Things and worship

In Explicit Gospel, Matt Chandler explains why so many things in life, though in themselves they are amoral,  can be good things that bring glory to God and are beneficial or can be negative things that dishonour God and harm us. We are talking about a myriad of things in our life: Macbeth and monster trucks, hockey and hamburgers, fishing and flying, Picasso and peonies. If the things we have and the things we do and the things we enjoy terminate on themselves and are their own end, they fall short of their design and divine intention. However, if they terminate on God in gratitude and glory-giving, then partaking in them is worship. Chandler writes,

Worship ... is larger and more encompassing than singing some songs at a church service a couple of times a week. It is the way of life for those entranced by and passionate for the glory of God. We worship God when, while we partake of his good gifts, something occurs in the deepest parts of or soul that forbids glory terminating on the gift itself or on our enjoyment of it but that runs deeper into and extends out to the Giver.


Apart from understanding God and worshiping him in this way, everything become superficial. Everything-from dinner to sex to kids to work to arts and literature-it's all shallow, all trivial. But when you understand the driving force behind everything, all of a sudden there's an eternal amount of joy at our disposal, because everything we do is enlightened and enlivened by the endless glory of the eternal God. (36)

This explains why sin is always evil and harmful; sin never terminates on God. Sin always terminates on itself and will not, can not, make God and his glory an end. And that is also why all the good things we enjoy in life can also become heinous and hurtful things.