In a well known experiment, Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons had participants watch a video and count how many times a team passed a basketball back and forth. After they watched the video the participants were asked if they noticed the gorilla. Halfway through the video, a man in a gorilla suit walks right in front of the screen for several seconds and then walks off. Many of the participants were so focused on counting the passes that they completely missed the gorilla, even though it should have been something immediately noticeable and memorable. We have around us every moment of every day abundant evidence of God's love and His tender mercies working on our behalf but so often we are focused on things that in the long run will matter little that we fail to see the Lord's hand in our lives. It is such a simple thing to look to the Lord, to be focused on Him and accomplishing His will, and yet we find so many reasons to look away from Him. When we are wracked with pain and on the brink of death, it is understandable that we feel that we can't look outward from our own misery, but when the people of Moses were dying from snake bites, they were told to look and live. When we are frightened and overwhelmed, it is understandable that we can't look past our own terror, but when Peter was in danger of sinking beneath the waves, he looked to the Savior and was saved. “Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not” (D&C 6:36). Just as the Lord seems to disappear when we become too focused on our own problems, the reverse is equally true. As we look unto the Lord all of our fears and pains and doubts will vanish from our view.
