by Chris Thomas

Created on: May 19, 2008

To ask me to put God first in my life is to ask me to put myself second. I realize this will upset the purists and right now I probably have a hundred fingers pointing at me with the word, blasphemy following. You could even question my vanity, how dare I rank myself alongside a God?

I do not, I do believe in a higher being, a 'God' if you like and I know that the God I believe in is more than I am. My God is a higher being of which I am at best, offspring. My vision of my God does not correlate with the conventional concept of a 'God'. I don't wish to sound irreverent or to downplay faith in any way, you can believe in what you want.

I have no problem with devotion to a belief and I envy people who have true faith. However the concept of blind faith is very dangerous and very central to the prosperity of modern religion.

My God is a cool God, he does not need me to tell him that he is great, he knows. He does not need me to fall on bended knee and bow down in His presence, he knows he is the boss. I talk to my God, we talk a lot. I don't pray as such, in times of need I do ask for help, however I do take time to say a small thank-you when something goes right. He doesn't need capital letters to be great.

I question my God on things I do not understand. Why do you let bad things happen? My God does not always provide an answer. Sometimes I get the big picture, my god shows me that there is more to the picture than I can see. I know my God is not perfect, if he does have all the answers, he is keeping them close.

So when you ask me to put a god first I have trouble with that, I can live with a god, as a friend but if I devote my life to him I am doing him a dis-service. I was created to live a life, I have Christian values and believe in the brotherhood of man. I was not created to spend my days telling my creator how great he is. Is that not a tad egotistical? My god is not an egotist, he is a cool god.

I get a lot of comfort from having faith. I do not go to a church to practice my faith. I still sing and talk to my God, he helps me through the dark days and shares the bright days. I cringe at modern church hymns and church services which to me sound like an exercise in sub conscious persuasion. To quote a great band of the era. "The God I believe in isn't short of cash." Please believe in what you will, but allow me the same privilege and let me and my god live in peace.

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