Your Call Is Important . . .

We've all heard the familiar recording when placing a call we do believe is important.  The recorded voice that states, "Your call is important . . ." is not so convincing or reassuring at all, that our call is important to whomever is busy serving other customers, receiving higher than normal call volumes, or is away from their desk.  As I sat on hold the other day, the question came to me:  How often do we do this to our Heavenly Father?  How often do we place other priorities ahead of our prayer time with Him, or worse yet allow our time of prayer to be interrupted with non-emergencies or simply being distracted?

I'm beginning to take note in my own life when a subject of prayer becomes a tangent or distracted thought.  I've also considered how easily I am distracted from matters of spiritual intimacy to focus on work and projects.  I do it with people, I know I've done it with Abba.  Although Mr. B and I do not really share any personal time, nor have we for several years . . . I do try to at least set aside some time in the evening to go through the motions of conversation.  Sadly, and admittedly, it's such a ritual, that I can do that on autopilot while I think about other matters.  As our society continues to become more impersonal with random priorities, I believe our brains and hearts are following suit.  I don't want my prayer life to become ritualistic, autopilot, or filled with distraction.  

Personal phones, smart phones, whatever seem to intensify the situation.  More and more, it seems people are not really where they are . . . I watched a couple of people out to lunch recently, and both of them were looking at their phones nearly the entire time.  It seemed so odd to watch them dining at the same table, but never engaging in any conversation.  Then I considered the fact, I was at the same table with Mr. B, and we weren't talking either, as I was people watching while I ate.  I've gotten to the place of realizing when incoming calls and texts repeatedly control the current conversation, the current conversation is simply not as important.  That's fine in some situations, but it really shouldn't be a way of life.  Every call is not more important than the person in the first conversation.

My mom gave me great insight in this when she got call waiting, years ago.  More than once she'd tell me to hang on, then leave me on "hold" only to come back to tell me she forgot about me.  She would then proceed to explain that when she hung up from the other call, her phone rang, reminding her the first line was still tied up . . .  It didn't take me long to just end our calls when she received another call, telling her to call me back when she finished, thinking it would be just fine if she forgot about me.  Through the years in ministry, I'm always saddened at the number of people who are unhappy in a personal relationship and  feel something is amiss in their relationship with our Heavenly Father, yet they invariably interrupt the conversation or even prayer to prioritize the very individual with whom they are having problems.        

I don't want any priorities ahead of following Messiah and I certainly don't want any distractions when I've been granted the privilege to come before the Throne of Glory.  How many times do we presume, the Creator of the Universe will always be available, even at the end of our distracted priorities?