CCC 28-4_LR

INNOVATIVE THOUGHT & PRACTICE

For Christians, worship can be the primary vehicle through which we pursue and maintain awe for mental and spiritual health.

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helps us to be more purposeful in cultivating and main taining a sense of wonderful awe in daily life. For Christians, we can use these three steps to pur sue worshipful awe before God. We can slightly modify them to include attending to God , worshipping God, and enhancing our worship . First, we can focus our attention on God, the loving Creator of all that is awe-inducing. Second, we can worship God as we take a slow breath in to feel His loving presence. Third, we can enhance our worship of God by appreciating His vast creation, which He has lovingly blessed us with. To combine the previous insights from psychology with Christianity, we can go on an awe walk with God in nature. For example, we may walk on a trail in the mountains for the first time. As we walk, we can look to the sky as we recite a short verse from Psalm 19: “… the skies proclaim the work of his hands…” (NIV). As we walk, look to the sky, and recite the verse, we can breathe in to feel God’s loving presence. Finally, we can continue to worship God by looking around at His creation with wonder and gratitude, slowly exhaling as we do so. Conclusion To conclude, awe may have a wide variety of mental health benefits. For Christians, worship can be the pri mary vehicle through which we pursue and maintain awe for mental and spiritual health. With three steps— attending, worshipping, and expanding—we can main tain worshipful awe before God as we walk and talk with Him within His world, as the famous hymn, “This Is My Father’s World,” by Maltbie Davenport Babcock goes: “… This is my Father’s world: I rest me in the thought NOTE: Portions of this article have been quoted and/or adapted from Dr. Joshua J. Knabb’s book, Worship and Awe in Christian Psychology: How Centering God Transforms Mental and Spiritual Health . Published by Baker Academic, ©2026. Used with permission. Joshua Knabb, Psy.D., ABPP, is a board-certified clinical psychologist and Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas— His hand the wonders wrought….” 12 ;

Endnotes 1 Tozer, A.W. (1957). A definition of worship (sermon, October 20, 1957). 2 This paragraph is quoted from Knabb (2026, pp. 1-2). Knabb, J. (2026). Worship and awe in Christian psychology: How centering God transforms mental and spiritual health . Baker Academic. 3 Keltner, D., & Haidt, J. (2003). Approaching awe, a moral, spiritual, and aesthetic emotion. Cognition and Emotion, 17 (2), 297-314. https:// doi.org/10.1080/02699930302297. 4 Bussing, A., Recchia, D.R., & Baumann, K. (2018). Validation of the gratitude/awe questionnaire and its association with disposition of gratefulness. Religions, 9 (4), 117. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel9040117. Dai, Y., Jiang, T., & Miao, M. (2022). Uncovering the effects of awe on meaning in life. Journal of Happiness Studies, 23 (7), 3517-3529. https:// doi.org/10.1007/s10902-022-00559-6. Keltner, D., & Haidt, J. (2003). Approaching awe, a moral, spiritual, and aesthetic emotion. Cognition and Emotion, 17 (2), 297-314. https:// doi.org/10.1080/02699930302297. Yaden, D.B., Kaufman, S.B., Hyde, E., Chirico, A., Gaggioli, A., Zhang, J.W., & Keltner, D. (2019). The development of the Awe Experience Scale (AWE-S): A multifactorial measure for a complex emotion. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 14 (4), 474-488. https://doi.org/10.1080/1 7439760.2018.1484940. 5 Zhao, H., Zhang, H., Xu, Y., He, W., & Lu, J. (2019). Why are peo ple high in dispositional awe happier? The roles of meaning in life and materialism. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 1208. https://doi. org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01208. 6 Liu, J., Huo, Y., Wang, J., Bai, Y., Zhao, M., & Di, M. (2023). Awe of nature and well-being: Roles of nature connectedness and power lessness. Personality and Individual Differences, 201, 111946. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2022.111946. 7 Kearns, P.O., & Tyler, J.M. (2022). Examining the relationship between awe, spirituality, and religiosity. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 14 (4), 436-444. https://doi.org/10.1037/rel0000365. 8 Sturm, V.E., Datta, S., Roy, A.R.K., Sible, I.J., Kosik, E.L., Veziris, C.R., Chow, T.E., Morris, N.A., Neuhaus, J., Kramer, J.H., Miller, B.L., Holley, S.R., & Keltner, D. (2022). Big smile, small self: Awe walks promote prosocial positive emotions in older adults. Emotion, 22 (5), 1044-1058. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000876. 9 Keltner, D., & Haidt, J. (2003). 10 Tozer, A.W. (2009). The purpose of man: Designed to worship . Bethany House Publishers. 11 Eagle, J., & Amster, M. (2023). The power of awe: Overcome burnout & anxiety, ease chronic pain, find clarity & purpose—in less than 1 min ute per day . Hachette Book Group. 12 Babcock, M.D. (1901). This is my Father’s world [Hymn].

licensed minister. He serves as a ten ured professor of psychology, the direc tor of the Psy.D. Program, and the asso ciate dean for the Psychology Division in the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences at California Baptist University.

16 Christian Counseling Connection