continuous outpouring

On the recommendation of a friend, I read an article in Christianity Today that was an excerpt from Harold Best's book Unceasing Worship: Biblical Perspectives on Worship and the Arts. I was so interested in the article that I wanted to read the whole story!

I'm only part way into Chapter 1, but I wanted to share Best's definition of worship:

Worship is the continuous outpouring of all that I am, all that I do and all that I ever can become in light of a chosen or choosing god.

The interesting part about this definition is that it's a secular definition of worship from a sacred perspective. Postulating that we are all created by God in His image, we are designed to worship, so whether we choose to worship God, or we choose to worship something else, we have no choice but to worship. Best also points out his deliberate choice of words in the phrase continuous outpouring. Everything we do, every choice we make, determines the direction of our worship. Sin redirects our worship to the god of our choosing, but our worship does not cease.

When you think about it, there are not a lot of things in our life that we can point to that "continuously outpour." Lights go on and off, cars start and stop, even buildings are built and torn down. The first analagous thought I had was Niagara Falls... driven by forces that are as old as time... but even that someday will dry up. For the Christian, our worship of God will never cease.