Day 148: Enjoy!

This Sunday's service was the first in a series "How to Enjoy Life."

Being a nerd, I thought that this could all hinge upon the word "enjoy."  What do we really mean by that?  Is this just about how to have a fun life?  I had to, of course, defer to the experts.  According to Merriam Webster, enjoy is an intrasitive verb meaning "to have a good time" or a transitive verb meaning "to take pleasure or satisfaction in."  I'm pretty sure that as we want to take and active or "transitive" approach to life rather than the passive or "intransitive" approach, so let's work with definition number two.  There's actually a third definition of "to have for one's use, benefit or lot" but since it was irrelevant, I was not going to mention it.  However, I know that if I, myself, were to find someone else's blog and they said that there were two definitions but gave me a link to three definitions, I would think that something hinky was going on and they would loose some credibility in my eyes.  So, there you have it, three definitions but only one that concerns me.  :)

"to take pleasure or satisfaction in."  This works for me.  Who doesn't want to take pleasure and satisfaction in their life?  Once again, as a nerd, this wasn't quite enough for me.  I like to know where a word came from so I can make my own assessment.  Back to M-W, we have middle English enjoien or Anglo-French enjoir.  It says that it breaks down to en + joie and that joie means joy.  I think I know where this is all heading, right?  So then I check out WordOrigins.com.  Word Origins concurs on the  French origination and tells us that en means "in" and joir means "rejoice."

Here I was, all pumped up to be right that enjoy really means "in joy" so that we should live a joyful life, right?  Wrong?  We should live "in rejoicing."  That takes it a step further . . . We are not just supposed to "joice" (don't blame any reputable dictionary for that one) and take pleasure in our lives, but to "re-joice."  Again we get into the transitive and the intransitive.  Rejoice means "to feel joy or great delight," if we're feeling lazy and intransitive.  But if we're active and transitive participants in our own lives, rejoice means "to give joy to," or gladden.  Hmmm . . .

So if a nerdy girl like me wants to enjoy life, I need to "live in giving joy to."  To whom you ask?  Totally the wrong question.  It's open.  To everything you do and everyone you touch.  That sounds a little daunting though.  So, how about "to-day?"  If I try to give joy today to those that I encounter, that's a step I can tackle.  And then we'll worry about "to-morrow."

And you know, I know that Pastor Matt shared a great message on Sunday, but I guess I'll have to save that reflection for another day!  It really was a good one!  :)