When Worship Stays Inside the Walls
Why Faith Must Leave the Building
If we really lived the way we acted inside temples, churches, or mosques… would the world even need those buildings anymore?
We bow, cry, sing, recite, and declare our devotion in sacred spaces. But once we step outside? It’s like the holiness leaks out of us on the steps. By the time we hit the parking lot, we’re already slipping back into pettiness, avoidance, ego, and silence. So remples are packed but Spirits are bankrupt.
We Worship Loud, But Walk Crooked
It’s not that worship is wrong. It’s that worship has become performance-based. We know how to look the part. We know the posture. The tone. The lingo.
But God isn’t impressed by stagecraft. Holiness isn’t about your Sunday performance — it’s about your Monday-Saturday behavior.
That same person who lifted hands and spoke in tongues? Might ghost someone who poured out their heart. That same woman who reposts sermons on her WhatsApp? Might lack the emotional maturity to simply reply: “Thank you, but I’m not interested.”
We’re fasting, but not honest. Singing, but not empathetic. Reading scripture, but unavailable when it really counts.
When the Spirit Only Returns at Funerals
Funny thing: the only other time we seem to return to spiritual behavior is when someone dies. Suddenly, sworn enemies are hugging. Bitter hearts soften. People who haven’t spoken in years sit together in silence, brought to stillness by death. No one speaks ill of the dead. Wallets open. Time is made. Compassion flows. People give.
But just days or weeks earlier, the very person we now cry over may have been ignored, sidelined, unsupported. Maybe the help they needed was small, even affordable. Maybe your time or your kindness could have saved them. Why do we only remember how to be human after the moment has passed?
What Jesus, Muhammad, and Buddha Got Right
Jesus didn’t live in the temple. In fact, he rebuked it a times. Flipped tables in it. Muhammad (peace be upon him) wasn’t just in the mosque. He was in the streets, walking among people, showing character through action. Buddha didn’t ask for followers. He embodied peace, and they followed him.
The most spiritually enlightened people carried the temple in their behavior. They didn’t perform holiness. They became it. So why do we keep pretending holiness lives inside four walls?
Become a Moving Temple
We don’t all have to be priests, pastors, or imams. But we all carry a borrowed breath, a borrowed brain, and a borrowed purpose.
Every compliment, every gift, every good quality you have? Borrowed. Use it for the gain of the One who loaned it to you. And when someone honors you, honor them back. Even if you say no. Because how you treat people in life is what counts — not just what you say after they’re gone.
Your Body Is the Temple
When scripture says, “Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit,” it’s not just about health or avoiding sin. It’s a call to carry divinity wherever you go.
- Your words are the sermon
- Your hands are the altar
- Your eyes are the windows
- Your heart is the holy place
God no longer dwells in bricks. He lives in behavior. Worship isn’t what you do at 10am on Sunday. It’s what you do on Tuesday, when someone needs you. Or on Friday, when you’re tempted to lash out. Or on Saturday, when you’re asked to forgive. You are the moving temple. The sanctuary on legs. The proof that God is still present.
Call to Action
This week:
- Don’t just act spiritual. Live it.
- In your texts. In your silence. In your exits.
- Carry the temple with you.
