The other day I was driving down the road going about 50 mph. Just in case you’re wondering, that’s not quite fast enough.

I passed an organization with a big sign out front. Part of the sign includes an electronic message board that rotates messages. I don’t know how many messages there are. At 50 mph, I only saw one. And, because of that, I know that it was precisely "8:28" when I passed the sign.

The funny thing about that is that I didn’t really need to know that it was 8:28. I already had that information from my car and cell phone clocks.

It made me wonder though…

  • Didn’t they realize that I’m going fast and that it’s difficult for me to take in more than one message?
  • Or, did they think all their messages were important enough that it would force me to stop?
  • Did they know they were answering a question I wasn’t asking?
  • Are they aware that the fancy flashing electronic sign caused me to miss whatever message they were sharing on the non-electronic portion of their sign?
  • Do they know that they caught my attention but failed to generate an opportunity to respond?

You know what’s funny about this? There’s probably a group of people meeting in that organization thinking, "He missed our message because he wouldn’t slow down." Then, to affirm their position, someone will likely point out: "Wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it."

And, rather than changing the methods for communicating their message, they’ll continue blaming me for not hearing it.