wells and water.

I'm completely stealing the metaphor from Reza Aslan, and it's profound: 

Religion is the well. 
The experience of the Divine is the water. 

There is not one well, but multiple wells all pulling water from the same underground source.

People spend a lot of time protecting wells, worshiping wells, and never pulling up water. The well becomes their identity and the well is only a tool, a language, a means. 

Once we pull up the water, we realize that other people have tasted the same water from different wells, and we realize it's not the well at all, never was, it's the water. 

People get so sick of wells they throw them away and risk losing the main means of finding water.

Interestingly, Jesus had an amazing conversation with a woman at a well.  

If this makes sense to you, you've probably tasted water.
If it doesn't, you're probably stuck at a well and it might be time to start using the well for something more.