"I will hear what God the LORD will speak:"
- Psalms 85:8a

Let me preface this by saying, "The Lord is SO gracious."

He could have chosen to get my attention in many other ways.

My week has been very busy with a lot of unplanned stuff that has demanded a lot of my attention.  Now, I must confess that I haven't prioritized things very well during this hectic week.

Which is a very kind way of saying, "I haven't spent enough time with the Lord."

In fact, today, I put off my Bible study and prayer time in an attempt to get caught up on the pile of duties that started stacking up.

Then, late this afternoon, God decided enough is enough.

As I began another task, He gently reminded me that I had put Him on the back burner and that it was time to stop "catching up" on all of the other things, and start spending some time with Him.

I recognized that He was speaking to me, and yet I decided that I would finish one more task before I devoted myself to my "quiet time" with God.

I still haven't finished it.

You see, just at the exact moment I began working on the task, I noticed my 14 month old boy Jacob playing with a power cord in his mouth!  (Don't panic, nothing happened to HIM).  I reached quickly to remove it from his mouth...

...and in doing so I turned over a glass of Mountain Dew onto the keyboard of my laptop.

By the time I cleaned up the mess, the damage was done.  My laptop would boot up (turn on) properly, but the screen was completely black.  Somehow the soda had penetrated into the keyboard and caused the computer to go blank.  No matter what I did, I could not get anything to appear on the screen.

I spent the better part of a half hour with no results.  I  rebooted.  I cleaned the keyboard.  I tried everything I knew to try.  Still, nothing on the screen.

So much for my brand new laptop.

I went outside to sort out my options when God began to speak to me again.  It was then that I realized my accident was no accident.

It was as if God was saying to me, "Do I have to get your attention?"  You see, I had put off God and placed Him on the backburner and put everything else ahead of Him...

...and that is a shame.  It's also a place that God doesn't like to be in.

So, we had our talk -- which mainly consisted of my confession and repentance, and His forgiveness. 

It took God using this situation to get my attention for me to get my priorities straightened back out.  We finally had our quiet time together.

Christian, does this happen to you?  Do you get so busy with your hectic day or week and you forget about God?  How is your "quiet time"?  Are you giving God the firstfruits of your time or whatever is leftover when you can fit Him into your schedule?

Maybe it's time for you to rethink your priorities today.

Trust me, it's best to do that before things get out of hand.  After all, you don't want to hear God say...

..."Do I have to get your attention?"