Hey Siri, Take me to God's house

During a normal winter break morning at home, I unexpectedly found myself plunging down a metaphorical rabbit hole. It was a Sunday, and the temples were bustling more than usual. As I navigated the near-stampede at the temple, my mind drifted to my first temple visit.I recall the car ride to that mysterious destination, where my incessant questions were finally answered with, 'We're going to the place where gods live.' As a child, I was fascinated by the everyday hustle and bustle surrounding temples. That day, unusually quiet during the car ride, I must have worried my mother. Usually a talkative kid, my silence often signaled motion sickness (and projectile vomiting). But this time, I was simply awestruck, thinking about how fortunate I was to be so close to the gods.

Over time, with more temple visits, my view shifted. Questions arose about the omnipresence of deities. How could a goddess be in multiple places at once? My skepticism about the divine began to grow.I would try to learn about different religions over the coming years, knowingly or unknowingly. I learned stories about the great sacrifices Christ made, about how pure at heart and devoted you must be to be in Allah's good books and so on. All religions primarily encourage us to be better human beings; they encourage us to make tough choices with no personal gain just for the common good. As far as I'm concerned, that really is the God I believe in.

I would be lying If I said I didn’t lose my faith a couple times over the years. At times of crisis, I believed in a god who could magically make things right because for me right there it was easier to believe than to question any of this. But I did eventually find God in everyday actions, in everyday life, through normal people. Some actions by some people made me believe in God again. On closer introspection I reached the conclusion that the only chance I would ever have to see the big dude himself would be through somebody else. I hold onto the hope that one day, I too will have the chance to make such a difference.

Returning to my story now, as I struggled to not get swept off of my feet (literally),I looked at the faces of people intently trying to catch a glimpse of their gods sitting over there in the little rooms we made for them. It dawned on me then – maybe we've all been searching for divinity in the wrong places. Could it be that God has always been within us, patiently waiting for us to realize? It's easy to think of God as “the big dude" with his badass powers and weapons, solving our silly little problems when we nicely ask him to. But wasn’t the concept of god always all about humanity? Ahh, I don't have any answers, maybe God does?