A Worried Life

There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and tell himself that his labor is good. This also I have seen that it is from the hand of God.  For who can eat and who can have enjoyment without Him? Ecclesiastes 2:24-25 NASB

Enjoyment – There’s something odd about the Hebrew verb hush. It actually means, “to be agitated, to worry about.” The use in Ecclesiastes 2:25 is debated. “Ecclesiastes 2:25 is taken ‘enjoy’ by many commentators so that it inquires, ‘Apart from God who can eat or have enjoyment?’ on the basis of Eccl 2:24 and the Akkadian hashāshu ‘to be happy.’ Ellermeier, however, holds that the verb means ‘to worry,’ in the sense that God is responsible not only for situations which we enjoy but also those which cause us to worry.”^[1] But this isn’t the only odd thing. The idea of enjoyment is a bit complicated.

Is there a difference between pleasure and enjoyment? The dictionary suggests that enjoyment is the “process of taking pleasure in something,” whereas pleasure is “a feeling of happy satisfaction or enjoyment.” These definitions seem to suggest that one is the synonym for the other. But I would like to propose a nuanced difference; a difference that I believe is crucial in understanding spirituality.

I would like to propose that pleasure is the feeling I get when something I do releases dopamine into my system. This release of organic neural transmitters produces emotional responses associated with rewards and pleasure. But I want to point out that this is an entirely self-functioning process. In other words, pleasure does not require engagement with anything or anyone other than my own neural pathways. I can please myself regardless of my circumstances or relationships.

Enjoyment, if I may so suggest, is conditioned on some outer connection. I can enjoy a glass of wine only if there actually is a glass of wine, but I can take pleasure in simply thinking about the glass of wine. More pointedly, I can only enjoy another person if I am engaged in a relationship with that person, but I can take pleasure from another person without actually being engaged with the other person at all. In other words, it is possible for me to use the other person as a pleasure-producing tool, but that is not the same as enjoying the presence of the other.

Our language blurs these small distinctions, but in my view, this is a mistake. It leads us to think that being pleased by another person is the same as enjoying the presence of the other person, and this is patently false as any serious reflection on the mechanics of relationship demonstrates. Lots of behaviors may provide me pleasure without necessarily requiring me to have any real involvement with any other person. My dopamine levels only require my creation of the pleasure, internal to me. Enjoyment demands I be outwardly engaged.

With this in mind, we can distinguish between happiness, pleasure and enjoyment. Happiness is entirely circumstantial. It is a function of my response to outer stimuli. If I have $100 in my pocket, I am happy. If I lose the $100 in my pocket, I am not happy. Pleasure, on the other hand, does not depend on my circumstances. The only thing necessary to experience pleasure is to build a neural pathway to release dopamine. Even if I lose the $100, I can still make myself feel pleasure by recalling some pleasing past event and using it to block my immediate circumstantial unhappiness. But neither of these, I believe, is true enjoyment. That requires more than circumstance and more than programmed neural pathways. Enjoyment requires that I enter into the present experience in such a way that I share who I am with the other, whether person or thing. This nuance is born out by the etymology of “enjoy,” derived from the Old French “to give joy, rejoice, take delight in.” Notice that enjoy is a verb of deliberate action, i.e., to give joy, to take delight in. One cannot rejoice while being unmoved. Enjoyment means giving and taking, and that requires bidirectional involvement.

How do we apply these nuances to biblical ideas?

First, it seems clear that the Bible is not interested in happiness. The biblical idea of joy does not depend on comfortable or rewarding circumstances. In fact, most of the time joy is experienced in the face of trials and tribulations. Happiness is out. It’s a nice surprise if it comes along, but it is not a biblical goal.

Second, it seems to be that pleasure is also not a biblical priority. The very fact that the apostolic writers avoid the use of the Greek eros should tell us that pleasure was not on their agendas. Pleasure is simply too self-seeking. Given the art of creative addiction, this is just far too obvious. The Bible does not promote pleasure because pleasure does not require engagement in relationship, and, above all else, the Bible is a story about relationships.

So then, it seems to me that the Bible is about enjoyment, and in the Old French sense, of giving and taking, of mutual involvement. Technically then, I may find pleasure in a glass of wine, but I only enjoy a glass of wine when it engages me with another. Solo drinking may be pleasure, but it is not enjoyment. Crucially then, we are to enjoy God, not seek pleasure in Him, His creation or anyone else. Seeking pleasure opens the door to dopamine channeling and that leads directly to self-absorption. Seeking enjoyment means voluntarily giving myself to another, giving something of me away so that the other will also discover enjoyment. If I seek to enjoy God, I am required to enter into a give-and-take engagement with God. It might not even be pleasurable. It might not bring happiness. But it will lead to joy and that surpasses them all.

Finally, I take this to mean that when Paul speaks about love, he is speaking about a love of enjoyment. And that is ultimately what separates us from the robotic self-seeking addictive behaviors to bring about pleasure. Love demands submission to another. It can’t function any other way. If I am going to enjoy God, I will have to open myself to Him and become vulnerable to His presence.

Topical Index: pleasure, enjoyment, happiness, hush, worry, Ecclesiastes 2:24-25

^[1] Yamauchi, E. (1999). 632 חוּשׁ. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke, Ed.) (electronic ed.) (274). Chicago: Moody Press.