's money, friends, or the possession of things. But you may have all these things and not be happy. Sometimes I think that money is the cheapest thing in the whole world. Possessions sometimes can bring you the greatest unhappiness if you only realized it. But most folk are too stupid to realize it. You may have fame, you may have power, and still be the most unhappy person in the whole world. I still maintain that there is one thing more necessary to a happy life than anything else that I know anything about. Though health and money and friends and home and possessions, all of these may lend some importance. But that one thing that I'm talking about, what is it? The sick man will say it's health. The poor man will say... is wealth. The ambitious man will say it's power. The scholar will say it's knowledge. And the overworked man will say it's rest. But without the one thing that I have in mind, none of these things would long help their possessors to be happy. We could not long be happy without food or drink or clothes or shelter. But we may have all these things to perfection and still want the prime condition of happiness. It's often said that a contented mind is the first condition of happiness. But what is the first condition of a contented mind? You'll be disappointed when I tell you what this all -important thing is. It's so common, it's so near at hand, and so many people have so much of it and yet are not happy. They have too much of it, or else the kind that's not best suited to them. What's the best thing for a stream? It's to keep moving if it stops. It stagnates. And so the best thing for a man is that which keeps the currents going. The physical, the moral, the intellectual currents. Keep them moving. Keep them going. Hence the secret of happiness is something to do. Work. Somebody is saying, if I thought. that everything that you were saying was going to lead up to the one word work, I wouldn't have taken the time to have listened. That's exactly what's wrong with the world today. That's one thing that people do not want to talk about. The palm is turned up. The hand is outstretched. And the mind says, give me. Give me. How much can I get without working for it? Take away the occupation of all men and what a wretched world it would be. And that's one thing that is causing so much unhappiness and distress in the world at this very hour. That's one thing that's wrong with the younger generation. They feel it is disgraceful to work. To do an honest day's work. Few persons realize how much of their happiness is dependent upon their work, upon the fact that they are kept busy, and not left to feed upon themselves. Happiness comes most to people who seek her least and think least about it. It's not an object to be sought. It's a state to be induced. It must follow and not lead. It must overtake you and not you overtake it. How important is health to happiness? And yet the best promoter of health is something to do. I can always remember Mama saying, if there's anybody in the family who's complaining a little bit about a... headache or a stomachache. She would just smile, and in her soft, spoken way, she would say, Well, just work it off. And the amazing thing is, in 5, 10, 15 minutes, it was soon worked off. We didn't take aspirins in those days. When there was a little headache or a little pain or something in your body, you didn't run for the aspirin bottle in those days. We didn't run for a little peel in those days. We didn't make a beeline for some strong coffee and take a coffee break in those days. Nobody thought of taking the day off from work in those days. The only thing we ever had in our house was turpentine for the cuts and a bottle of castor oil. And it's just like that. If it didn't feel well, you worked it off. Yeah. Few persons realize how much of their happiness is dependent upon their work. upon the fact that they are kept busy and not left to feed upon themselves. If all of our young men and women who are causing the riots and spending the hours picketing were given some good manual labor to do, we'd very quickly solve some of the greatest problems in America this very hour. And it's just like that. Blessed is a man who has some work to do, some good old -fashioned congenial work. some occupation in which he can put his heart which affords a complete outlet to all the forces that are in him work and thou canst not escape the reward and the reward of a thing well done is to have oh to awaken each morning with a smile brightening my face to greet the day with reverence for the opportunities that it contains to approach my work with a clean mind to hold ever before me even in doing the little things, the ultimate purpose toward which I am working, to meet men and women with laughter on my lips and love in my heart, to be gentle and kind and courteous through all the hours, to approach the night with weariness that ever woos sleep and the joy that comes from work well. This is how I desire to waste wisely my days. Thank God every morning when you get up that you have something to do which must be done, whether you like it or not. I'm not telling you that you're always going to like what you're doing. Being forced to work and forced to do your best will breed in you temperance, self -control, diligence, the strength of will, content, and a hundred other virtues which the idled never know. You'll learn discipline. And that's something that's so necessary today. That's something that our young people know nothing about. When you use the word self -discipline, it isn't in their vocabulary. It's one of those old -fashioned words that's outmoded and not for their generation. Talking to you right now, looking back over my own life, I thank my God that I learned self -discipline at an early age. And being forced to work and forced to do your best will breed self -discipline. And you'll really never know real success. And you'll not... be a real person until, first of all, you have learned self -discipline. And you'll never learn it without doing something you don't especially want to do. Life requires that we work. work being simply the opposite of rusting away. And nature requires that we work at something. Such activity is interesting, exhilarating. It begets energy, health, happiness. It defeats tensions. Instead of taking all those little white pills for nervous tensions. I'll tell you the best thing in the world that will defeat those tensions. Work. The hour has come when we must get rid of the extraordinary notion that manual work is degrading. There is nothing more innoble than manual work and nothing better for physical and mental health than work. And God's word says, the sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much, but the abundance of the rich. will not suffer him to sleep. This is practical, but needed this hour.