Defining The Terms: The "Hunt" - What Is Worship?

I'm guessing there are many of you out there wondering what the deal is with the name of this blog -- "The Treasure Hunt" -- so I wanted to take a bit of time to explain it, and ultimately explain two other concepts which are foundational to what I'm going to be writing about on here: those of "god" and "worship". I thought I would start with the word "hunt" first, as it lays the foundations for explaining the "treasure" term.

What is the "hunt"?
Ultimately, the hunt refers to the lifelong pursuit that we all as human beings embark on -- from the moment we are born to the moment we die. And it is the pursuit of real life -- of joy, pleasure, peace, security, happiness, wholeness, fulfilment and satisfaction. It is the means by which we try to find real life -- it is how we get there, what we sacrifice to get there. This is ultimately what worship is, and Mark Driscoll gave a helpful definition for this in his article 'Spiritual Disciplines: Worship' at TheResurgence:

"The biblical word for worship is also sometimes translated “sacrifice.”. . . In short, we give our time, energy, body, money, focus, devotion, and passion to that which we glorify most, and we make sacrifices to worship that person or thing."

What about those who aren't pursuing anything, who have "given up"?
Even in describing this as a hunt or pursuit, people may get the idea that I'm talking about something exclusively active, and therefore might exempt themselves because they have given up on life and have given into despair and hopelessness. With this I believe there are two facets: one is that it shows we have tried to find real life and we have not found it in our pursuits; the other is that giving up can actually be a passive pursuit, in that we believe giving up will actually bring us more satisfaction than trying.

What are we "hunting"?
This is where we come onto the "treasure" part, i.e. what we believe to be the source of true life, joy, satisfaction, etc. See the next part for a definition of what this is.