Song: “Right On Time” by The Soulful Past

Good morning, everybody.

I want to talk about something today that I think all of us have experienced at one time or another.

I call it: “When the Obvious Slaps You in the Face—and That’s Okay.”

Yesterday, I was having a conversation with someone who had received a text message.

The message supposedly came from a relative who wanted to stay at the house.

But there was a problem.

Something about the situation caused us to wonder, Is this really the relative texting?

So now we’re trying to figure this thing out.

Maybe send another text.

Maybe ask a question that only the relative would know.

But we didn’t want to say too much because we didn’t necessarily want whoever was texting to know that nobody was home.

So we’re going back and forth.

“Well, maybe you could ask this.”

“No, because if you ask that, you’re telling them too much.”

“Well, what if you text this?”

“No, that might not work either.”

We’re trying to solve the mystery.

Finally, he checks with his wife.

And she says something like:

“Why don’t you just call them?”

And both of us had that moment.

You know the moment.

That moment when you just sit there and think: “Oh.”

Then: “Oh, yeah.”

And finally: “Why didn’t we think of that?”

Call them!

The phone was right there.

The person’s number was right there.

Instead of trying to figure out how to verify somebody’s identity through a series of text messages…just call them.

And we laughed about it because the answer was so obvious.

It was sitting right in front of us.

But neither one of us saw it.

Sometimes We Can’t See What’s Right in Front of Us

And after thinking about it, I realized: That’s not just a funny story about a text message.

That’s life.

Sometimes we make things complicated that don’t have to be complicated.

Sometimes we become so focused on solving a problem one particular way that we don’t notice another solution sitting right in front of us.

We analyze.

We strategize.

We speculate.

We run scenarios through our minds.

“What if this happens?”

“What if that happens?”

“What if they say this?”

“What if they do that?”

Meanwhile, somebody walks into the room, looks at the situation for thirty seconds and says: “Why don’t you just do this?”

And suddenly – SLAP!

The obvious hits you right in the face

“Ohhhhh!”

And sometimes our next reaction is embarrassment.

Man, I should have seen that.

Why didn’t I think of that?

That was so simple.

But here’s what I want you to remember this morning: That’s okay.

You don’t have to know everything.

You don’t have to see everything.

And you don’t have to be the person who comes up with every answer.

Sometimes We Need Another Set of Eyes

The Bible says in Proverbs 12:15: “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.”

There’s wisdom in that.

Sometimes another person can see something that you cannot see, not because they’re smarter than you, and not because you’re foolish, but simply because they’re standing somewhere you’re not standing.

They have a different perspective.

You may be standing inside the problem.

They’re standing outside of it.

And from where they’re standing, they can see something you can’t.

That’s one of the reasons God places other people in our lives.

Sometimes the answer comes through a spouse.

Sometimes through a friend.

Sometimes through a coworker.

Sometimes through a child.

Sometimes through somebody who doesn’t know nearly as much about the situation as you do.

And sometimes that is exactly why they see it.

They haven’t spent the last hour complicating it!

Familiarity Can Blind Us

There’s another lesson here.

Sometimes we don’t see the obvious precisely because it is obvious.

We’re looking for something complicated.

We’re expecting some elaborate solution.

We’re searching for something deep when the answer is simple.

And we can do the same thing spiritually.

We can say: “Lord, what should I do?”

And sometimes the answer is already sitting in Scripture.

Forgive.

Pray.

Tell the truth.

Be patient.

Ask for wisdom.

Love your neighbor.

Control your tongue.

Do what is right.

But sometimes we’re looking for a complicated answer because the obvious answer isn’t necessarily the answer we expected.

James 1:5 says: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God.”

Sometimes we spend hours asking everybody except God.

We Google it.

We debate it.

We worry about it.

We replay it in our minds.

We create ten imaginary conversations that haven’t even happened yet.

And God says: “Have you asked Me?”

Oh.

There’s the obvious again.

Jesus’ Disciples Had These Moments Too

The disciples experienced this kind of thing.

They walked with Jesus.

They watched Him perform miracles.

They saw Him heal the sick and do things nobody else could do.

And yet there were still moments when they couldn’t see what was right in front of them.

That’s encouraging to me.

Because if people who physically walked with Jesus could sometimes miss what was right in front of them, maybe we shouldn’t be so hard on ourselves when we have one of those moments.

The issue isn’t whether you’ll ever miss the obvious.

You will.

The question is: What do you do when the obvious finally slaps you in the face?

Do you become defensive?

Do you pretend you already knew?

Do you reject somebody’s suggestion because you weren’t the one who thought of it?

Or can you simply say: “You know what? You’re right. I didn’t see that.”

That takes humility.

And humility is wisdom.

Don’t Let Pride Make You Miss It Twice

Here’s where we can really get ourselves in trouble.

Missing the obvious the first time is human.

But sometimes pride causes us to miss it a second time.

Somebody gives us the answer, but because they gave it to us, we don’t want to receive it.

Maybe it’s our spouse.

Maybe it’s somebody younger than us.

Maybe it’s an employee.

Maybe it’s somebody with less education.

Maybe it’s somebody we don’t particularly like.

And because of who said it, we reject what was said.

Be careful.

God can send wisdom through people you weren’t expecting.

The wise response isn’t: “Why didn’t I think of that?”

The wiser response is: “Thank God somebody did.”

That’s a completely different attitude.

Instead of being embarrassed because somebody else saw what you missed, be grateful that God put somebody in your life who could see it.

Give Yourself Permission Not to Know Everything

Some of us need to give ourselves permission to say: “I didn’t see that.”

There’s nothing wrong with those words.

“I hadn’t thought about it that way.”

“That’s a good point.”

“You’re right.”

“I missed that.”

Those aren’t signs of weakness.

Those can be signs of maturity.

Because wisdom isn’t knowing everything.

Wisdom includes knowing that you don’t know everything.

Proverbs 15:22 tells us: “Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.”

Sometimes your breakthrough isn’t going to come because you thought harder.

Sometimes it comes because somebody else looked at the same situation from a different angle.

So What’s Sitting Right in Front of You?

Here’s my question for you this morning: Is there something obvious sitting right in front of you that you haven’t been able to see?

Maybe you’ve made something more complicated than it needs to be.

Maybe you’ve been trying to fix something that requires a simple conversation.

Maybe you’ve been worrying about something you need to pray about.

Maybe you’ve been assuming something when you could simply ask.

Maybe you’ve been trying to carry something alone when there’s somebody willing to help.

Maybe you’ve been looking for some great spiritual revelation while ignoring something God has already clearly told you to do.

And maybe you need another set of eyes.

Ask somebody you trust: “What am I not seeing?”

That’s a powerful question.

Not: “What do you think I should do?”

But: “What am I not seeing?”

Because sometimes the problem isn’t that the answer isn’t there.

Sometimes the problem is that we’ve been staring at the problem so long that we can’t see the answer anymore.

Final Thought

So the next time somebody says something and you suddenly have that:

“Oh!” moment…

Don’t beat yourself up.

Don’t get embarrassed.

Don’t let your pride get involved.

Laugh if you need to.

Shake your head.

And say: “Well, that was obvious.”

Then thank God that somebody helped you see it.

Because sometimes wisdom doesn’t arrive with thunder and lightning.

Sometimes it doesn’t require a conference, a degree, a ten-step program, or a three-hour conversation.

Sometimes wisdom walks into the room and simply says: “Why don’t you just call them?”

And suddenly, the obvious slaps you right in the face.

And you know what?

That’s okay.

Because the blessing isn’t that you saw it first.

The blessing is that you finally saw it.

Have a blessed morning.