Obvious

I know it’s obvious, but it doesn’t always happen.  The train was headed uptown.  What needs normal, wasn’t.  The slurred, hard to hear, sometimes muddled sound of the conductor rattled on and off.  It was hard to tell if it was different announcements or just a extended broken conversation.  I didn’t worry; nobody was listening.  What could it really matter?
 
All of a sudden I found myself at 14th and on a totally different avenue than I was expecting.  The line had changed.  The subway was no longer an F, we were an A.  It was no longer a local making all stops; we were an express with limited stops!  We were no longer on 6th Avenue, we were on 8th.  I was confused, annoyed, and frustrated.  I was now late; whatever plans I had were in complete disarray.  
 
As I walked off the train I asked, what changed?  “Didn’t you hear the announcement?  Weren’t you listening to the conductor?  Haven’t you read the service announcements?”  I felt like screaming!  No, no, no.  I couldn’t understand.  I gave up trying to listen?  I couldn’t be bothered to go online and read. 
 
The even more obvious question was left unasked.  Didn’t you bother to notice the signs.  As I walked along the station, and again at the next, I could see Service Signs posted on every forth column.  There had been signs but I couldn’t be bothered to see the obvious.  There had been online postings, but I wasn’t interested.  Even the warnings of others went unheeded; there was too much confusing between me and them.
 
God is reaching out – to you and to me.  The call of old is equally true today; “Draw in close now, nations.  Listen carefully, you people.  Pay attention!  Earth, you too, and everything in you.  World, and all that comes from you.”  (Isaiah 34.1)  It should be obvious to us what is at stake, but often I can’t be bothered.  It should be easy to understand but I refuse to see, hear, or experience.  It is obvious, but I, at times…