Anyone like photography? Are you the photo taker, or just the photo viewer?  Either way, isn't it so cool when the picture has one point of crystal-clear focus and everything else in the shot is super blurry?  It really shows you what's important to the photographer, doesn't it?  Everything in the background and surrounding is undetailed, indecipherable, but we typically don't think to think about that part, because there's a perfect shot of something else for us to study and set our minds on.
 
Life's a lot like that.  Everything blurs out in contrast to what we choose to focus on.  The real disconnect, however, comes when our focus is different than God's.  You can't tell much in the blurry part of the picture.  You don't know what's happening back there.  You do know everything about the one clear area, though, and you can pour thoughts, emotions, effort, everything into that one little area.  But... What if that's not the area God wants you to see?
 
My focus has been in the wrong place lately.  I've been thinking, 'God has a plan, but more importantly, I'm hurting.'  I should have been thinking, 'I'm hurting, but more importantly, God loves me and cares for me and has an awesome plan that He is working in my life!'  I was focusing on a tree in the background.  Granted, it is a big tree, it is a gorgeous tree, and it is a tree that is currently forking out my insides.  That tree is hurting me.  Fortunately, God doesn't have His camera focused on that tree.  He has his camera focused on something that I can't quite make out yet, but I know that it is something beautiful and that when it comes into focus, it will be incredible.  That big, beautiful, painful tree will be very important in this picture, but it's not the focus.  God is.