God Is Nowhere

As a kid I played this game called, “Where in time is Carmen Sandiego?” It was a detective game involving general knowledge of history and time travel. I was hopelessly poor at it and spent hours trying to solve crimes committed all through time and getting nowhere.

This memory was the first thing that popped into my head when I was recently asked, “When is the only time you can find God? And where is the only place you can find God?”

It was one of those trick questions where you stand a very low chance of getting the correct answer. So I kept silent and shrugged.

I was given the answer:

God is nowhere.
Pause and let that sink in for a moment.
God. Is. Nowhere.

Many people look for God in the past, studying the scriptures, visiting the places that God is said to have walked. Many people also look for God in the future, at the end of their lives and beyond. But God is found at neither of those times.

Many people make pilgrimages to holy sites and shrines, churches and temples, in mountains and valleys, but God is not found at any of these places. God is elusive.

Trying to find God in all these places and times is like a group of lonely persons sitting around a dining table, using social media on their smartphones to try to connect with friends in faraway places. If we’d just stop using our devices and connect with the people right in front of us now, we would find what we’re looking for.

Likewise, if we stop searching for God using so many methods of prayers, rituals, studies, and magic formulae, concepts, theologies, and just be in the present moment, here and now, we can find God.

Because God isn’t found in the past or in the future, only in the present where we are. Because God isn’t found in faraway places accessible only to the more blessed, only right here where we are. We just need to enter into an awareness of the present to find God.

Because God is now here.
Pause and let that sink in for a moment.
God. Is. Now. Here.

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